I thought that it would be fitting to start out my journey with the EASIEST recipe on the planet.  Also it is an ingredient in a lot of other recipes, so it is very fitting to do first.
When I first ‘made’ whey, my husband thought I was nuts. Â Little did he know that it is an extremely useful thing, with a great by-product of wonderfully flavorful cream cheese (not like the dead stuff in stores). Â And it lasts for months in the fridge. Â I have used whey to make dozens of recipes, including yogurt, pancakes, pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, ketchup, mayonnaise, salad dressing… basically anything that you would like to preserve or culture and add beneficial bacteria to. Â I also use whey when I soak flour, grains, nuts or beans to neutralize phytic acid and other anti-nutrients. And the whey is ‘good’ for you and can be taken as a tonic for upset stomach in a little bit of water. Â Let’s just say, I used to love vinegar pickles but condiments with whey make me feel good! Â And the cream cheese is AMAZING. Â Give it a try, you’ll see!
Whey and Cream Cheese
Rating: 4 forks (key)
they don’t know they’re eating it when they eat it! Â But they eat it all of the time!
Difficulty:
Easiest
Page in NT: 87
Kindle location: 2640
Yield:
2 cups whey and 2 cups cream cheese
Ingredients:
1 Quart of organic whole milk yogurt, preferably made from raw milk, but pasteurized will work as long as it’s GOOD yogurt, and WHOLE milk!
Preparation:
Line a large strainer with a thin dish towel or multiple layers of paper towels. Â Put a bowel underneath the strainer. Â Pour the yogurt into the strainer, cover and let stand at room temperature for 3-5 hours. Â The whey will run into the bowl and the ‘cream cheese’ will stay in the strainer. When the whey stops dripping, the cheese is ready. Â Store whey in a labeled mason jar in the fridge, it will keep for 6 months.
Salt the cream cheese with celtic sea salt and keep in a covered container in the fridge, it will keep about 1 month.
Please note: Â Sally’s recipe is written a bit differently. Â You can also use raw milk, buttermilk or piima milk (2 quarts) to make whey/cream cheese.
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi! Looks like an interesting project! I’ll be a regular here, for sure.
I make whey from raw milk which yields quite a bit. Because we don’t use it terribly often, I have discovered that whey can be frozen without losing its potency as a fermentation starter! I usually freeze it in glass pint jars and pull a jar out once a week or so.
Peggy… thanks so much for joining us! That is a great suggestion to freeze the whey. Yes I agree, there is a lot more whey from the raw milk than yogurt. When I had way too much once, I used to put some on our dog’s food and they loved it. And it was good for them too.
“When I first ‘made’ whey, my husband thought I was nuts.” This comment made me chuckle as mine did too – now he’s so impressed he can’t wait to explain to our friends and family how things operate in our kitchen!
So tell me, what is the longest you’ve left your milk to ferment before making into whey and cream cheese? I’ve always been curious as to how long people have left it…
Justine… thanks for the comment! I think it depends on the milk and how fresh it is. I haven’t had the milk for awhile, but I remember it taking 3-5 days depending on how soon I received it. Lately I’ve been using store-bought yogurt… I plan on doing it the other way (no pun intended) soon though…
Could I use a cheesecloth for this instead of a dish towel?
Elise… absolutely, cheesecloth would work great. I’ve even used paper towels suspended in a strainer in a pinch before and it worked fine…
I have some cultured buttermilk that is grade A pasteurized. Would that be okay to use?
Per Nourishing Traditions, you can use whole milk buttermilk as long as it’s not ultra-pasteurized. Here is what Sally says “let buttermilk stand at room temperature 1-2 days until the milk visibly separates into white curds and yellowish whey.” You will get much better results with whole milk buttermilk. The process has never failed me with whole milk yogurt, I have never used buttermilk to do this so please let us know what kind of results you receive. thanks!!
Just saw the whey recipe. Good it’s easy. E
I’m going to try the whey recipe. It calls for yogurt and whole milk but doesn’t specify how much milk to use and how to use it.
Or, does it mean I can use either yogurt or milk?
Could you please clarify this for me.
Thank you.
Margo
Margo… you can use either whole milk yogurt or raw whole milk. I feel it’s the easiest to use the yogurt, but it really depends on what you can get easily. I usually buy the 32 ounce size but you could even use the small size you’ll just get less whey and cream cheese.
Elaine.. yep it’s really easy. If you run into anything weird just let us know. There are a lot of really knowledgeable people on here!
I wonder is this the same as kefir? If not what exactly are the differences? What do you use the whey for after you make it? I have gotten kefir grains from the net and cover them with fresh raw milk to make my kefir and I just eat it with a little garlic powder and salt with a spoon, a cup at a time. Looks like I’m gonna like your blog.
I ended up leaving the buttermilk out for 2 1/2 days since it didn’t look curdled enough at 1-2 days. Once I poured the curdled buttermilk into the towel it seemed to drip for quite a while – a good 1/2 day or so. Parts of the cream cheese were thicker than others, but I thought that might even out once I put it in the fridge. It seems to have thickened a bit now. I haven’t actually tried the cream cheese yet, I’m just hoping I did it right!
Elise… it sounds like you did it right, congrats! Just remember to salt the cream cheese a bit before you taste it, brings out the flavors. Thanks for sharing your update, this is helpful for all of us to know the details around the buttermilk. thanks!!
