Straining
Yoghurt in a cloth bag, letting gravity take the whey. Nothing is added and nothing is cooked: water leaves, and everything left behind concentrates.
The mechanism
Yoghurt is a gel built by casein collapsing at pH 4.6, and roughly 85% of its weight is water trapped inside that gel. Straining lets some of that water go. It is not only water that leaves: lactose and whey proteins go with it, concentrating casein, fat and salt behind. That is why strained yoghurt carries more protein and less lactose than the same weight of yoghurt, and why someone sensitive to lactose often tolerates labneh better.
The thresholds that define it
“Medium heat” is not a technique. Every line below is a point where something starts or stops.
- 2 saat Strained-yoghurt consistency. It still runs off a spoon.
- 12 saat Labneh. A kilo leaves about 450 grams.
- %1 tuz Pulls water out osmotically and lowers the surface water activity: it speeds the process and preserves what is left.
How to read it by hand
Squeeze the bag. When the drips slow enough to count, it is done; while it still runs, wait.
The three mistakes people make
01 The yoghurt turned sour ⌄
Why
It strained at room temperature. The culture kept working and the pH kept falling.
What to do
Strain it in the fridge. Slower, and it holds the flavour where it was.
02 It did not strain; water stayed in the bag ⌄
Why
The cloth is too tightly woven, or the bag is too full. The water has no surface to leave through.
What to do
Use muslin and fill the bag halfway. Surface area is what sets the time.
Where it comes from
Straining is how a place without refrigeration kept milk, and it is as old as yoghurt itself. Labneh, kurut, çökelek and keş are stops along the same road: the more water leaves, the longer it keeps. Kurut is the end of that road — dried in the sun until it is hard as stone, and good for months.
Dishes cooked this way
Haydari
A thick mezze of strained yoghurt, garlic and herbs. One thing separates it from cacık and it is decisive: haydari has no cucumber and the yoghurt is …
Strained yoghurt
Yoghurt drained in a cloth bag to remove the whey. The base for mezes, and the terbiye of toyga and düğün çorbası.…
Labneh
Yoghurt strained further than süzme, salted, and taken to a spreadable consistency. Süzme is lighter and silkier; labne is denser and sharper, and is …
Giving the heat another way
Deep frying
Surface water flashes to steam and pushes outward — that is the shield keeping oil out. Cold oil never builds it, and the food drinks the fat instead.
The oven
Air carries heat badly, so a 200 °C oven does not make 200 °C food. The inside stays where water boils, at 100 °C.
Boiling & poaching
Water cannot pass 100 °C, so turning the flame up changes nothing. Boiling is set by time and salt, not by temperature.