March 25, 2009 - 12:00pm
"Whey" to go!!
I recently made my first foray into the world of cheesemaking (with the end result being a beautiful and tasty mozzarella!) and had almost 3 quarts of whey with which to deal. Being the non-waster that I am I googled uses for it and read here that it is good for making bread. Oh baby, is it ever! I used my basic no-brainer recipe, substituted the whey for the water, and yowzers, it rose like crazy and tastes wonderful! I have a quart of cream being 'cultured' at the moment and tonight I should have freshly made European-style butter to spread on bread. Mmmmmmmm. Plugra be damned! I think we breadmakers are an adventurous lot, so I highly recommend trying your hands at mozzarella and bread with whey!
Amaz
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Cheesemakers use the whey from mozzarella to make ricotta. I usually do that and it is not difficult although the version I make requires additional milk.
But I must remember to try the whey from cheese making in bread. I knew about that, but keep having a mind cramp. I am working on my provolone making technique and this whey is not particularly good for ricotta.
Thanks for reminding me on the whey useage!
Is there a site as good as this one focused on cheese/dairy?
I'd love to get some really good yogurt going, at the very least, and perhaps a good paneer (my last attempt wasn't so good) for making sag paneer.
on all the internet could ever be as good as this one?
I know of no such site for cheese/dairy, but that hardly means it does not exist.
I have gotten a lot of cheese making help (and supplies) from Leeners.
One thing I have learned is to be very careful about the milk I use. Milk absolutely cannot be ultra-pasturized (most of the milk at your local mega-mart is ultra-pasturized) and even some pasturized milk has been treated at too high a temperature to be used in cheese making. If you find a good supplier in your area, be sure to support him/her.
Leeners is good as is cheesemaking.com- I have her book and it is wonderful, so far. Provolone- mmmmmmmmmm. My next project is mascarpone- it is so expensive in our stores here and it seems to be easily made. Cheese and bread- is there anything better???
Amaz
Does the same hold true for any bread recipe calling for milk? I have both a Sun Harvest (AKA "Henry's" in some parts of the states) which is now owned by Whole Foods right around the corner. I'm guessing they'd have milk that would be more suitable.
There should be no problem using ultra pasturized milk in bread recipes.
Ultra-pasturization completely denatures the protein in the milk so a curd will not form correctly. This would have no impact on bread.
I had a lot of trouble with both of my local Whole Foods stores and the milk they supplied, but I am sure this varies with locales. I finally got delivery service from a local dairy for milk and special order cream from a small family run store.
I am not a fan of non-pasturized milk. I know that a lot of people feel that cheese made from non-paturized milk is "the best" - but unless I meet the cow that gave that milk and see her health record - I would not consume it. Many people have forgotten about it, but I have seen first hand what bovine tuberculosis can do to a person and I don't think its worth the risk. Lecture over...
Hope this helps
I, too, used the whey to eek out the last bits of curd for ricotta, but that still left me with mucho whey. I found a local source for raw milk, so hopefully I will have less whey after the curd is gone. It feels so good to be using every bit of leftovers from such a fun project as cheesemaking!
Amaz
Then of course you will want to save the wonderful buttermilk that you get from your cultured butter project. Like white gold, that stuff...
I make my own yogurt using skim milk; it's very easy to do. I like plain non fat yogurt but my husband and son like the flavored stuff. The best part of making my own yogurt is that I can eat mine plain and add some homemade strawberry jam to sweeten theirs. My 7-yesr-old can't tell it isn't store bought once the yogurt is sweetened with the jam.
I have always want to try making cheese but it's illegal to sell raw milk in Canada and there's no way to get around it. A few years ago, a farmer came up with an idea to "sell" part of a cow so whoever bought this cow could get the milk from it not as a sale. But Health Canada found out and they shut down the whole business.
These days I want to try making soy milk and soy yogurt from soy beans. I believe it's a bit more work than using store bought milk but I would like to give it a try.
And yes, I use the extra whey in making bread as well. No waste in our baker's world.
Love the story, thank you for sharing, althetrainer!
I, too, live in Canada, and am saddened by the news that I cannot get milk that will produce fresh mozzarella.
All the best.
Gosia
Gosia, don't give up! I used regular "store-bought" milk for my mozzarella and it worked wonderfully. I used the cheapest brand from our local "wally-world" and it worked just fine. I Just found a source for raw mikl from a local dairy so I feel safe that the cows are in good health. I was reared on a farm and we had a milk cow and I never suffered any ill effects from fresh milk- but that is my experience. I used store-bought cream and made butter last night- I actually broke out in giggles when the butter formed- that familiar sight and smell from my childhood...My grandmother used a crock churn with a dasher to make our butter and one of my fondest memories is her and me sharing a cup of fresh buttermilk, dipped straight from the churn- no one else in the family but us drank it. I have about 2 cups of the stuff in my fridge waiting to be made into biscuits- or maybe I will try it in a loaf of bread- any thoughts? The butter is delicious, by the way...Good luck with your cheesemaking adventure!
