Making your own labneh from yogurt

Making your own labneh is done by draining yogurt in a cheese or mesh cloth for a long time. Great fun to do once, but we claim the result will never be as good as our Labneh. The Labneh from our Dairy we make with specific yogurt cultures and enzymes, and goes through different temperatures in the most hygienic conditions. Those optimal conditions are impossible to replicate at your home.

But, as we said, it’s fun to make your own labneh. For best results, follow these tips from Dairy.

Very well explained, but I still prefer to just buy my Labneh in the store

Preparations

You need a cheesecloth, and otherwise a thin and clean towel that you rinse out frequently. You boil the cloth in water, that’s how you disinfect it. That’s also what we do.

You’ll need yogurt. We recommend starting with a Greek or Turkish yogurt, which tend to be slightly thicker. Our personal preference is the Turkish variety, because it leaks out better. Many types of yogurt contain agents to prevent that leaking. The choice of yogurt culture also determines whether the yogurt leaks or not. In our Dairy, we make Labneh with milk, and we choose a very specific yogurt culture. When you make your own labneh, it’s best to choose a yogurt that you know has fast dairy whey in the jar. That may be a low-fat yogurt, but the result is much tastier when you use a full-fat yogurt.

Make room in your refrigerator to put the draining yogurt in later. In principle, the yogurt can also drain at room temperature, but in that case the yogurt bacteria will further acidify the labneh, giving it a strong, sour taste and often an unpleasant smell. So: clean out that refrigerator! If you don’t feel like cleaning, visit our store page and just buy a jar of our delicious Labneh.

Making labneh

You have now done the important preliminary work. Now put the clean cloth in a bowl, above it put a sieve or colander. Mix the yogurt with salt(1 gram of salt/100 grams of yogurt) and spoon the yogurt into the cloth. Fold the cloth closed, and let the yogurt drain in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours. The longer you let it drain, the drier the labneh. Provided you have some sense of construction, you can also, as in the photo above, hang the labneh over a pot to drain. If you really want the labneh very dry, let it drain for 48 hours. You may then be able to make balls of it and store them in oil. Labneh Anbaris, as with says in Lebanese.

Shelf life

Homemade, you cannot keep it as long as the Labneh from our Dairy. It keeps for only a few days when covered. Ours, on the other hand, will keep for several weeks. For inspiration, visit our Labneh ideas page