What is whey used for

Acid Whey- the whey resulting from cheese in which an acid like vinegar or lemon juice has been added to aid in the curdling process. Sweet Whey — the whey resulting from cheese that is cultured or curdled with rennet instead of additional acid.

Yogurt whey fits in this category, as does soft cheese whey and traditional mozzarella. They are not interchangeable. I prefer using sweet whey in most of these cases.

Be careful when adding the acid whey to things like smoothies, etc, as it might really change the taste of things! Some of these uses for whey require the whey to be heated, so if you are interested in keeping all the qualities and enzymes of the raw whey, just skip those.

Substitute whey in any baking recipe that calls for water or even milk. I love making fresh breads and rolls with my leftover whey. Also try it in cornbread, pancakes, waffles , muffins, homemade biscuits video version HERE , homemade tortillas , and more! Use whey to lacto-ferment vegetables, condiments, sauerkraut, chutneys, jams, etc. This is an incredibly healthful form of preservation that increases the nutritional value of so many things. Check out the book Nourishing Traditions for more info on this topic.

It is important to use raw whey when you lacto-ferment— not acid whey or cooked whey. Use whey to soak grains, Nourishing Traditions style. Depending on your recipe, several tablespoons or more can be added to your grain and legume preparations to make them more digestible. Freeze it for later. If you anticipate a milk-less time of year perhaps when your animals are dried up , you can easily freeze whey for future use. Try putting it in ice cube trays or small cups to make the proper portion sizes.

Then pop out the frozen cubes and store in a baggie. Use whey to cook pastas, potatoes, oatmeal, or rice. Boiling the whey will cause it to lose its raw properties. However, if you feel like you are drowning in whey, this is a wonderful way to use it up and add extra flavor to the foods. Find my homemade pasta recipe HERE. Add whey to soups and stews. Perhaps it could take the place of some of your homemade stock or broth?

Add whey to homemade fruit smoothies, fruit slushies, or milkshakes. The sky is the limit when it comes to all the flavor combos you can make. Use whey as a hair product. Now, I personally have not yet tried this, so proceed with caution! But I have seen several sources recommend it as a shampoo substitute, hair rinse, or even as hair gel! Feed it to the dogs. Our dogs love it when I pour a little whey on their dry food and make it into a cereal. Make whey lemonade. Use whey to water your plants.

Think how much your container garden would love that! Feed extra whey to the farm critters. Our chickens love it and so did our pigs. Make ricotta. Ricotta cheese is traditionally made from whey. However, this will require the whey to be heated to degrees, so all the raw enzymes will be lost.

Here is my homemade ricotta recipe. I like to make ricotta when I have gallons of extra whey, and then I freeze it for making lasagna later.

Pour it in your compost bin. I have yet to do this, but it would be better than dumping it down the drain. Make a whey marinade. Add your favorite spices and seasonings garlic, salt, pepper, maybe some rosemary…Yum! The enzymes in the whey help to break down the meat and add flavor.

Use whey to stretch your mozzarella. Some recipes say to use the microwave no thanks! Use leftover sweet whey to make this incredibly awesome vintage Lemon Whey Pie recipe. Make Gjetost—a sweet cheese made from reduced whey. Make lacto-fermented soda. There are tons of lacto-fermented soda recipes floating around that use whey for part of the fermenting process. Check out this fermented rosehip soda recipe for inspiration.

Use it as a brine for your homemade cheese. Store your mozzarella or feta cheese in a whey brine to keep the cheese fresh longer. Whey is the by-product from dairy making adventures in your kitchen. If you make homemade yogurt, homemade mozzarella, and other dairy recipes, you will get a bowl of liquid, aka whey, left at the end. Whey can be placed in a covered container in your refrigerator, where it will keep for several months. It can also be frozen and used later see 4 on my uses for whey list for more details on freezing whey.

Tell me in the comments below! I make from-scratch heritage cooking quick, easy, and fun. Check out all of my favorite kitchen tools here. Interested in cheese making? A friend told me a few things I could do with the whey, and wow — it really is versatile. I use it in soups, smoothies, casseroles and breads.

