Tuesday, July 7, 2009

How To Make Homemade Cream Cheese and Whey

Place a strainer over a bowl and lay a piece of cheesecloth or a clean dishtowel over the strainer. Take your homemade yogurt and pour it into the cheesecloth.

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Cover the yogurt and after a few hours, tie the cloth to a spoon and hang over a glass container so you can see when it is done dripping.

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When it is done dripping (it took mine 9-10 hours) you have cream cheese and whey. I strained approximately 2 cups of yogurt and got 1 1/4 cups of whey and about four ounces of cream cheese.

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The cream cheese will last for one month in your fridge and the whey has a shelf life of six months refrigerated. I had my cream cheese with some jelly on toast for breakfast and it tasted different than store-bought cream cheese - slightly more sour - but it was still delicious.

Facts about whey:

Ever wonder what the gelatinous goo on the top of your yogurt is? Well, that is whey. Don't throw it down the sink - make sure to mix it back in with your yogurt, because it is really good for you.

Whey is a very high source of natural food sodium, which keeps your joints healthy and your ligaments elastic. It is also high in vitamin B12 and many minerals, such as magnesium, potassium, zinc, calcium and phosphorus.

Whey is also great for digestion because of the probiotics. Add one tablespoon to your water and drink three times per day.

If you add homemade whey to your jars of fruits and vegetables it provides lactobacilli, preventing the growth of harmful bacteria and increasing the shelf life.

Whey is a complete protein, containing all of your amino acids, which is why it has become increasingly popular among bodybuilders as a protein powder. To get one tablespoon of dried whey protein powder you would need 2 quarts of regular liquid whey.

Whey can be made into ricotta cheese by heating it, allowing it to ferment, and separating the curds.

-Jessica

Sources:

Fallon, Sally. Nourishing traditions the cookbook that challenges politically correct nutrition and the diet dictocrats. Washington, DC: NewTrends Pub., 1999.

Jensen, Bernard. Food healing for man. Escondido, CA: B. Jensen, 1983.

"How to Make Ricotta Cheese: 9 steps (with pictures) - wikiHow." WikiHow - The How-to Manual That You Can Edit. 07 July 2009 .

6 comments:

Becky @ BoysRuleMyLife said...

Man... I wish we could "do" milk. I've gotten a little discouraged lately as I found out that Alabama has very strict laws concerning raw milk. Basically I have to own my own cow if I want some. No buying raw milk, no cow shares, no nothing. :P

My dream for this next allergy testing is that he'll won't have a reaction to eggs. It really stinks not being able to have milk AND eggs in the house.

Sorry for the vent. :)

I look forward to hearing about your dairy free trials on the yogurt!

Jessica said...

Becky - I tried two that didn't work. I'm working on some other variations - I'll post all of them when I get done.

Are you sure about the milk? It's illegal here to sell, but so long as the person providing the milk isn't technically "selling" it you're fine. Most sellers use a donation system.

Becky @ BoysRuleMyLife said...

Yep, I'm sure. Raw milk is illegal in Alabama unless it's from your own cow. (Unless it's for animal consumption, but I believe they really watch the farms that do that)

I have found a farm within an hours drive though, that does non-homogenized and pasteurized for only a short time. It's going to be the best I can do unless I want to cross the border into Tennessee. :(

Becky @ BoysRuleMyLife said...

Let me change what I said... the dairy pasteurized the milk for a long time at a low temp. I said it completely backwards in my previous comment. :P

Jayne said...

Hi,

I bumped into your blog just now as I was scouring the web for help on making creamcheese. With prices going rocket high, it's costly to buy cream cheese. But I heart cheesecake too much to give them up :-)

Just saw your cream cheese-making endeavour. Just wondering. Is the texture too soft to make cheese cake? or maybe iF I drain it a little longer it might stiffen up to a good texture? I need about 8 oz of cream cheese and this morning I only boiled 1 litre of milk for that purpose (waiting for it to turn to yoghurt). My recipe calls for 2 packages of 8 oz cheese bit I'll be substituting one with soft tofu (still very cheesy and delicious).. So you think making another litre might produce sufficient cheese to make up 8 oz?

Sorry for the many queries. I'm very new at this so I need some assurance. Thanks! I live in Malaysia so stuff like rennet and mesophilic starter is nowhere to be found. It costs us Rm11 for an 8oz package of cream cheese, way too costly for me.

Thanks for your time anyway.

Love,
jayne [dot] leepj [at] gmail [dot] com

Jessica said...

Candid - the longer you strain it, the thicker the texture will be. I'm sure it would work just fine for cheesecake!

One quart of yogurt gives me 4 oz. of cream cheese.