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farmer's cheese leftovers

PostPosted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:15 pm
by luciddreams
I was wondering about the left over whey/milk liquids/vinegar after the curds have been extracted. I followed the recipe from Wild Fermentation and it doesn't say what to do with the rest of the fluid.

I saw the history channel's Modern Marvels cheese edition and they made mozarella cheese and then used the rest of the liquid to make riccotta. I was wondering if you could do the same with the left over liquids. Or if you could use them for some type of traditional food? I will compost it if nothing else. Any suggestions?

Re: farmer's cheese leftovers

PostPosted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:24 pm
by Tim Hall
I'm not up the process for mozzarella and ricotta, but I suspect if you've extracted all the curd from the milk, there won't be much left over to make another cheese. It seems to me ricotta is already pretty close to farmer's cheese.

You could let the whey ferment a little, and simply drink it. Whey from raw milk in particular is said to be a healthy tonic. Or use it to inoculate other ferments. Sally Fallon has about a million (practically anyway) recipes that call for spoonful of whey to inoculate other types of ferments.

Re: farmer's cheese leftovers

PostPosted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 10:42 pm
by luciddreams
My concern is that the vinegar may change the composition of the whey? I know vinegar is good for you, as is whey, but I wonder about the two of them together.

I suppose it would still be a healthy drink. Maybe I'll try making a soup with it. I can't see there being any harm in it. I'll just have to maybe add a sweetener to it to help neutralize some of the vinegar flavor. Or just dilute it to the point where it doesn't matter.

Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything obvious. I have Nourishing Traditions I don't think there is anything in it about what to do with the leftovers from farmers cheese production.

Thank you for responding.

Re: farmer's cheese leftovers

PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:33 am
by Cloughjordan
The question regarding what to do with the leftover whey from cheesemaking is one I have been trying to answer for the past few days. When I make ricotta cheese with one gallon of raw milk, I have almost a gallon of whey left over. I'm not clear as to the healthgiving properties of whey that comes from milk that has been heated as in cheesemaking and whey that is the by product of soured milk, or unheated milk.

I understand that the unheated whey has not had any of the enzymes, bacteria, vitamins and minerals destroyed by the heating process. What I'm not clear about is what if any are the health benefits of whey that has been heated. In most recipes, even NT, there is no mention of the differences between the two types of whey and yet surely they are different.

Can anyone help me with this?