June… I believe that you can also use kefir, but I’ve never done this myself yet. Kefir just has a different good bacteria strain than yogurt, I believe. I use whey for all sorts of lacto-fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut and ginger carrots, and for soaking beans and grains before cooking them.
I’ve made homemade cheese a few times before, and I’m wondering if the whey that is a byproduct of cheese making (you wind up with a whole bunch of it–easily over 3 quarts from a batch of cheese made with a gallon of milk!) is the same (or at least similar in terms of containing probiotic stuff that can be used for the lacto-fermented recipes in NT) as the whey made from yogurt.
Kim, do you know? Or any other readers of this blog, do you know?
Thanks,
Scott
The whey from cheesemaking is similar but does not have all of the cultures in it, since it’s been heated. So it won’t work as a fermentation starter like the ‘raw’ whey will. However, there are a lot of uses for the cheese whey, as you’re right it still does have some of the good stuff in it. I’ve heard of people adding it to soups, breads, and other recipes as the liquid ingredient. Some people also give it to their pets.
Kim,
Thanks for the reply. It prompted me to look up the temperatures involved in cheese and yogurt making. The max temp in the cheesemaking recipe I use ( http://www.leeners.com/cheese-recipes-mozzarella.html ) is 105, and the incubation temps I saw for yogurt recipes varied from 110 to 122, and one page mentioned that temps over 130 kill the yogurt cultures. So as far as temp goes, it seems that yogurt is actually done at a higher temp than the cheese recipe I use.
However, it also got me thinking, the cultures are different stuff… cheese is made with rennet, yogurt with previous yogurt. Probably a lot of overlapping enzymes & bacteria, but still different.
So maybe I’ll do a little “pepsi challenge” someday–make two batches of kraut, one with cheese whey and the other with yogurt whey. If I do, I’ll post the results here.
Scott
this is great Scott! I love experiments. I bet both krauts will turn out though, maybe the ‘cheese’ kraut will take a bit more time to ferment. You really only need salt to ferment the kraut. I just like the whey because it makes things more predictable. Thanks for adding so much to the discussion and for doing research to boot!
Hi I used to make this from raw milk. Very easy. Simply put in a jar and leave at room temp for 3 days and then strain (through a cheesecloth). If you leave it longer it will have curdled a little bit more / taste a bit more curdled.
I now Kefir my raw milk and so now make whey from Keffired milk. i.e. put the grains in the milk and leave it for approx 2 days. Doesn’t need as long because of the Kefir culture. You can see it has separated when there is clear liquid (whey) showing. Although i then leave it a bit longer (usually 2 days). Timing also depends upon how many grains to milk you use so it is really go by a look and feel.
Then strain the grains out, then put in cheesecloth to strain.
I use whey in tons of things – fermented veges, soaking oats, rice, beans, lentils, Beet Kvas, drinks
Would love to hear more ideas about the cheese as I am not a big soft cheese eater and rarely eat crackers.
Thank you for your comment – I tried making whey from raw milk and it sat on the counter for 2 weeks and never separated?! I’ll just use my Kefir instead! If I add it to something hot, does it kill all the beneficial nutrients?
This was my first ‘recipe’ to try and it was so neat to watch it work. The cream cheese really is yummy! About the whey – mine has a little milky film on top (a bit of the yogurt that slipped through, I assume). Do I need to remove all traces of this in order for it not to spoil? Thanks!
Hi Karen… cool that it worked out! Sometimes a bit of yogurt gets in my whey too (no pun intended haha) and I just scoop it out, or leave it. It may affect the spoilage but I guess most of the time I use it up before that so I haven’t had a problem. I would suggest freezing the whey if you won’t use it in the next month or so. It will last longer than that in the fridge, but sometimes I just put it in a jar and label it. thanks for the comment…
Hi Christie,
I tried to make the cream cheese and whey this week from raw milk as well. I am on day 5 and it does not look like it is separating very well at all. I do have some curds on the top, but the rest looks like the color of regular milk. Has anyone tried using raw milk and were you successful???
Add me to that thread. My first batch of cream cheese and whey from raw milk turned out perfect (beginner’s luck?). I left the milk, in its original glass bottle, on the counter. After four days I couldn’t really see any visible separation, but I poured it into the strainer/dishcloth and let it do its thing. It turned out perfect. So… my next attempt, I left the bottle out on the counter and after two days, it starts leaking through the sealed cap. I figure it must be ready because my previous batch didn’t do that (still can’t see any separation) so I take the cap off and strain it. Not good. I get the cream in the cloth and milk in the bowl. So… I put everything back into a 1/2 gallon wide-mouth jar, put a loose cover on it and wait a couple more days. After 5 days total, I still don’t see the separation but I try to strain it again–not good. I’ve got more curds but the “whey” is opaque, not translucent like my first batch. This is frustrating when I can’t figure out what would be different different about how this was being done. The only variable is room temperature, which has been between 68 and 70 for the past month or so. I’ve checked all the fermentation sites I could find and no answers yet.
Any help?
Addendum… I have also made the cream cheese and whey from organic whole milk yogurt, but the resulting cream cheese tastes like yogurt. Whereas, the cream cheese from raw milk tastes heavenly!
thanks for the post, I am surprised no one else has mentioned this, but I just screwed in a small hook under our kitchen cabinet and I put the yogurt in a mesh nutmilk bag (you can buy them for about $4) and then hang it over a bowl. SUPER easy and works like a charm! We have the kind of cabinets that have about a 2″ overhang on the bottom, so you can’t even see the hook when it’s not being used.