Have you ever eaten a popsicle and sucked all the sugar water out of the end, leaving only flavorless white ice behind? Well, I used a similar technique recently in making a batch of Mysost, a whey cheese that tastes a lot like caramel. Mysost is the name for Gjetost, which you are more likely to have heard of, that's been made from cow's milk whey instead of goat's milk whey.
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Whey, after sitting outside in subzero temps |
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The concentrated lactose solution drained off the above frozen whey |
When you think of Mysost, think of maple syrup production--a dilute sugar solution, maple sap, is boiled down to concentrate the sugars into a syrup. Whey has about 4% lactose in it. So when you boil it down, you concentrate the lactose sugar. I've often thought about making Mysost from the leftover whey since I have an abundant supply from my cheesemaking endeavors. A couple years ago I was able to trade whey for pork with a local hog farmer, but since then I've just had to dump it into the compost pile. I feel bad about it because whey has a lot of nutrients in it, but there's so much of it and it isn't nearly as tasty as milk to drink straight.