two years.

_Butter_

Butter making is carried on to only a limited extent in Cyprus, and with
two or three exceptions is in the hands of shepherds, who use a
primitive conical-shaped churn, something after the Danish pattern.
Churning consists in beating up the contents of the churn with a stick,
to the end of which is fixed a round wooden disc 6 to 10 in. in
diameter, not unlike a piston in its action. Sheep's milk is mostly used
and, with a modern churn, this will yield 9 to 12 per cent. of fresh
butter. Goats' milk gives about 5 to 6 per cent. About half the above
quantities may be obtained with the older, native churn.

In the Near East (Greece, Turkey, etc.) fresh butter is not used in
cooking, as almost all cooked food is fried and butter containing the
least water and casein cannot serve the purpose. The pure fat must
therefore be extracted. Two methods are applied. The best is that of
plunging the tins containing the fresh butter into hot water which heats
the butter and sends the fat to the surface. It is then collected and
slightly salted. This has a good flavour and keeps well.

The second method is to place the fresh butter, or the residue from the
former process, into tin pans and boil until the water is evaporated,
when the albuminoids solidify at the bottom of the pans. The fat which
is then on the surface is ladled out. This is inferior in quality, and
has a disagreeable smell imparted by the albuminoids which come in
contact with the hot pan.

_Xynogala or Yaourti_

The former is the Greek, the latter the Turkish name for this
preparation of sour milk. Unlike fresh butter, it forms, in season,
part of the diet of almost every Cypriot household. It is now made in
England and sold as "Bulgarian milk" or "yaourti." It is in the form of
clotted cream, but if placed in a bag of fine cloth and if the whey is
left to drain off, it forms a thick paste, and has an excellent creamy
flavour, and is eaten in both cases either alone or, like Devonshire
cream, with stewed fruits, etc.

_Trachanas_

This is another favourite milk preparation, being a mixture of "yaourti"
and ground wheat made into a thick paste. This is sun-dried and makes an
excellent soup.

_Kaimaki or Tsippa_

This much resembles Devonshire clotted cream. It is the natural cream
formed after boiling the milk overnight and setting it in shallow pans
to cool. If the boiled milk is poured into the pans from a height, so as
to ma