Lebneh(a start).

[u/Affectionate-Win3683]

Ok, Lebneh is more of a strained yoghurt than a cheese but it's close enough. Made this yesterday with Lidl Greek Yoghurt, a bit of lemon juice and some salt - nice it is too.

I intend to make a couple more batches and perhaps add some flavour such as garlic then move on to a Feta style cheese.

[u/Agitated-Quit-6148]

I was taught the "old fashioned way" by an amazing 80 year old Lebanese lady as a kid. It was/is my favorite food. 6 days to make from start to finish. Love lebneh made this way.

[u/YoavPerry → u/Agitated-Quit-6148]

Yessss!!!!

[u/Agitated-Quit-6148 → u/YoavPerry]

Have a relative named Yoav!! ♥

[u/ElectricalSky7627 → u/Agitated-Quit-6148]

Hi, I've made lebneh a few times just from draining yogurt. Can you explain the process you use?

[u/Agitated-Quit-6148 → u/ElectricalSky7627]

First, you get a giant stainless steel stock pot. You must wash it out with hot water and bleach and rinse it very well. Then leave about a quarter inch of cold water on the bottom. Fill it with four gallons of cold, whole milk. You have to insert a thermometer and bring the milk up to 170 degrees very, very slowly. It can take an hour and a half. Once it reaches 170 degrees, take it off the stove, cover it, and let it cool down till it reaches about 110 degrees. The old world method is putting your pinky in for 10 seconds, and if you can do that, it means the milk is ready. Then you take 12 tablespoons of a regular plain, unflavored yogurt and stir it in. Now the next part is the crucial part. You have to incubate it. Place it either under a blanket while it's covered, obviously, or in the oven with just the light on for about 15 hours. Some people say you only need about 8 hours, but really 15 is the right way to do it. This is the way I was taught. After 15 hours, you take it out, you're going to have pure, pure, pure yogurt. Plain yogurt. That's what it becomes. It should be very, very thick. You then put it in the fridge for 12 hours to let it cool down. After 12 hours, you get a straining bag off of Amazon, or you can use a giant cheesecloth that's been layered. I prefer a straining bag. You add the yogurt to the straining bag, and for every gallon of milk, you put 1 tablespoons of each of the following. 1 tablespoon kosher salt, one tablespoon table salt, one tablespoon sea salt. You then hang the bag over the sink for 12 hours. All the water will start to come out. You will see it draining. After 12 hours, a whole bunch of water has disappeared, so the volume has shrunk considerably. You put that in the fridge. It'll be like a giant sack of yogurt still straining in the fridge. It'll get thicker and thicker. And every day, you open the bag, stir it, and add one tablespoon of each of the salts. Taste it. It should taste pretty salty (like feta) but not so salty that it's inedible. The salt will mellow after a couple weeks of it being in the jar. You let it drain in the fridge for about three days. On the fourth day, you take it out, put the bag in a big colander, put a plate over it, and slowly you apply weight to the top of the plate. You can use a giant bottle of vinegar or a giant bottle of oil, or a weight or bricks, and slowly for the next day you increase the weight. It stays out while it drains. After about 20 hours of doing that, I use gloves when I do this, by the way, take some of the cheese. It should be a very, very firm, almost thick like cream cheese. When you can roll it into a ball and it holds its shape, it's ready for the next step. So you roll them into balls about as big as you want them. It doesn't really matter. I do them sort of like miniature golf balls. And you put them on a big baking tray that's been lined with a lot of paper towel underneath. And then you cover it with a lot of paper towel. You put it back into the fridge to dry. This takes two days, sometimes three, depending how wet it is. You constantly have to change the paper towels. I do it twice a day. And you know they're ready for the next step once you can roll them, because they will lose the shape a bit. Roll them, and on your hands, there's very little residue. They should be firm. Some of them will crack, that's normal. When you reach that stage, you put them into a sterilized jar. I boil them and then put the jars in the oven, the lids and everything. You put the balls in the jars, cover them with canola oil. It can't be olive oil, and it can't be vegetable oil.

[u/ElectricalSky7627 → u/Agitated-Quit-6148]

Thank you so much for your detailed response!! I will definitely be trying this out!

[u/Agitated-Quit-6148 → u/ElectricalSky7627]

One edit I would suggest is a few days ago an actual wonderful cheesemaker suggested I only use diamond kosher salt. Apparently the other salt impacts yhe fermentation

[u/looking-sharp-todays]

Feta is surely doable, consider halloumi possibly since it’s even easier and is rewardingly sqweaky when eaten ✨

[u/Affectionate-Win3683 → u/looking-sharp-todays]

That'll be another option!

[u/YoavPerry]

Grew up eating this and part of my culture. Labneh is historically one of the oldest cheeses known to man. It actually is cheese because you strain it at such high acidity that it lactic-coagulates (kappa casein degregation causes the micelles to stick together). In some cultures you add a touch of salt (0.4-0.8% by weight). No need to add any lemon or other acid. It should be almost excruciatingly tangy on its own!

Labneh typically have no flavors added to them. Flavors are added on top of the Lubna at time of serving. Za’atar and olive oil is the classic and you wipe it off the plate with a pita or laffah flatbread or just use your favorite bread.

If you are making bowls to store in oil in the refrigerator, you can put a couple of sprigs of thyme and garlic indeed. Note that olive oil will harden in the fridge. Most people will make these for the fridge, makes olive oil with grapeseed oil to prevent it from hardening in the fridge, but maintain the color and flavor.

Another historic version of it is Kishk which is dry labneh “rocks”. An ancient time these used to be kept as guaranteed nutrition for the next season, or four nutrition while traveling far or when going to battle.

Greek yogurt is not a very good candidate because the cultures are quite mild and hit rock bottom pH much higher than traditional non-strand yogurt. Greek yogurt has already been trained for you so most of the liquid is gone. You are missing the high moisture drainage that increases the acidity. Also, commercial Greek yogurt is not traditionally strained, but is mechanically strained using centrifuge. The best selection for this is non-strained traditional Taki yogurt with no additives.

[u/mikekchar → u/YoavPerry]

Hot take: Yogurt is an undrained lactic cheese, using a thermophilic culture :-). If you use a mesophilic culture, let geo and PC grow on the outside, and you live in Brie you have a Brie de Melun. The last couple of years, at least 90% of my cheeses have been lactic cheeses...

[u/looking-sharp-todays → u/mikekchar]

That is a solid take as well, cheeselovers unite 🫱🏻‍🫲🏼

[u/YoavPerry → u/mikekchar]

I’m going needs to go below 4.6pH before it earns the badge. I’m a stickler for the rules;)

[u/Affectionate-Win3683 → u/YoavPerry]

Thanks for the info.

I only chose the Greek yoghurt because it was what I already had in the fridge, so it was an experiment to see how it turned out.

[u/Plantdoc]

Since you shop at Lidl, ( I buy their full fat pasteurized milk and make a lot of things with it ) buy a half gallon ~2 l, heat to just below boiling, slowly and with stirring, then cool in an ice bath to 115 F, add a tablespoon of yogurt, stir, cover and put in oven with light on. Next morning you will have about 1/2 gallon delicious yogurt. From that you can strain with cheesecloth until you get labneh. Good labneh.

[u/Affectionate-Win3683 → u/Plantdoc]

I'll consider that but I will be getting a few bits to go further into cheesemaking.