Should I stir separated yoghurt?
If you leave yoghurt alone for a bit, it tends to separate and leave a puddle of liquid at the top. I was always told just to drain the liquid when it happens, but I'm wondering if it's better to stir it back in and reincorporate it like every other foodstuff that tends to separate that I can think of.
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It depends. I used to dump it. Now I tend to drink it.
I don't stir it into the yogurt because that makes the yogurt runnier, by breaking the rather delicate structures yogurt forms itself in culturing. Now, with commercial yogurts, those may already have been destroyed by blending after culturing and before packaging at the factory - only yogurts that are fermented in the cup have the natural structure - factory-blended ones tend to use cornstarch or other gels to make the product firm instead.
I will rather deliberately dig a hole in one side of a large tub of yogurt to drain off whey and make the remaining yogurt firmer. By the time I get to the bottom of a quart/litre tub, what's left is up there with "strained" (or "Greek") yogurt if starting from regular yogurt. It's firmer yet if starting from strained yogurt. I rather like that. If you didn't want whey to separate in the first place, attempting to leave the top surface as flat as possible when removing to serve will help with that, but not require stirring the yogurt and making it even more liquid/runny.
I suppose I should acknowledge that apparently some people like runny yogurt. I'm not one.
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The separated liquid is whey. Whey is slightly acidic which gives it a mildly sour taste. Greek yogurt is just yogurt where more of the whey has been strained out.
To answer your question, there is certainly no harm in reincorporating it. I don't know if it will affect shelf-life at all, but I would expect if it did it would be by a negligible amount. Not reincorporating it may (over time) cause the yogurt to have a slightly less sour taste and a slightly thicker consistency, though you'd probably have to more actively strain it to get a noticeable affect. When I make yogurt, I just reincorporate all the whey which leads to a fairly runny but very tart yogurt.
Even if you don't reincorporate it, the whey itself can be used for flavoring in other foods, e.g. smoothies and sodas. It has some other cooking uses as well.
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