what to do with all that whey? (from ricotta)

[grlnhrdg]

I just made the homemade ricotta from the April issue (just got it in the mail last week!!) and it was incredibly easy and fun! Now, I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to waste things if I don't have to, so does anyone have any suggestions about what to do with the TONS of whey I now have in my pot? I saw one suggestion about using it in baking bread... Any other ideas?

Thanks!

Susan

[sneezles]

Susan,
I saved mine (poured it back into the gallon milk container) and have been wondering the same thing! I did see where someone mentioned using it in bread and I'm making some flaxseed muffins today and will replace the water with the whey. I'll let you know how it turns out!

[Kathy B]

Yes, please do report back. I haven't made the ricotta, but when I drain my yogurt to make labne, there is a lot of whey left. I have been tossing it, but I did wonder if there was some way to put it to use.

[funniegrrl]

That whey is chock-full of protein. In addition to adding it to breads, etc., you could add it to smoothies for a protein boost.

[Kathy B]

How long do you think it would keep in the frig? I know yogurt keeps quite a while, but do you think the whey would have a shorter lifespan? I wouldn't necessarily be making breads the same day I drain the yogurt, but probably would within a week or so. Too long?

[sneezles]

Kathy,
I think a week would be fine. After reading other recipes for ricotta, they say it keeps for a week which is a bit longer than the CL recipeso I think a week for the whey would work.
The muffins are out of the oven and they taste great! The recipe actually called for 1 cup of skim milk so I used 1 cup of the whey.

I have some bread in the oven but I'm not too sure about it. I found it online searching for recipes...will report back on that.

Wish there was some way to find out the nutritional data on the whey so I could enter it into MasterCook.

[funniegrrl]

Well ... Fitday.com has this data:

Whey, acid, fluid - 1 cup
Calories 58.67
Total Fat 0.221g
Sat Fat 0.14g
Chol 1.23mg
Sodium 118.33mg
Potassium 352.03mg
Total Carbohydrate 12.6g
Dietary Fiber 0g
Protein 1.87g
Vitamin A 0 %
Vitamin C 0 %
Calcium 25 %
Iron 1 %

Whey, sweet, fluid - 1 cup
Calories 65.65
Total Fat 0.886g
Saturated Fat 0.566g
Cholesterol 4.92mg
Sodium 131.61mg
Potassium 396.06mg
Total Carbohydrate 12.64g
Dietary Fiber 0g
Protein 2.09g
Vitamin A 1 %
Vitamin C 0 %
Calcium 12 %
Iron 1 %


Don't ask me the difference between acid and sweet ... but there ya go. I guess it doesn't have as much protein as I thought -- whey powder must be VERY concentrated ...

[sneezles]

funniegrrl,
Thank you so much for finding and posting that information!!!

The bread is a semi-disaster but I had a feeling it wasn't going to work but tried anyway! :p I made 2 loaves and used 3 cups of the whey. It tastes great but the one in the clay loaf pan didn't come out in one piece (and it actually rose over the sides of the pan and dripped onto the pizza stone). Tastes good though. The other loaf came out of the pan but doesn't have that nice rounded top.

I think I'll make some Moomie's Buns using the whey instead of water...

[momqat]

Do you think the whey could be frozen to keep it longer?

[funniegrrl]

You can freeze milk, so I don't know why you couldn't freeze whey. I've never done it, though.