After getting rid of 2 unwanted boars that were being supplemented with whey in their diet ,I find I have lots of whey left over from making cheese ....One thing I found to do with it is cook pasta in the whey. The pasta has a better taste ( at least I like it better ) than when cooked in water. I imagine it also has more nutrients . I'm also using whey in soup. And from the idea of the nursery rhyme , " Little Miss Muffet " I'm eating curds and whey . I'm using it to steam or boil vegetables. And have even drank some like a soup .Does anyone know what other things whey can be used for . I depend on what little foods I raise.I eat very little from the stores.I eat very little of anything . So I don't like to waste any foods that can be used to sustain myself with.

-- Steve (Unreal@home.com), September 09, 2002

Answers

Steve, there is a whey cheese you can make. I don't have the recipe right now but I will look it up for you. I took some cheesemaking classes at the University of Minnesota years ago and they served samples of whey cheese. It has a consistency similar to parmesan. By tomorrow I should be able to find it, I have over 200 homesteading,agricultural & farming books so finding anything takes a while. One day when I have 'free' time I hope to do an index of all of them. Ya that will happen anytime soon. LOL

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 09, 2002.

steve i have heard you can sweeten the way and use it like lemonaide.

-- gail akins (gakins@simplynet.net), September 11, 2002.

Thanks Gail, I'm deveoping a taste for it plain. I'm gonna try adding sweetner and putting it the refigerator to cool ,I'm always interested in trying something different .You also gave me the idea of using lemons to curd the cheese.This might give it a lemonaide type twist to it ......................................Kathy , I'll be waiting for that recipe .Actually my Sicilian roots leaves me the cultural influence of using Romano Pecorino cheese.The common grated cheese of southern Italy. But I'm very flexiable.Sometimes the Italian dishes I make are combined with culinary practices from Japan.

-- Steve (unreal@home.com), September 11, 2002.

Steve - Kathy - - all,

I'm reading your post as I sit here churning butter, and have a kettle of cheese curds heating on the stove. Haven't done this for a couple of years - - house remodeling and grandkids consumed me for the past three years - - just getting back to the things I enjoy.

What kind of cheese do you make most often Steve? Do you have a *simple* recipe for hard cheese? Kathy?

-- Granny Hen (cluckin along@cs.com), September 11, 2002.

Granny hen ,I make soft cheese.I bring the milk to the highest temperture possible without it boiling over the pot and add vinegar a tea spoon at a time til it starts to curd. I'd like to make mozarella cheese , but I can't find rennet locally. And I think you need citric acid also for that............................................. Years ago I was living up north in the city and they had an Italian deli where mozarella was made in the back of the store...One of the owners of the store went through the whole process of how it's made , but I forgot because it was so long ago. They used whole cows milk, I remember him saying that...............................I'd buy a loaf of whole wheat sesame seeded Italian bread ,a lb. of mozarella and a beefsteak tomatoe , lunch never tasted so good since those days.I need to get rennet so I can make some tasty mozarella..............I think I'm gonna start making yogut and kiefer, ( a drinkable yogut used in a fruit shake). They'll be less waste , no left over whey. Really no whey is being wasted .I'm just not able to use it all.It's going to the pregnant sow I have , mixed in her feed.I could tell I need the extra food more than she does.She' fat and healthy ,I'm gettin on the thin side and need to build some fat surplus for the winter months.It's gonna be cold in these hills soon.Oh, I finally got rid of those 2 boars.

-- Steve (Unreal@home.com), September 11, 2002.

Here's one recipe and some info on whey cheese. I still haven't found the one I was talking about. Although this one sounds like the same ingredients and process , the one I had a the goat milk cheesemaking classes was more like a hard grating cheese so I'm thinking you just dry it once it's made-very tasty.

Traditional Ricotta, using only Whey Making Ricotta is very simple. Over direct heat, heat the hard cheese whey to 200° (sometimes I accidentally heat it over 200° with no ill effects). By the time it has reached this temperature you will see very tiny white particles (the albumin protein) floating in the whey. The heat and acid from the ripe whey has precipitated the protein. You can add a little vinegar at this point if you really think it necessary (one “glug” or 1/4 C. per 2 gallons of whey), it’s up to you, and it won’t hurt the Ricotta. Line a colander with very fine cheesecloth, called "butter muslin". You must use a very fine cloth here, or your cheese will pass through the regular cloth. If you do not have fine cheesecloth, use a clean cotton cloth (like a pillow case). Place the colander over a big pot so you can save the whey and carefully pour the whey into the colander. Be very careful because the liquid is hot. Tie the ends of the cheesecloth together and hang the ricotta to drain for a couple hours. When it has drained, place the ricotta in a bowl and add salt to taste. You will find that the Ricotta made from the whey of different cheeses has different tastes and textures. I think Mozzarella makes the best. Feta makes the strongest tasting (the taste increases as it ages in the fridge). Ricotta will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