Amaz
My grandmother used to churn milk, too, and the butter and buttermilk were wonderful. I can't seem to find anyone who remembers exactly how to do it, anymore, though. We belong to a cowshare, and get more raw milk than we can drink. I'd love to make butter and buttermilk with the soured milk, but all the directions I can find start with sweet cream. They refer to the whey left after making the butter as "buttermilk", but it has little resemblance to the real thing. I remember my grandmother would cover the churn with a cloth to keep the flies out until the milk "clabbered." Then she would churn until the butter rose to the top, which seemed to take forever. The resulting buttermilk was thick and sour, and had little flecks of butter in it. And the butter had wonderful flavor.
Dave
I followed this method and it worked great.
http://blog.cooklikeyourgrandmother.com/2008/06/how-to-make-cultured-butter-and.html
--Pamela
Another bookmark to add to the ever growing list that I've accumulated from this site! I just wish that I could find organic whipping cream in quart sizes.
Summer
It worked great with the cream I bought at Costco. We're still eating the butter and it is delicious.
--Pamela
Oh, wow, Pamela thank you for the link. I think I will be making it... along with fresh mozzarella and 30 breads that are on my list to bake. Life seems so short!
Gosia
Pamela,
When making cultured butter, the idea is to whip the cream/yogurt until it breaks and then continue. So the point is to use the beater to break the liquids out of the congealed butter. Yes? Then you pour off the buttermilk for other uses.
I have been following this thread with interest for a couple reasoons. We live in the Dairy State (Wisconsin) so I'm fairley sure I can find good cream and I want to try my hand at making butter. But, I sure would like to make some cheese and yogurt.
I was recently introduced to strained Greek Yogurt. It is quite dense and dryer than the other commercial varieties and still smooth. Very nice change from the Dannon type I have had. Unfortunately our local super isn't going to be stocking it any longer. So my interest is peaked.
Eric
I bought a 1/2 gallon of heavy cream at Costco and a container of whole milk, cream top, plain yogurt at Trader Joe's. I used most of the cream and about 1/2 cup of the yogurt, whisked them together in a large bowl, covered the bowl with plastic wrap and set the whole thing in my water heater closet, which has a constant temperature range of about 74-79 degrees. After about 18 hours, I put the whole mess in my KA (should have used that bowl in the first place!), put the shield on the bowl and whipped it with the whisk attachment on fairly high speed until it broke (took about 5 minutes or so). Then I dumped the contents into a strainer and drained off the liquid while pushing on the mass of butter. I got about 2 1/2 cups of liquid buttermilk with flecks of butter. I then took the butter in the strainer over to the sink and started rinsing it with ice water as I folded it into a more cohesive mass with a large spatula until the water was pretty clear. I stored the 6 cups of butter in some containers and we're still eating it (it's now 2 weeks old), and it still tastes wonderfully sweet and fresh--not like anything we can buy.
--Pamela
I know what you mean about the buttermilk. My grandmother used the same method- was your G'ma from the South as well?? She would leave a bit of the sour whey in the butter since she liked the tang- we would groan when we knew that she was making our butter for the week- not all of us shared her palate. But the resulting buttermilk was tangy and flecked with yellow and oh so good. Until I read the recipe for 'cultured' butter I didn't realize that she was making it way back then. We just thought it was her funky butter- lol! BTW, I went to the dairy last night and got my first gallons of raw milk- can't wait to try it! The farmer's dad was from Denmark and made the family's cheese but alas, his son didn't learn the art. He said his g'ma made bread daily until she was 100 and I asked if his wife made bread- he smiled wryly and said no. I told him I would bear that in mind next time I came to get milk...I think we can do some bartering, eh? He also had fresh eggs for sale- hens fed from organically-grown corn that he raised himself. Amazing man. What a treasure I have found! And to think this all began with my stumbling across the recipe for no-knead bread a year ago, which eventually led me to this site. Who knows where this journey will take me??? My friend told me last night that I am channeling my inner farmgirl. I think he is right.
Amaz.
As you may guess (from the whole "home milling" blogs) I do a lot of things from scratch. I have been making cultured butter for some time now. I think I've got it down to an efficient process.
I actually have a hand cranked butter churn. I culture a half gallon of pasturized (never ultra pasturized) cream with 1/4 tsp of Mesophilic-M (lactococcus lactis ssp cremoris) by heating it to 88F and mixing in the culture. The cream stands at room temperature overnight.
