How to make labneh

What straining actually removes

Yoghurt is a gel of casein holding water, whey proteins, lactose and minerals. Straining lets the liquid whey drain away and leaves the casein network behind, concentrated.

Salt speeds it up considerably, drawing water out by osmosis as well as seasoning the result. It is also why labneh keeps better than the yoghurt it came from.

The longer it hangs the firmer it gets: a few hours gives something spoonable, overnight gives a thick spreadable curd, and two days gives something firm enough to roll into balls.

The method

One ingredient and a night of gravity. FoodHQ does not publish salt percentages, pH figures or keeping times for home fermenting. Those are safety numbers, they are set by a food safety authority rather than by a cookery writer, and the right ones depend on what you are fermenting and where you are. In the UK the Food Standards Agency is the authority — use a recipe from it or from another body with the same standing, and treat this page as the explanation of why that recipe is shaped the way it is.

1. Stir salt through a tub of thick, full-fat plain yoghurt. Greek-style or home-made both work; low-fat yoghurt gives a thinner result.
2. Line a sieve with a double layer of muslin or a clean thin tea towel, and set it over a bowl deep enough that the sieve does not sit in the whey.
3. Tip the yoghurt in, gather the corners and tie them, or simply fold the cloth over the top.
4. Refrigerate. Check after a few hours to see how it is going.
5. For a spreadable labneh, six to twelve hours. For something firm enough to roll, a day and a half to two days.
6. Scrape it out of the cloth into a container. Keep the whey — it is useful.
7. To store labneh balls, roll them, sit them in a jar and cover them with good olive oil, adding herbs or spices if you like.

How to eat it

• Spread on a plate with a pool of olive oil, za'atar and warm flatbread. The default and hard to improve.
• With roasted vegetables, particularly aubergine, carrots or squash.
• Under grilled meat or kofta, where it does the job of a sauce.
• With a chopped salad — tomato, cucumber, herbs, lemon.
• Rolled into balls and kept in oil, which is the traditional preserving method.
• Sweetened, with honey and fruit, as a breakfast or a pudding.
• In place of cream cheese, on a bagel or in a dip.

Notes and the whey

Yoghurt

Full-fat and thick gives the best result. Low-fat yoghurt strains to something chalky.

Salt

Not optional. It speeds the straining, seasons the labneh and helps it keep.

Timing

Six hours for spoonable, overnight for spreadable, two days for rollable.

The whey

Slightly sour and full of protein. Use it in bread dough in place of water, in a smoothie, or to cook grains and pulses.

Keeping

Better than yoghurt because of the salt and lower moisture. How long is a food-safety question for the Food Standards Agency.

Common questions