Author Topic: Can whey be reused to curdle milk?  (Read 4950 times)

Rpp

  • Guest
Can whey be reused to curdle milk?
« on: February 19, 2011, 12:25:27 PM »
Hey
I have some whey from the ricotta cheese I made a couple of days ago.
I used vinegar to curdle the milk. Now I have read soemwhere that one can use whey
so make cheese, and that this cheese is often better.
If anyone could send me some info that would be spectacular
cheers

tnsven

  • Guest
Re: Can whey be reused to curdle milk?
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2011, 12:50:19 PM »
You can use whey to culture new milk for cheesemaking UNLESS you make ricotta with it. Ricotta making requires the whey is heated to such a temp that any culturing bacteria would be killed.

Perhaps before heating your whey for ricotta, you take a cup or two off and stow it in the fridge?

Kristin

birdsongmilkmaid

  • Guest
Re: Can whey be reused to curdle milk?
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2011, 03:04:00 PM »
I've never heard of using whey to curdle milk, but I'd love to try it. Since I tend to make large batches of cheese, I don't want any failures. (Think: big waste of priceless milk!) Does anyone know if I could use the whey from my gouda to culture my ricotta? Or do I just need to experiement on a small batch of milk?

Naomi

iratherfly

  • Guest
Re: Can whey be reused to curdle milk?
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2011, 04:28:38 PM »
In SOME cheeses, it is a traditional practice to use whey of the previous day's cheesemaking to acidify today's milk in "heirloom style", a bit like a mother culture.  However that refers to whey that is still "alive", such as whey of Cheddar or Camembert or traditional no-acid Mozzarella, which are rich and full of fat, minerals, proteins, salts, sugars and live bacteria.

The whey of Ricotta has been cooked and re-cooked, depleted of most of its nutrients or acidifying bacteria. The high temperature cooking of Ricotta also re-pasteurizes it so it kills whatever was in it.  Moreover, you are making vinegar Ricotta which isn't traditional (traditional Ricotta is coagulated by bacteria, not acid) so there is none of that heirloom of bacteria to effect the new milk.
The only acidifier in your specific whey is vinegar, which is a chemical acid.  All you would do by reusing this is pour diluted vinegar into the new cheese which won't be affective enough to coagulate it as you are used to.  So if that'a what you use to acidify the new cheese than just use fresh vinegar again and get predictable results that are easy to manage.

So in other words, yes you can use whey of one cheese to ripen the milk of another.  -  No, vinegar/citric-acidified ricotta whey won't work well.

If you don't want to throw it away just freeze it and use it for soups and bread baking...
« Last Edit: May 17, 2011, 04:36:26 PM by iratherfly »