Whey Cheese Whey cheeses are obtained by concentrating whey (the watery liquid remaining after the curd is formed in cheese-making) and by coagulating the whey protein with heat and acid, with or without the addition of milk and milk fat. Ricotta cheese is a well-known type of whey cheese, although it is now frequently manufactured from whole or lowfat milk. A high temperature (176° to 212°F) and a lactic acid starter or added acetic acid are used to coagulate the protein. The resulting curd is transferred to hoops for straining. Fresh ricotta cheese resembles cottage cheese. The curd may be pressed and dried for grating. The fat and moisture content of ricotta cheese vary widely according to the manner of processing and the initial ingredients used.

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 11, 2002.

Kathy ,where do you get lactic acid or acetic acid from ? I'm thinking mail order.

-- Steve (Unreal@home.com), September 12, 2002.

Steve & everyone who makes cheese, Lactic acid can be bought from cheesemaking places-New England Cheesemakers catalog is a good start. I'll post some links but all do non-web orders too. Acetic Acid is vinegar or lemon juice, vinegar has a 'standardized' acidity while lemon juice can vary with many factors.

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 12, 2002.

Lactic acid is the product of the fermentation of milk sugar (or lactose), either from using the natural lactic bacteria found in healthy milk, or from the lactic bacteria found in cheese starters.

You don't buy lactic acid; you make it.

-- Julia (charmer24@juno.com), September 12, 2002.

Julie, I said you can buy it from cheesemaking places. When we lived in WI I could get it from the local cheese factory. I told Steve to look at New England Cheesemaking Catalog because they may have links for where to get it in other areas, I know he's in TN-not many cheese factories :). I'm sorry if I wasn't clear.

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 12, 2002.

Kathi, perhaps I'm not being clear. You don't buy lactic acid for cheesemaking. It's not one of the food acids used for cheesemaking, and you won't find it in any cheesemaking catalogs or supply houses or at cheese plants. Citric acid, yes, and tartaric acid, and some of the other food acids, but not lactic acid. In cheesemaking it's only used when produced by cheese starter bacteria, and the lactic bacteria in healthy udders.

You can buy cheese starter bacteria at various places, but not lactic acid.

Oh, and FWIW, only vinegar is acetic acid. Lemon juice is not, although you can use it to make that same sort of heat+food acid cheese.

-- Julia (charmer24@juno.com), September 12, 2002.

I can't wait til the moon is out of scorpio. Sometimes words have 2 meanings .http://www.purac.com/ This web site might help, get me in trouble that is.

-- Steve (Unreal@home.com), September 12, 2002.

Steve, help me understand about the scorpio. I don't know much about astrology-I'm assuming it has something to do with astrology-sorry if I'm wrong. Whatever it is, it seems to make for some difficulties in communication. Thanks for the link, I was starting to wonder if the old brain was totally mush or that I'd been way off base- admittedly,it had been a few years ago when we were milking & making a lot of cheese. Nice to know a few brain cells have survived the aging process.:)

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 12, 2002.

Steve, I found this info on lactic acid, it's known as a 'culture' if you buy it. Lactic acid bacteria are naturally present in milk, and cheese can be made by holding fresh milk in a warm environment. However, this process is slow and cheese quality tends to be inconsistent. It is recommended that the milk be pasteurized by heating at 60-62%C (140- 144%F) for 30 min . This heat treatment will destroy most lactic acid bacteria in the milk and will also destroy pathogenic bacteria which may cause food illness. Note that over pasteurization will prevent proper coagulation. Most store bought milk is unsuitable for cheese making because it has received too much heat treatment.

After pasteurization the milk is cooled to 32-37%C (89.6-98.6%F) and lactic acid bacteria are added to the milk. The suspension of bacteria is called a 'culture' and the process of adding the culture to the milk is called 'inoculation'. The culture may be a frozen or freeze-dried concentrate of bacterial cells or it could be cultured milk (milk in which lactic acid bacteria have been allowed to grow). Different bacterial cultures are recommended for specific types of cheese but most types can be made using fresh, plain yoghurt or buttermilk as a culture.

New England Cheesemaking Supply sells the different cultures but there are quite a few listed if you do a search for cheesemaking supplies. Home cheesemaking must be becoming more popular, there weren't nearly as many 15+ yrs ago.

