Yogurt Cheese (yes really)

I thought yogurt cheese sounded like some sort of unpleasant byproduct when I first ran across Martha’s recipe for it in Everyday Food (June). But then I got to thinking about it. I like cheese. I like yogurt. And it would be so fun to make my own cheese from yogurt, so why not?

I bought Greek yogurt and cheesecloth and set up my strainer. You put the yogurt in the cheesecloth and put a plate (a glass measuring cup worked for me) and a heavy can on top and let it sit for 48 hours. Mine actually sat for about 12 hours longer than that.

Then you take it apart. Only a little liquid had strained out of my yogurt, which made me worried.

I started to roll it into balls. It did make balls, but they were very soft, and it got all over my hands.  Martha says to eat the yogurt cheese balls plain or you can dress them up with oil and herbs.

Plain: they tasted like yogurt. Nothing magical happened to the yogurt to make it taste like anything else. It was just slightly dry yogurt. It tasted nothing like cheese.

So next I added olive oil and herbs. I let this sit several hours. I tasted it and it tasted like yogurt with olive oil and herbs. It was very difficult to stir or toss it in the oil and herbs. The balls are very soft and sticky and have a tendency to mush.

This one is not a good thing. It was a lot of work for results that were not impressive in the least.