How to make raw, enzyme and probiotic-rich liquid whey to use as a starter culture for all your home fermentation needs.
Do you know how to make whey from yogurt, kefir or raw milk?
A by-product of this simple technique is healthy homemade cream cheese that is loaded with enzymes and probiotics.
The recipe below describes how with visual instructions via video demonstration!
Making homemade baby formula? I recommend using this โquick wheyโ no straining method as the fastest and easiest approach.
How to Make Whey the REAL Way
Making real, liquid, nutrient rich, unadulterated whey in your own kitchen is a MUST step for any traditional cook to learn.
Without whey in its whole, liquid form, many other traditional recipes cannot even be attempted. ย You cannot buy whey from the store except in a denatured, unhealthy, powdered whey form. It is worth your time to learn what I show you in the video below.
Other video lessons on this blog show you how to use this whole food form of whey to make many delicious, healthful recipes for your family. ย Whey as made in the video demo below will keep up to 6 months in the refrigerator in a sealed mason jar.
If you absolutely have no access to farm fresh milk to make whole, unadulterated, enzyme rich whey, then you can use plain, organic yogurt brand from the store instead. Here are tips on how to spot the best yogurt brands.
The process is basically exactly the same thing as shown in the video.
You wonโt get nearly as much whey using yogurt as clabbered, farm fresh milk, but at least you can get enough to get you started.
Wonderful Whey and REAL Cream Cheese
The raw, enzyme-rich cream cheese I make in the recipe video below is fantastic on a sprouted or sourdough bagel for breakfast. Donโt buy the Ezekiel sprouted muffins as they contain soy. This low-carb bagel recipe is another great one to try.
If you prefer to buy, these sourdough bagels are available for shipping freshly made to your door.
To make, just take your cream cheese left over from making liquid whey and add a few strawberries and a dash of dark maple syrup to taste. Mix together by pulsing a few times in your food processor. This wonderful, fresh, REAL strawberry cream cheese will last one to two weeks in the refrigerator. ย Another wonderful use for this healthy raw cheese is to make an easyย no bake cheesecake.
No access to raw milk where you live? No problem. Check out this recipe plus video on how to separate whey from yogurtย purchased from the store.
Cloudy Whey vs Clear Whey
No matter whether your whey turns out cloudy or clear, it is safe and fine to use in all your favorite recipes. This article explains why sometimesย whey is cloudy compared to its usual golden color.
Raw Whey Recipe
How to separate raw, liquid whey from clabbered milk. The process also creates probiotic rich cream cheese.
Ingredients
- 1 quart raw milk preferably grassfed
- 1 large glass bowl
- 1 large rubber band
- 1 white dishtowel
Instructions
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Allow the raw milk to sit on the counter for 1-3 days at room temperature.ย
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When the milk separates into curds and whey (transforms into clabbered milk) you are ready to proceed. Note that the fresher the raw milk and the colder the temperature of your house, the longer it will take the raw milk to clabber.
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Line a clean, large glass bowl with a clean, white dishtowel that isnโt too thick. Cheesecloth will also work, but the holes in the mesh must be very small, else the milk curds will pass through.
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Gently pour the clabbered milk into the middle of the dish towel. Gather up the ends and fasten with a rubber band. Attach to a knob on an upper cabinet in your kitchen as shown in the picture.
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Let the raw whey drip into the bowl underneath. This process will continue for an hour or two.
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After the dripping stops, gently take down the hanging bag and place it into a clean bowl. Scrape out the raw cream cheese that is inside the bag, put in a container with a lid and refrigerate.
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Pour the liquid whey from the dripping bowl into a glass mason jar, afix the lid and refrigerate.ย
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Refrigerated, raw cream cheese will be good to eat for about a week. Raw whey will last several months refrigerated.
Recipe Video
How to Useย Whey in Recipes
How to Make Ricottaย Three Ways (plus Video How-to)
Perfect Probiotic Cottage Cheese
Cheese Making: ย Common Problems and Solutions
Would have been extremely helpful to know to skim the beautiful yellow “butter” off the top. 3 days of countertop clabbering set mine up into 3 layers. The top is texture of room temperature butter, then the firm translucent white “yogurt” layer could have been skimmed again to speed up process of separating the whey. Because I poured entire clabbered milk into flour cloth my butter is clogging up the draining process. And my “cheese” is going to be quite marbled as white and yellow unless I add step of putting it into a blender. Next time I think I will use stainless baster to remove much of my cream BEFORE clabbering my old milk. BTW-the aroma is much more pleasant (less sour) in my 3 day clabbered milk than the 2 week old refrigerated raw milk. Does that mean much of the carbohydrate content has been digested by enzymes? ๐
There is no butter that forms on the top of clabbering milk. It is just the cream cheese ๐
Thank you for this. After 3 days my raw milk has separated into a white and yellow layer of solids and a mostly clear whey. Are the 2 layers the milk and cream clabbering, or something else?
Time to separate it!
Sara. Can i slightly heat the milk until i see the credle and drain the whey?
Yes, you can do this but be sure to use a candy thermometer to make SURE the milk doesn’t heat over 117F else you will be losing probiotics and enzymes.
Can I do this with goat milk and can I freeze the whey?
Yes you can ๐
I’m making whey for my first time to lactoferment some fresh garden produce! I have left my fresh Jersey milk on the counter for 3 days now and I have 3 layers: the clabbered milk on top, a thin layer of clear whey in the middle and most of the jar still looks like milk. Should I let that middle layer continue to grow (There is a visible increase every half hour or so I pass through the kitchen now that I’m on day 3) until the milk looking bottom layer is gone or is it ready to strain now? Thank you so much for inspiring me on my journey to feeding my family traditional foods!
When the milk is clabbered and ready for separation, the milk solids will separate from the whey/water portion of the milk and be visibly solidified with a texture much like yogurt. It must achieve this yogurt like texture otherwise you won’t be able to strain out the whey.
Do you have a video or recipe that shows how to make cultured butter from the raw milk curds?
Here’s my article plus video on making raw butter. It isn’t cultured, but if you simply let the raw cream naturally sour a bit and then make the butter, it will be cultured. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/video-how-to-make-raw-butter/
Sarah, can you suggest more things to do with cream cheese? I’m limited in eating fruits right now, for the next few weeks.
No bake cheesecake is wonderful recipe to make with the cream cheese. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/no-bake-cheesecake-recipe-simple-raw/
Hi! Im using raw milk from a farm close by, but when I try to clabber my milk the cream separates and sours on top but what should be my “whey” is still completely opaque and looks like milk underneath. I use 56 oz jars and I don’t turn them sideways like you did in your video. Do you think that is why my milk solids aren’t completely separating? Or is there something else I’m missing? Thanks for the help
Your whey making looks so simple. After more than 3days, mine hasn’t clabbered. I used fresh cold pressed raw jersey milk. The cream separated mostly sticking to the side of the container and the liquid is still the same. Should I leave it for few more days?
Do you live in Australia? I think this is the only place that has “fresh pressed” raw milk currently. I don’t know much about this process yet … I suspect the low heat/high pressure processing kills the probiotics in the raw milk which would prevent clabbering.
I use raw cows milk from Holstein cows. Can I make whey/cram cheese with it?
Yes you can. Since holstein milk is lower in cream than jersey or guernsey milk, you will get a lot more whey from it.