It is then put into the churn and churned until it has grains the size of grains of wheat. This can ake 1/2 - 1 hour depending on the season, room temperature, etc. I drain the resulting butter into a piece of "butter muslin" - a finely woven cheesecloth. This allows me to squeeze out the maximum amount of buttermilk which is then saved (usually about a quart). The butter is returned to the churn and a quart or so of cold water is added. The butter is then churned for a minute or so to wash it. Once again it is drained into butter muslin and squeezed to extract as much water as possible.
I then work the butter in a wooden bowl with a German style butter paddle to get out any remaning water. The working of the butter is done by spreading it out with the paddle to break up any little pockets of moisture, bringing it back together and spreading it out again. I then work in 1-2% of flaked salt by weight to get a sort of demi-sel butter.
This butter tastes so buttery (partially through the action of the mesophillic-M culture) that it is hard to believe. Although it is a bit of work, I've gotten pretty effective at it over time. I am now confident enough in the quality of my butter that I will use it for baking as well as eating. I still won't use it for confectionary work, but I hope to be that confident in the future.
I have found the use of the butter muslin really speeds up the process. You can buy it from cheese making equipment suppliers and it is sturdy enough to wash it so it can be re-used.
I wish all good luck with the raw milk. I know that many producers are careful people and I know many people believe strongly in the nutritional advantages of raw milk. My grandmother contracted her case of bovine tuberculosis from the milk from a friend and neighbor's cow from a well run family farm. She was extraordinary for her time in that she survived the first round of it. Although she died rather earlier than she should have from the damage that it did to her. This is not a disease to be trifled with. I know where my opinions lie in this matter because of my experiences. Again - lecture over.
Happy Butter Churning!
That's a great tip. I'll get some butter muslin--using a regular strainer was a bit of a pain. I got really good flavor by using the yogurt culture. I made some crackers with the butter this morning; they are the first thing I've tried to bake with this butter. They came out fine.
--Pamela
That I am a bit of a perfectionist. I've tried a number of cultures including creme fraiche, buttermilk, and yes, yogurt. The mesophilic- M is my "go to" culture for a very deep buttery taste. Not that any of the others were not tasty, mind you. I just put it out there as a suggestion.
I have the reaction like "Oh no! There's a teeny, tiny bit of water in my butter! It's defective - I can't use it for baking!" Again, a bit obsessive.
What I have found, though, is because butter is such a high overhead type of product, I will only use it when the butter flavor is highlighted. If I just need fat, I will use leaf lard as for some reason I always have plenty of it. But that's another story.
Happy Churning!
The last time I was in Portland, OR, I tried to buy leaf lard, but the store that normally sells it was out. Where do you get it?
You're not too much of a perfectionist. at least for me.
I probably would be a little to nervous to use my homemade butter for something like croissants, but in other non-leans, why not? But again, I don't make non-leans are a rule.
--Pamela
Good guess, Amaz. We're talking Georgia, here. And this all started for me when I "stumbled" across the no-knead recipe, too. Also a little over a year ago. I didn't find TFL until I got interested in sourdough after my father told me about his mother (same grandma) keeping a starter with which she made wonderful bread.
If your farmer friend free-ranges his hens, you'll find the eggs a lot richer than store-bought. When our hens aren't laying, I just don't eat eggs.
Dave
Well not everyone uses the term "clabbered"- lol! When the milk was beginning to turn bad we said it was getting 'blinky'- sound familiar? I can't wait til the poke salad is big enough to pick around here- should be any day now. It was always the first fresh greens we had every Spring- and perhaps a bit of a 'tonic' as well- lol.
Amaz
I used to get raw milk every week with a raw milk group. The milk became a little too expensive, but my cost was amplified because of the hour commute to buy every week. Once every seven weeks it was my turn to go to the dairy to bring home the milk for the other six members. This took me the whole day practically. I entertained a guest from Germany/Spain for a few months. She would make a ricotta style cheese by setting @3/4 gallon of raw milk on the counter for about 3 days.......that's it......it made a curd and we strained off the whey. It was good on pasta! I don't really drink milk now....I use it in a few bread recipes....but when I was buying raw milk, I was going through about 2/3 gallons a week.....it was the best!
I wish we could buy certified raw milk in the grocery store......
I, too, was wondering about baking with my home-made butter. I make danish pastries with Plugra- highest in butterfat that I can find around here- but the cost is prohibitive to use it as often as I would like, so perhaps I will give my butter a go this weekend. I will let y'all know the results. Thanks for the tips about using butter muslin to help drain off the whey and water. You guys rock!
Amaz