Halloumi

Halloumi is the great outlier among fresh cheeses: where the rest of the category spoils within days, it is unusually robust. Sold vacuum-packed, it tolerates freezing and thawing without noticeable damage, which is close to unique. Sheep and goat milk together form the traditional base, and the PDO specification now requires them to make up more than half the mixture — a requirement being phased in gradually, since decades of cow-milk production left the Cypriot sheep and goat flock too small to meet it at once. The defining property is that it will not melt: a slab keeps its form over a grill or in a hot pan, browning and tightening rather than flowing, and it needs no coating or batter to do so. Some versions carry flecks of mint, a survival of the practice of wrapping blocks in herbs to help them keep.