Labneh balls in oil

Units

Temperature

Servings

Ingredients

1 kg full-fat yogurt, homemade or shop-bought, but not low fat, which will not firm up
15 g fine salt, about 1.5 percent of the yogurt weight; this draws the water out and preserves it

500 ml olive oil, enough to cover completely; a mild one, since it becomes part of the flavour

Salt the yogurt. Stir the salt through thoroughly. It has two jobs: it pulls water out faster, and it is what makes the finished labneh keep.
Hang it. Line a sieve with a double layer of muslin or a clean tea towel, tip the yogurt in, gather the corners and tie. Suspend it over a bowl in the fridge. 48 to 72 hours, which is far longer than for a spreadable labneh. Pour the whey off as it collects.
Test it at 48 hours. Roll a walnut-sized piece between your palms. If it holds a ball, it is ready. If it slumps, give it another day.
Sterilise the jar. Wash in hot soapy water, rinse, and dry in a 120°C oven for 15 minutes. This is a preserve sitting at room temperature under oil, so cleanliness is the safety step. Let it cool completely.
Roll and coat. Wet or lightly oiled hands, roll walnut-sized balls of about 25 g. Roll each one through a coating: za’atar, sumac, dried mint, chilli, or leave some bare. Lay them on a tray as you go.
Air-dry the balls for 30 minutes on a rack before they go in the jar. A wet surface trapped under oil is what causes trouble later.
Pack loosely and cover completely with oil. Do not wedge them in. Every ball must be fully submerged, with a finger’s depth of oil above the top layer.
Leave a week before eating, and keep it somewhere cool and dark. Top the oil up whenever the level drops below the balls.

Keeping them safe. Anything preserved under oil needs care. Use only well-drained, properly salted labneh, sterilise the jar, keep everything submerged, and always use a clean dry spoon. Stored cool and dark they keep 2 to 3 months, and in the fridge longer, where the oil will go cloudy and solid and clear again at room temperature. If a jar ever smells fermented, fizzy or off, throw the whole thing away. This is a dairy preserve, so if you would rather not think about it, keep the jar in the fridge and treat it as a two-month thing.
The oil is the second product. By the time the jar is empty the oil is thick with za’atar and sumac, and it is exceptional on bread, over roast vegetables, or as the base of a dressing.
How to eat them. Squashed onto warm flatbread with some of their oil. On a mezze plate with olives. Crumbled over a tomato salad. Stirred through hot pasta, where they melt into a sauce.
Coat them differently on purpose, so the jar has red sumac balls and green za’atar ones. It looks like something you meant to do, and it makes a genuinely good gift.
Why 1.5 percent salt. Under that they drain slowly and keep poorly. Much over it and they are simply too salty to eat on their own.

Goat or sheep yogurt makes a tangier, firmer labneh and is traditional in much of the Levant.
Greek yogurt is already strained, so it needs only 24 to 36 hours rather than 48 to 72. Do not skip the salt.
Coatings. Anything dry. Aleppo pepper, cracked black pepper, dried rose petals, nigella seed, or the Greek seasoning on this site. Avoid anything with moisture in it, including fresh herbs.