How to Make the Most Cheese (and other tasty treats) From Limited Milk

As I sit at the computer trying not to think about the 6 gallons of milk in the refrigerator that need to be processed in some way, I keep wondering what I should do with them. The possibilities are nearly limitless. Are you just getting started with cheesemaking and wondering how to use the milk most efficiently? Here are some ideas.

1. Turn the heaviest cream into butter, leave the lighter cream on the milk, make parmesan with the reduced fat milk, and make ricotta with the whey left from making parmesan. Make buttermilk cheese (p 76 in Rikki's book) with the buttermilk left over from making butter. 
2. Skim off all the cream for ice cream and make fromage blanc from the skim milk. Soak beans in the whey from the fromage blanc or drink that whey. 
3. Make cheddar from whole milk and use the whey for ricotta. 
4. Skim off all the cream for cream cheese and use the skim milk for drinking.
5. Skim off all the cream for mascarpone and use the skim milk for cottage cheese.

Notes:

Whey from hard cheeses, but not soft cheeses, can be used to make ricotta.

Several recipes exist for buttermilk cheese, and there are many that pop up on google. I have seen only one (p 76 in Rikki's book) that work for real buttermilk (i.e. the liquid you get when you make butter, rather than the stuff in the store that is marketed as buttermilk).

Comments

[Sarah]

This is a great post! I was just wondering what I would do with the whey from my cheese. I've already got quite a store. I usually only put a little bit in my beans when I soak them, but why not more? And why not make buttermilk cheese! Can you make this in a printable wallet card so I can remind myself of the economics of cheese conveniently, at a glance, when I start to get overwhelmed? I think for me it would be much more useful than one of those daily inspiration cards people carry around! (But if I had one of those, it would say, "Be strong! Make Cheese!" or "Do at least half of what Sarah G. does in a day and you'll be more productive than you already are!")

[Sunny Knoll EcoFarm]

I soak my beans in 100% whey and they are really good! I can taste the difference! You can even make cheddar (or another hard cheese), make ricotta from the whey, and then use the whey from the ricotta to soak the beans. Once you start making cheese, you will have more whey than you know what to do with.

[Sunny Knoll EcoFarm]

The buttermilk cheese is phenomenal as a topping on ricotta pancakes. Toss on a few fresh blueberries and you have breakfast!