🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Lebanese

Lebanese are the people of Lebanon, a small country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Lebanese cuisine is rich in dairy products, many of which have for centuries helped preserve milk from spring to winter. Milk comes from goats, sheep and cows; the mountain areas are especially known for goat’s milk.

The most popular product is labneh, a thick strained yogurt. It is eaten for breakfast with olive oil and flatbread, and labneh anbaris is aged in clay jars. Labneh balls are stored in olive oil. Shanklish is an aged cheese with a spiced coating, often of dried thyme; kishk is a dried mixture of yogurt and bulgur used to make soup in winter. Akkawi and halloumi cheeses and ashta, a cream used in desserts, are also common.

Today Lebanon meets a large part of its milk demand through imports, and researchers note that traditional long-keeping products can support the food resilience of local farms.