I hear ya- I was disappointed the first time I made cheese, too. Until I figured out how cool whey can be! I use the whey as the water in a foccacia and the left overs from the pickling of say radishes and other fresh veg I have pickled for the feast, all get thrown in a pot to make either a soup or stock which I then freeze for later.

The whey I have is the cheat way to make mozerella with citric acid and rennet. Because I have both acid and rennet in mine, what can I do with it?

Any suggestions? Thanks very much. Can I just drink the whey, straight, without anything else mix in? I love the taste of it, so yummy! We have poured it in the compost, we have poured it in the garden. I have used it when I made sauerkraut. I would like to look into the hair thing.

Right now I have been washing my hair with baking soda and water with an apple cider vinegar and water rinse. I have been doing this for 2 years with great success. The first time I was really surprised at how my hair felt — then I realized it just felt like hair!

None of the stuff that shampoo and conditioner leave on your hair. Felt really good. And stays cleaner longer, too. Jennifer, what is the process for washing your hair with vinegar and soda?

Can you give some recipes and instructions? I just googled uses for whey and came upon this website. I GOT my whey from making ricotta!

How can yoiu make ricotta from whey? When I make my ricotta, I use the leftover, raw whey that I have from my traditional mozzarella recipe.

I heat it to degrees, then strain it through cheesecloth, which still leaves me with a whole lot of cooked whey. Depending on the type of cheese you are making and the method, it may or may not be possible to make ricotta from the leftover whey. Then I rinse it out. Then I rinse with 1 cup of vinegar and rinse it out. Pretty easy. My bottles are smaller than regular sport-top water bottles, and they last me about showers. I use luke warm water when I make the mixtures and then add a bit less than a teaspoon full of xanthum gum, give it a good shake and then only use it the next day.

The gum thickens it nicely to a consistency similar to that of shampoo and I find it easier to use. Be careful not to use too much gum, because it will make it feel very slimy. You can use it on dyed hair, both henna and chemical. I have been doing no-poo for 5 years now, and dye my hair with chemicals as well as henna not at the same time, i only do it about 1 a year. I just keep a container of baking soda in the shower, and use about a teaspoon or so mixed into the shampoo in my hand, then dump that mixture on my head and lather away, then rinse.

It makes my hair clean enough with just one lathering! Does your hair grow faster? I love the whey in my hair! I put a very little bit of coconut oil in the ends after towel drying. Will return when the weather heats up. I could not do the baking soda wash. My hair is quite fine and it felt like straw… It was horrible. Maybe i did something wrong?

It has a break in period for lots of ppl and for some it never works. I was one of those, but have still sort beat the system. If my hair gets dry or strawy esp in winter I use a tea rinse. That works for me better than the vinegar. Thanks…even the Dr. Bronners made my hair feel like straw… I must have weird hair!

It made my hair so dry it was awful. I am a soapmaker so I made my own shampoo bars and I do not need a rinse or conditioner. My hair is soft and I only wash it every 3 or 4 days now. I know people swear by baking soda and vinegar but I am not convinced it is good for your hair, Especially the vinegar.

I make shampoo bars as well. Wendy, how do you make your shampoo soap? Can you recommend a few sites to use for getting quality supplies and recipes?

Thank you Dena. I know this is an old post but I just read this so here goes.. I have been using vinegar on my hair since i was young. Before there was hair conditioner,vinegar was used. It softens the hair and leaves it very fresh soft and feeling and that fly-away effect.

It is also known to strip conditioner buildup from the hair. So,YES it is very good for the hair. I am 61 and I have beautiful long thick hair! Try the Dr. Bronners citrus hair rinse… I used to only use the soap, then my hair felt dry and weird, so found the citrus stuff. Very nice. It looks like lemon gone brown, which it basically is, but works like a charm. Tell me as im new to this.

How can i use this in my kraut and pickles? How long will this keep in frig. Wonderful as shampoo. No foam but hair looks great afterwards. Have used it all month and am delighted! So thank you so much for this. Whey has high B,O,D and C. D values so we can not throw in sea water legaly. Thank you. I used to work at a dairy plant and we had our own waste water treatment facility. There is a story that I heard back in the 80s about a town that produced dairy products and was dumping it in the city water drains.

