How Labneh is made in our Dairy

You make Labneh yourself by draining yogurt. But it’s definitely not that simple. In your own kitchen, of course, you have very little control over temperature and bacteria. Homemade labneh can only be trusted when you consume it quickly. Labneh from the Zuivelarijwill keep for at least eight weeks from the day of production. How is our Labneh made? Based on some pictures, we’ll show you the production process.

Everything starts on Leen & Gert’s farm.

In our Dairy, we process different types of milk from local farmers. For every product we make, we get the milk from one specific farmer. It is our way of shortening the chain. We get the sheep’s milk for our Labneh from Gert & Leen in Moorsel. Due to its high content of fats and proteins, sheep’s milk lends itself perfectly to the production of Labneh.

Yogurt

First, we make yogurt. When you make yogurt, you want it to be firm, creamy and homogeneous. You don’t want any liquid to leak out afterwards. However, we want just that, which is why we use a specific bacterial culture. The milk ferments for several hours, after thet it is no longer milk, it becomes yogurt.

Draining

We put the chilled basic yogurt in 30-liter bags, that way it can leak out for 48 hours. This is a fairly artisanal process. While there are expensive machines that shorten the process, but we will still have to make (and sell, of course) a lot of Labneh before we can invest in those!

Stacking

To make your Labneh drain even better, stack it for another 24 hours. In the end, about 40% of the original yogurt remains. All the good of the yogurt has now concentrated.

Homogenizing

You can’t really call it homogenizing, because in our Labneh, firmer pieces remain visible here and there. We pump the leaked Labneh around with a“lob pump”, as it is called within the jargon. This way we make the mass more homogeneous, without hurting the structure of the Labneh. A delicate task.

Packaging

We now move the Labneh into 220-gram jars. It now has a shelf life of at least 6 weeks. At the least! You can buy our Labneh in Delhaize and many other stores. There you go, now you have an answer to the question of how Labneh is made.

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