There have been many fun and
interesting things that we have found that use whey, which we will post about
later on in this blog. The problem is, as with many things in homesteading, you
can’t seem to just find what you want on the market. We looked all over for
whey, and had no luck. Since whey is a byproduct of making cheese, we
decided that we should just make our own whey, and enjoy some homemade cheese at the same time.
We got a kit to make mozzarella
cheese, as it is supposed to be a very easy beginner cheese.
The kit comes from the New England Cheese Making Supply Company otherwise known as "Ricki the Cheese Queen". On her website, she also has a “good milk list” that explains which milks will work to make cheese and which will not (such as any that are ultra pasteurized). We found that we have an organic small dairy farm
somewhat near us, called Radiance Dairy and they use a health food / grocery store as an outlet. So we
took a road trip, and got one gallon of organic, minimally pasteurized, whole
milk.
After finding the milk, I have to
say that the rest was pretty easy. We simply followed the recipe, and had great
success. We first poured the milk out into a pot, and added the correct amount
of citric acid. Then we heated the milk to the temperature specified, which was 90
degrees F, then removed it from the heat. Next we added a crushed piece of rennet
tablet, and waited the 5 minutes for a good curd to form. As you can see from the picture,
the curd formed quite nicely.
The next step is to cut the large
curd, following the pattern in the instructions, and move it back to the heat.
We heated the curds and whey to the correct temperature of 115 degrees F while
stirring, and then removed it from the heat again. After that, we poured off the
whey and saved it for later use. We used quart mason jars, and put the lids
on tight, and stuck them in the fridge. Now you press the cheese by hand and
remove the rest of the whey.
Next you dunk the cheese in a pan of hot water for
a few moments to soften it, then begin to stretch and work the cheese. This is
where you add a little bit of cheese salt from the kit, to enhance the flavor.
The more you stretch, the firmer the cheese will be, it reminds you of pulling
taffy. At this point, you are pretty much done, just put the cheese in a
container to give it a final shape, and chill.
We shredded our cheese after it was
completely cool, and used it on many of the dishes we made in the next few days.
All in all ,it was pretty easy, and the yield was 3 and a half quarts of whey,
and some great tasting organic mozzarella cheese.
