Labneh

Yogurt strained until it is spreadable, salted, and — if you want to keep it — rolled into balls and held under olive oil. It sits somewhere between yogurt and fresh cheese, and it is the best thing I know to do with a batch of yogurt that came out thin.

Ingredients

• 1 quart plain whole-milk yogurt
• 1 tsp salt
• Olive oil, for storing
• Za’atar, sumac or dried mint (optional)

Directions

1. Key ingredients
2. Yogurt, salt, time, and olive oil if you are keeping it.
3. Salt the yogurt and stir it through. Salt speeds the draining and seasons from the inside.
4. Strain overnight to 24 hours in cheesecloth in the refrigerator, as for Yogurt, Greek (Strained) but longer. You want it thick enough to hold a shape.
5. Eat it fresh: spread in a shallow bowl, pooled with olive oil and dusted with za’atar.
6. Or keep it: Roll into walnut-sized balls, pack into a clean jar, and cover completely with olive oil. Refrigerated, it holds for weeks, and the oil takes on the flavor.

Notes

PROVENANCE. Mine, learned as the thing that arrives with flatbread rather than from a recipe.

The longer you strain, the further along the yogurt-to-cheese continuum you go. There is no line where one becomes the other — labneh IS that continuum made visible.

SAFETY NOTE ON THE OIL: covering with oil excludes air, which is the right idea for a low-pH acidic food like labneh but the WRONG idea for a low-acid one. Oil over garlic or herbs at room temperature is a genuine botulism risk; oil over salted, acidified labneh in the refrigerator is not the same situation. Keep it cold regardless.

VARIATIONS: roll the balls in za’atar, chile flake, or chopped herbs before they go under the oil.