Goat Milk Whey
With all of the yogurt and cheesemaking we do at Goat Milk Stuff, we have a LOT of extra whey. Whey is the liquid part of the milk that is left after the milk has been coagulated for cheese or yogurt. If you remember your nursery rhyme, Little Miss Muffet ate her curds and whey. There are actually two types of whey (I'm not sure which kind Miss Muffet ate).
Acid Whey
When you make cheese that uses lemon juice, vinegar, or citric acid to curdle the milk, the leftover whey is acid whey. This whey is very tangy tasting. Because of the high temperatures it usually reaches, acid whey does not usually have any live (beneficial) bacteria in it.
Sweet Whey
When you culture your milk or use rennet, the leftover whey is sweet whey. It has a milder flavor than acid whey and usually contains live beneficial bacteria.
Regardless of which type of whey you have, they are both full of vitamins, minerals, and proteins. It's hard to tell how much of those are in the whey, because it depends on the recipe and how hot the milk became. A good rule of thumb is that the whey has about half of the "good stuff" that the milk itself contained. Sweet whey (not acid whey) also contains some healthy bacteria that may help with digestion.
Now that we've determined what whey is, what do you do with it when you have gallons and gallons (and gallons) of it daily like we often do?
I hope that gives you some ideas for how to use whey! Unless you have a herd of goats like we do, you probably don't have gallons of whey to deal with. But if you ever make your own cheese or yogurt, you should be able to find something to do with the leftover whey!
Georgia – you can use any liquid in a soap recipe. The liquid you choose (water, milk, whey, coffee, colostrum, green tea, fruit or veggie juice) will add different properties depending on what it is made up of.
Adding an acid to cooking beans will toughen them, and extend the cooking period a long time. Some people add backing soda (sodium bicarbonate", which is alkaline, thus softening the bean’s skins, shortening cooking time. Since you use sweet fermented whey, that might not a factor, but with acidic whey – it will. I’m a trained chef, so I know cooking chemistry pretty well, and you will occasionally see that information in recipes for cooking beans.
I love your website, and plan to get some (pasteurized unfortunately) “Red Hill” goat milk at my local “Organic Grocers” (wonderful organic chain store), and try making some goat milk yogurt. Like you, I prefer Greek style, and now I know what to do with the whey. Since I have some cheesecloth, I’ll use that for the first batch, and now understand I need to be patient, and give it time to thicken and sour. I’ll simply put the cheese cloth over a strainer, and give it a squeeze occasionally – that should work. I’m sitting here eating my late breakfast of yogurt-fruit-nuts-maple syrup-cinnamon-etc. (it varies), and wishing I had some Red Hill goat milk yogurt, instead of the cows milk yogurt instead. Even though I digest goat milk yogurt better, I get the triple strained chobani whole milk greek yogurt for freezing, because it makes great frozen yogurt, being so thick. Hopefully I’ll be making my frozen yogurt creation with homemade goat milk yogurt tomorrow, after we go shopping in the morning. It will be another hot day, perfect for that treat
– we’ll make a meal of it…….!
What about using whey in soap making. Could whey replace the milk in a soap recipe?
Comments will be approved before showing up.
PJ Jonas
September 19, 2019
Thanks for the info, Farmer David. I add the acid, because it makes the beans more digestible. It doesn’t matter to me if they’re a little bit tougher or if it takes longer to cook. :) I hope your goat milk yogurt experiments went well!!