{"id":1917,"date":"2023-05-04T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/?p=1917"},"modified":"2023-05-02T12:00:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T10:00:49","slug":"labneh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/labneh\/","title":{"rendered":"Labneh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Yoghurt is one of the dairy products that I make constantly. Not only is it delicious, but it is also versatile and can be used in dishes from many different parts of the world. Today I&#8217;m visiting the Middle East with my labneh recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"[EN] There&#039;s No Better Yoghurt than This! | Labneh\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FTnN-CWz6gY?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Labneh is a thick and creamy yoghurt cheese that&#8217;s popular in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine. Made by straining yoghurt until it&#8217;s thick and spreadable, labneh has a tangy and slightly salty flavour that&#8217;s perfect for spreading on bread or crackers, dolloping on salads, or using as a dip for vegetables. It&#8217;s easy to make with just a few ingredients and can be customised with a variety of herbs and spices for endless flavour combinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Recipe<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The ingredient amounts given below produce around 2 servings of labneh. Due to the time needed to make it, I strongly suggest making twice as much in a single go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ingredients<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>1 L pateurised milk<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>5-10 g salt<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>a source of yoghurt bacteria:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>1 tbsp yoghurt containing live bacteria cultures, or<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>dry frozen yoghurt bacteria cultures (dosage according to the producer&#8217;s indications)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Method<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Inoculate the milk with yoghurt bacteria and store at 40\u00b0C (104\u00b0F) for 8-12 hours until the milk thickens. At this stage, the milk has become <a href=\"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/yoghurt-plain-and-greek\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1149\">yoghurt<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mix the salt into the yoghurt, then pour it into a strainer lined with a cheesecloth, a muslin cloth, a clean flat cotton nappy or a clean tea towel. After around an hour, enough whey should have strained to safely put a weight on top of the yoghurt. After 12 hours of straining, the labneh is ready and can be transferred to the fridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Serve with bread as a dip or a spread. Optionally, the juice of half a lemon can be mixed in. The top is typically sprinkled with herbs or spices and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Additional Information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s possible to make labneh from store bought yoghurt. It&#8217;s enough to buy a 1 litre container of yoghurt, add salt and strain it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The amount of salt should be around 1-2% of the obtained labneh mass. Assuming that the milk will reduce its weight by half after straining, 5-10 grams of salt is perfect per litre of milk. When using store bought yoghurt, the salt amount remains the same unless it&#8217;s Greek yoghurt. In such a case, since Greek yoghurt has some of its whey already strained, the amount of salt needed can be raised by around half, to 7.5-15 grams per litre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Labneh can be served with various herbs and spices. I recommend the following options (they aren&#8217;t a complete list by any means):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>chopped fresh mint leaves and fresh lemon zest<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>chopped fresh dill<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ground cumin<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>paprika (sweet or spicy)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>za&#8217;atar<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>sumac<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>sesame seeds<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>harissa<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Video Transcription<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s a dish I find interesting: labneh. Technically it&#8217;s just a very thick yoghurt, up to the point of becoming a spread. But it&#8217;s so delicious, it deserves some attention. The full recipe can be found on the blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to make labneh, I need to turn milk into yoghurt. There&#8217;s a separate video dedicated to yoghurt so I&#8217;ll just outline the key steps. I inoculate milk with yoghurt bacteria. I let it ferment overnight at 40\u00b0C (104\u00b0F). And there&#8217;s my yoghurt. By the way, everything up to this point can be skipped by using store-bought yoghurt, preferably Greek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before I proceed to strain the yoghurt, I mix salt into it. Then, it goes into a flat cotton nappy. A cheesecloth or even a clean tea towel work just as well. Within an hour, a decent amount of whey collects in the pot under the strainer. This is when I put a weight on top in order to press more whey out of my labneh. It will take some time to reach the intended consistency. I usually let it strain for at least 8 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My labneh is ready to go into the fridge. It will become even thicker when it cools down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When serving, I often mix my labneh with a bit of lemon juice to add some extra sourness. This is optional though. I like to serve it in a bowl, with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of chopped herbs or spices and a piece of pita bread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s delicious. The labneh itself is rather sour, which is to be expected from strained yoghurt. There&#8217;s just a hint of saltiness which mostly just boosts the other flavours. The additional ingredients add complexity. It&#8217;s simply delicious!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yoghurt is one of the dairy products that I make constantly. Not only is it delicious, but it is also versatile and can be used in dishes from many different parts of the world. Today I&#8217;m visiting the Middle East with my labneh recipe. Labneh is a thick and creamy yoghurt cheese that&#8217;s popular in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[109],"class_list":["post-1917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dairy-products","tag-yoghurts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1919,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions\/1919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fermxpert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}