trachanás

Frumenty. Once a dish similar to porridge popular throughout Western Europe in the Middle Ages, but these days hard to find outside of Greece, Cyprus or Turkey. Often transliterated as 'trahanas'.

Trachanás is cracked wheat (bulgur) preserved with milk or yogurt, which in the days before refrigeration was a way of preserving milk. It was traditionally made during the first two weeks of August, when people used to fast before the big 15 August Assumption holiday.

Rather than see the milk produced then go to waste, it was boiled and soured (with lemon and yogurt). Cracked wheat was added to make a paste, which was sun-dried and then broken into small pieces to preserve for the rest of the year.

It's used in various soups (especially τραχανόσουπα, or trachanás soup, made with chicken broth, lemon and diced haloúmi, the national dish of Cyprus). Other versions of the recipe use milk, browned butter and Feta.

There are sweet (made with sheep or goat milk and sometimes butter) or sour versions (made with yogurt).

τραχανάς ξινός (trachanás xinós): sour trachanas

τραχανάς γλυλός (σταρένιος) (trachanás glykós (starénios)): sweet trachanás (made of durum wheat)

ξινόχοντρος τραχανάς (xinóchodros trachanás): sour trachanas in big clumps