They decided to sell it. Guess who bought it? A healthfood company! They were the first to begin selling protein powder with whey in it! LOL true story. I think this happened somewhere in the upper midwest like Ohio not exactly sure.. Great post! So much more to learn! So, going on 3 years since you posted this…Can you tell me how you make cream cheese from your leftover whey? My whey is very clear after straining the yogurt. They always have free curd samples to hand out.

If you make cheese, you can make cheese curds. We planted a pretty good sized garden this year. Might try it on the dog too! I mostly get my whey when I let my kefir sit too long on the counter. I make yogurt with only milk, milk powder and starter from greek style yogurt. I normally get whey off it once the jar is disturbed or when i strain it for yogurt cheese.

I compost all of my bio matter with worms but unlike most, I pre-compost to keep the temp under control in my bin. Maybe if I added it to the pre-compost instead of the direct worm bin it would neutralize enough to not hurt them. This is really an interesting concept for me.

I use lemon juice as my acid instead of vinegar. Great ideas. I recently bookmarked a mayonaise recipe that uses whey. The lemonade sounds good too. Yesterday I made cheese from kefir which had over-separated and just drank the whey straight. I expect to end up with a refreshing, slightly alcoholic, carbonated drink. Next up, herb cheese!

You can mix in a few spoonfuls to a potato salad or pasta salad you are bringing to a picnic to protect it from spoiling. Of course I use it to make mayonnaise, but you can also use it to make salad dressings, to make them not only probiotic, but ALSO to make them last longer and stay fresher while refrigerated.

I made blue cheese dressing and home made ranch dressing today! I put them on the Cobb Salad I made for dinner. I am interested in the whey for salad dressing. I make all my own now. Do you use the whey instead of the oil or the vinegar? Please share your Ranch recipe! DS1 only wants to use Ranch dressing as a condiment. He wants it on everything.

I have yet to find a natural creamy ranch recipe or store bought one for that matter. Please share how you use it to make mayo. Always looking for an easier way to replace our mayo. Hey Jeanne! You mentioned using the whey for homemade blue cheese dressing. Can I get your recipe on this? We cannot find a blue cheese that we like as they took our favorite off the market during covid.

What a wonderful, helpful post, Jill! I am hoping to give cheese making a try in the near future, so this will be great to have on hand for all the extra whey that results!

Blessings, Kelly. Oh, I have a feeling that you will love cheesemaking! I feed it to my chickens — and my guinea pig lives in the coop as well — so he eats it too. Will try out some of the other suggestions. Ooooh, watercolors! Now THAT would be interesting! Please do let me know how it goes if you try it! Whey makes everything better. And, of course, I love kefir cream cheese.

Yum yum yum. I like to herb it: add salt and whatever fresh and dried herbs you have to it, and i sprinkle in some turmeric as well: spread it on crackers, bread, put it in your omelet, anything. I hear everyone talk about it so much. Hopefully sometime later in the summer! Never tried beet kvass, but heard many good things about it!

Hi Jill! I make lacto-fermented red bell peppers Nourishing Traditions. He loves them! Love all the ideas for using whey….. It was my understanding that you could not use the heated whey by-product of cheese making for lactofermenting or soaking because it is dead.

Anyone care to clarify? I know in NT she only says to use raw whey. Yes Heather, I believe you are correct. However, if you make any sort of raw cheese, you could definitely use the leftover whey from that. You would have to used cooked whey for some of the other applications like watering plants, etc. I started making paneer cheese from a YouTube video.

But you have to heat just til it starts to boil. So, does this mean you make cheese with cold milk? Please help me out. Raw cheese is made from unpasteurized, fresh milk. Most store-bought milk is pasteurized, depending on which state you live in. There are a few states which allow raw milk to be legally sold, but they are fairly rare. We choose to milk our goats and cow since raw milk is illegal in our state. Hope that answers your questions! Could you share a recipe for raw cheese?

Hey Jill, what about raw milk shares? I live in Virginia and own part of a cow and am given a weekly portion of milk. I started with buttermilk from the store and then have been refreshing it with whole milk. It is not the buttermilk from making butter. Then I put a half cup in a gallon of milk and make cottage cheese. After cutting and setting the curds, I heat to to harden the curds, but sometimes accidentally get as high as F.

