At many villages of Cyprus until today, the traditional manufacture of their dairy products is maintained with lots of love and enthusiasm. But they are most proud, for their genuineness. In the Holetria village, the so called "mastorisses"of haloumi’, have to demonstrate their ‘mastorka’ (ability), for the most traditional, and most genuine manufacture of the haloumi of Holetria. We will see further down, how these mastorisses (mistresses) with ease for their success; offer us their traditional haloumi.
the shepherd used to spend the days, the weeks, the months and the years – his whole life going to the plains and grazing his herd , under the heat and sun, the air and the cold, the rain and the snow-in order to ensure the milk, the wool and the lambs, so he could offer to his family a living .
The shepherd woman was burnt under the sun – unless she had a big ‘maerko’ (kitchen) – and in front of the fire of hartziou’(big pot), in order for the milk to congeal so that she could make halloumia, anarades and cheeses and to turn her shepherd’s husband or son‘s or father’s labours to advantage and all of their the discomforts.
And first she had to prepare all the utensils, and other necessary things. She had to give the ‘hartzi’, the casseroles and big iron skimmer to ‘mantis’and the scales pan to have it dried. She had to prepare the “tyroskamni”, the small table in which she would put the ‘drosino' to be dried. It was a small rectangle low table with four legs, a little inclining to the one from its narrow sides, with a low baseboard from thin wood in the three sides and in form of V in the low side, with a small hole in order for the milk water to be poured. The (g) ylarin, a wooden rim of sieve, a clean white piece of cloth, talaria, knitted baskets with sklinitzia, and ‘pithkia' (rennet), the stomach of a pig which they killed at Christmas, or the stomach of a lamb or a yeanling. And when everything was ready and the ‘galos’ began, then the shepherd woman began to make the milk. She folded her sleeves on her elbows, crossed her self and asked the help of Christ and Virgin Mary, she put the ‘hartzi’(pot) on the ‘niskia' and poured(‘kouliaze’) , the milk in with a piece of ‘Xilostoupi’ . She lit -one-two savoris (throumpia’) under it in order to warm the milk a little (in order to be tepid), she removed the ‘pidkian’ from the ‘pallouki’, that was hung, she rinsed it a little, with cold water, put it in the milk and malasse (kneaded) it with her hands in order to be gentle and to put out the ferment that would help the milk to congeal. she removed the pidkian, lit one-or -two savouries under it , in order for the required temperature to be maintained , she closed it with a tsesto(flat basket) and left it there for some time to congeal. After some specific time, the milk congealed and the “glass'”, grosino', or tyrogali (cheese milk) was shaped in the surface or, as they called it elsewhere, “trohala” and you could see the ‘noros’ (milk water) under it. In the meanwhile there was the gylari on the tyroskamni (cheese table) and above it the white cloth. With a big strainer iron spoon, she made a cross on the grosino, cut it and put it in the clothes with a spoon. She collected it so well and rubbed it with her hands, in order to become cream. She raised the four edges of the cloth, crossed them tightly and put the handmill stone above (sieromilos). With the pressure the ‘noros’ (milk water) came out and was poured into the casserole, that was under the tyroskamni (cheese table) and put it back to the hartzi. In the meanwhile, she added the nerogali in the Noro of the hartzi, little (proportionately with the quantity of the milk) pure milk that she deliberately left there, she lit a fire under the hartzi, in order to boil and she stirred it with a piece of cane, in which a piece of savory was tied up in the edge, in order for’anari’ to be raised. If the ‘anari’ got late to rise she would put in little, minimal vinegar in order to help in the creation of the required mildew (ferment), in order to be congealed.
In the meanwhile, until the ‘anari’ gets raised, the grosino got strained from the ‘Noro’. She, therefore, removed the Stone, opened the cloth and cut the halloumotyri (drosino, a kind of cheese) in big square plates, halloumia and put them in a griddle or in a ‘tsesto’. She put the anari' out of the hartzi with a ladle and put it in the cloth, on the tyroskamni, she wrapped it without pressure in order to be strained and she threw the halloumia in the hartzi and lit a fire in order to boil and be cooked. She understood that they were cooked, when she saw them coming out in the surface and floating. meanwhile the ‘anari' got dried, she cut it in square plates – as long as the plates of the green soap are , she salted them and put them in the "kalamoti', that was hung in the huge stones (volitzia)of the hall(iliakos),of the stockade or of the inside house and left it to become dry. She put the ‘haloumia’ out of the ‘hartzi’, and put them one by one on the tyroskamni, she salted them with kibbled or even with ungrounded salt and ground spearmint, she put them stiffly in the antzio' ,small koumni or lamintzana,(bottle), added the required Noro until it covered them up , she tied up a clean cloth, put them in their place in the house and left them to ‘posarantosoun’ (forty days) in order to be kneaded. After forty days she opened it and collected the butter that was gathered on it, in order not to remain in and ‘apsisoun ‘halloumia and tied them again.
When the shepherd woman wanted to make cheese for the ‘flaounes’ at Easter , she put the drosino in the talaria, she pressed it with her hand to be strained , she salted it , put it in the kalamoti to get mature (to become kneaded ) until it was necessary.
|