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 12, 2002.

Julie, you were right about the acetic acid being only vinegar. My old recipes all say acetic acid/lemon juice so I just lumped them together. I would think they would give different flavors to the end product wouldn't they? I've only used vinegar so I don't know what the flavor would be with lemon juice. Have you ever used it, do you see or taste any real difference?

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 12, 2002.

Kathy ,I said about the moon being in scorpio because alot of people I knew way back, who were into astrology would always comment on the moon being in scorpio as a time not good for relating with others without tensions.As I just came from feeling like I was banging heads ( a rough head banging play buck goats do to each other )with BC on another post because of communication difficulties ,I see it appeared to be happening on this post also . That had me laughing to myself and thinking of how hard clear commmunications between (even like minded ) humans can be sometimes............................................................. .....I see the creator as a joking spirit that puts people into situations of poor communication ,and then sits back to watch how they can handle, or not ,a tense communication between each other and watches how they'll work it out. ...................... I usually retreat back from a bad communication and will sometimes even admitt I was wrong just to keep the peace . Even if I truely believed I was right ..I read the moon was in scorpio yesterday , I don't know if it still was today.It sure felt like it.

-- Steve (Unreal@home.com), September 12, 2002.

Thanks, Steve. Yes communication did seem more difficult yesterday. Even between Tom & I, it was hard to get my ideas across so that he could understand what I was talking about. Let's hope it's better today. I sometimes wish I had studied astrology more when I was younger. Basically all I know are the different signs and the months they correspond to. I'm a Taurus and according to my husband fit the profile pretty closely.:>)

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 13, 2002.

There used to be a new age type almanac, I don't remember the name. In 79' my brother and his wife had a garden that was on the banks of the Illonois river, Or. I helped in the watering ,which was 5 gallon buckets filled and carried from the river. My brother ,a book- oholic , used this almanac that gave planting dates by signs. And best times for drying herbs,planting root or above ground crops, and harvesting times for winter squash and potatoes for a longer storage life.. And even the best days to weed the garden where it would take longer for weeds to grow back.It seemed to be valid. It gave the high and low tides for the day , and I didn't understand it , but it showed times of the month or day that the moon had a stronger gravertational pull. And my brother claimed, that was the best time to pick herbs for drying because the herbs would have the oils flowing from the stems to the leaves................................................................ ..The almanac gave you a feeling you were more in tune with noticing the different energy flows ,that different signs had on people, water and gardens.It could have all been imagination running wild from a cosmic written almanac , but it seemed to be valid, as to the moon and sun signs influences on everything............................................................ .......Nows here's one of my crazy observations.From looking at calenders , I've noticed there are 13 full moons in a year.And since a moon cycle from full moon to full moon is 28 days , give or take a few hours, you have 28x 13 is 364 . Now not having a calender I've forgotten how many days are in a year, but I think it's 365 days .........The point I'm trying to make is , I believe there were 13 months in a year, at one time and out of either superstitions or some other purpose it was changed to 12. As I was taught in grade school the word month ,some how related to moon.................................................................. . Now a month can have 30 or 31 days, and feb can have 28 or 29, (leap year). You'd think a month, a considered standard mesurement of time , wouldn't be so flexible. No other mesurement we use is flexible, a foot is always 12 inches , a quart is 32 oz, a day is 24 hours, a week is always 7 days. So why is a month,the only unstable mesurement of time we use .When it could have a fix mesurement of 28 days?

-- Steve (unreal@home.com), September 13, 2002.

Llewellyn's Moon Sign Book and gardening almanac is a good one. It's printed annually.

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), September 13, 2002.

I think the one my brother had was Celestrail guide or something similar.I know it had the word Celestrail in it.

-- Steve (Unreal@home.com), September 13, 2002.

Kathy . You volunteered your astological sign. I didn't know if that was an indication ,that you were hoping others would voluteer theirs. I was born in the sun sign of Aquarius . ........................................................... ..................................................... . As far as Scorpios go.The only one I had to deal with personally was my dad .And if his highy explosive nature is an indication of of the sun sign influence.I'd say they aren't ones you'd want to get on the bad side of. .................................................................. .................................................... Yet his peacenik nature had us taking family outtings at anti-war , peace demonstations quite often. One being the largest turn-out on the white-house in november 11 1971, that ended by the riot police beating up non violent protested............................................................. ..................................................I just never understood why he didn't take us kids to the famed Woostock concert !

-- Steve (Unreal@home.com), September 13, 2002.