Here is a quick, easy recipe my friend gave me: 3 gallons of raw milk Slightly warm the milk to degrees. Mix in the Rennet 3 drops for 3 gallons ; I use a veggie source. Whisk in the rennet for 2 minutes. Heat til warm especially if Buttermilk and Yogurt we chilled Leave covered overnight. In the morning, use a knife to cut the cheese and strain it out to seperate the cheese and the whey.

We then freeze our whey into ice cubes and make ice cream in our vita-mix blender with it. Just by crushing the ice cubes with herb powder and stevia we get an awesome ice cream.

Do you think you could use kefir in place of the buttermilk? I use whey to soak my steal cut oats over night to soften and slightly ferment for more health benefits. We also use it in baking our guten free bread instead of water. Smoothies can get a boost too! I have just put mine to work in a bowl of kimchi-to-be, will see how it turns out. Blessings, Maria.

It just a stock photo. However, I have successfully used whey in several of my bread recipes- just sub for the water! Looks like you covered everything I can think of! Much of the whey resulting from commercial production of cheese and other dairy products such as yogurt ends up as animal feed or going down the drain. But creative chefs have been finding new uses for the nutrient-packed, flavorful liquid. Whey pronounced WAY is one of the two main proteins in milk.

It's the cloudy, yellowish liquid expelled from cheese curds during the cheese-making process and from straining fresh yogurt to thicken it. Whey can be either acidic, like that from yogurt and soft cheeses such as cottage or mozzarella, or sweet, which comes from harder cheeses produced with rennet, such as cheddar and Swiss. In Italian, ricotta means "recooked," a fitting name for a cheese traditionally made from the whey that remains after another cheese has already been made.

Italian ricotta cheese usually uses whey from sheep's milk, while American ricotta cheese typically uses whey from cow's milk. Although whey largely fell out of use in the country when large-scale farming and factory production made individual family farms obsolete, it's been experiencing a bit of a resurgence, first as a supplement among health-food advocates and now within the general population.

You can use commercially purchased powdered sweet whey as a protein booster in smoothies and other blended drinks, pancakes, homemade energy bars, and even added to soups and stews. Depending on the volume of liquid whey you have available, you can use acidic whey in place of water or milk in savory recipes, or as the liquid ingredient in breads and pastries.

You can add it to dressings and marinades, boil pasta or rice in it, and soak grains overnight so they cook more quickly. You can even add it to a cocktail or drink it straight over ice. Make whey lemonade. Add it to smoothies and shakes to provide more vitamins, minerals, and proteins.

Use as cooking liquid for potatoes, rice, grits, pasta, and grains. Drink it straight! Make whey cheeses. Make lacto-fermented drinks such as ginger ale and limeades. Put it in your compost pile. It adds nutrients and makes thick, black compost. Whey protein is considered a complete protein as it contains all 9 essential amino acids.

It is low in lactose content. There are many benefits associated with the consumption of whey protein, and researchers are constantly finding new possible therapeutic properties. Here, we explain what the benefits might be, and look at some of the side effects and potential risks. Whey protein, pictured here, is used for many things including muscle building and weight loss.

Anti-cancer properties : Promising results were published in the journal Anticancer Research for the use of whey protein concentrate in cancer treatment. More research is needed. Lowering cholesterol : A study, published in The British Journal of Nutrition , gave whey supplements to 70 overweight men and women for 12 weeks and measured a number of parameters, such as lipid and insulin levels. Asthma : Whey protein could improve the immune response in children with asthma.

One small study involving 11 children, published in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition , found that children with asthma who were supplemented with 10 gram whey protein twice daily for 1 month had an improved immune response.

Blood pressure and cardiovascular disease : Research published in the International Dairy Journal found that beverages that were supplemented with whey protein significantly reduced blood pressure in patients with hypertension; their risk of developing heart disease or stroke was also lower.

Reducing weight loss in people with HIV : A study published in the journal Clinical and Investigative Medicine found that whey protein may help reduce weight loss among HIV-positive patients.