Anari Cheese: Cyprus's Fresh and Dried Whey Cheese

It is sold fresh and soft, or salted and air-dried until it is hard enough to grate.

That makes it a second cheese from the same pot, the way ricotta is, and it is made all year round. The Cyprus cheese guide shows where it sits next to halloumi, halitzia and kefalotyri.

Anari cheese: what it is

Anari cheese is a Cypriot whey cheese, and the Republic of Cyprus's own food guide calls it a soft whey cheese that is a byproduct of making halloumi. It is available fresh or dried, salted or unsalted. No EU protected name covers it, unlike halloumi, which has been protected since April 13, 2021.

A book chapter on heat-coagulated whey cheeses by Papademas and colleagues describes fresh anari as soft, high-moisture and fragile, with a very mild, nutty, sweet flavor.

How anari cheese is made

Anari cheese is made by heating the whey from halloumi, adding a little milk, and skimming the curds that form. A summary on Wikipedia gives the heating steps: whey is brought to 65°C (149°F), then 5 to 10 percent goat's or sheep's milk may be added, and the heat goes up to boiling while the pot is stirred. At 80 to 85°C (176 to 185°F), small crumbly curds form.

Cyprus's food guide describes the same idea: the halloumi curd is removed, the whey keeps heating with stirring, milk is added before it boils, and anari rises to the top to be lifted out with a slotted spoon and left to drain. The heat does the work, so no rennet or acid is needed to coagulate the proteins that stayed in the whey.

The cheese is then eaten fresh, salted lightly or not, or salted and dried. Papademas and colleagues say it is dried under cold air streams in drying rooms until it is hard and easy to grate.

Fresh and dried anari cheese

Fresh and dried anari cheese are two different products with different jobs. Fresh anari is moist and delicate and keeps only a few days. Dried, salted anari is firm, savory and long-lasting, and the Cyprus Trade Center calls it a very tasty hard grating cheese for homemade pastas and pies.

Use fresh anari where you would use ricotta, and use dried anari where you would use a salty grating cheese. They are not interchangeable. Fresh anari on pasta will melt into a sauce; dried anari with honey would be a salt bomb.

How to use anari cheese

Anari cheese is eaten sweet and savory. Cyprus's food guide pairs fresh unsalted anari with honey, carob syrup or sugar for breakfast or dessert, puts fresh salted anari on cheese platters, and grates the dried kind over pasta. It also goes into bourekia, a sweet pastry, and anaripie, and it is tied to Tyrini, the Cheese Week that comes before Tyrofagos Sunday.

At home, a spoon of fresh anari with honey and walnuts is the simplest way to taste it, and the cheese and honey guide has more ideas. Folded into a baked sweet pie, it gives a light, creamy filling.

How to buy anari cheese in the US

Buying anari cheese in the US is harder than buying halloumi, because the fresh version spoils quickly and travels poorly. Try Greek, Cypriot or Mediterranean groceries and specialty importers, and ask whether they carry the dried, salted form, which ships and keeps far better. The Cyprus page says the same: ask a specialist rather than expecting it on a supermarket shelf.

Check the label for whether the cheese is salted or unsalted and whether it is fresh or dried, since the two behave differently in a recipe. Keep fresh anari in the fridge and use it within a few days, as the guide to storing soft cheeses suggests for any moist fresh cheese.

Anari cheese substitutes

The closest anari cheese substitute for fresh anari is fresh ricotta, because both are heat-set whey cheeses with a soft, grainy texture and a gentle sweetness. Soft mizithra is the Greek relative. Drain wet ricotta in a sieve first, since anari is drier. For dried anari, a salty grating cheese such as Pecorino Romano works, though it is sharper, so use less.

What most anari cheese advice gets wrong

Most anari cheese advice says it is made from whey alone, and that skips the milk that makes a worthwhile curd.

Anari cheese is not whey alone

Anari cheese is not made from whey alone: the Cyprus Trade Center says milk is added to the whey left from halloumi, and Cyprus's food guide says the same. Whey has few proteins left, so the added milk raises the yield and the flavor.

Anari cheese is not one product

Anari cheese is not one product: fresh and dried anari share a name and little else, so buy by the form you need.

Questions about anari cheese

These are the questions about anari cheese that come up most.

Is anari cheese like ricotta?

Anari cheese is like ricotta in that both are soft, mild cheeses made by heating whey, and fresh anari can be used in many of the same ways.

What is the difference between fresh and dried anari cheese?

Fresh anari cheese is soft, moist and mild, while dried anari is salted, air-dried, hard and grated like a hard cheese.

How do you eat anari cheese?

Eat anari cheese fresh with honey, carob syrup and nuts, or bake it into pastries and pies; grate the dried kind over pasta.

Does anari cheese have a protected name?

Anari cheese does not have an EU protected name, unlike halloumi, which was registered as a PDO in 2021.

Your first anari cheese

For your first anari cheese, look for fresh anari at a Greek or Cypriot market, spoon it into a bowl and drizzle it with honey and chopped walnuts. If it is not available, fresh ricotta drained for an hour is a fair stand-in, and a piece of dried anari is worth buying when you see one.