Yogurt, Greek (Strained)
Not a different yogurt — the same yogurt with about half its water removed. Which is worth knowing when you read a label, because a great deal of what is sold as 'Greek-style' is not strained at all but thickened with added milk protein, starch or gums.
Not a different yogurt — the same yogurt with about half its water removed. Which is worth knowing when you read a label, because a great deal of what is sold as ‘Greek-style’ is not strained at all but thickened with added milk protein, starch or gums.
Ingredients
- 1 quart Yogurt, Homemade (Incubator Method) or any plain live yogurt
- Cheesecloth or a fine sieve
Directions
- Key ingredients
Yogurt, and time in a cloth.
- Line a sieve with cheesecloth and set it over a bowl deep enough that the whey never touches the yogurt.
- Strain in the refrigerator, not on the counter — it is still a live culture and it will keep souring if warm.
- Time is the only variable: 1 hour gives thicker yogurt. 4 hours gives Greek. Overnight gives Labneh. Roughly half the volume leaves as whey.
- Stir smooth and refrigerate.
Notes
PROVENANCE. Mine, and the reason I stopped buying it.
READ THE LABEL. Genuine Greek yogurt is strained. ‘Greek-STYLE’ is frequently milk protein concentrate, starch or gums doing the job of straining — a different product wearing the name. Neither is bad; only one is what it says.
SAVE THE WHEY. Half of what you made is leaving in that bowl. It is excellent bread liquid, a soup base, cooking water for grains, a smoothie addition, a marinade component and plant food. Pouring it away is throwing away half the batch.
SKYR is the harder-strained Icelandic relative, traditionally made with rennet as well as culture, which technically puts it closer to a fresh cheese. Very thick, very high protein, quite mild.
Straining concentrates the protein AND the acid, so strained yogurt tastes tangier than the batch it came from even though nothing fermented further.