How to make homemade cream cheese (and separate whey)

This is definitely something I never thought of doing, but it actually intrigued me, so I gave it a try.

It all started because I wanted to try and lacto-ferment some cabbage, but you need whey to do that. In order to get whey, you can separate it from yogurt, which I always have at home. So, let the separation process begin!

Cut some cheese cloth (8 inch square) and put 1/2 cup or so of yogurt in it. It doesn’t matter if it is fat free, low-fat, or whole milk yogurt. I used cow milk yogurt and have not yet tried this with goat milk yogurt.

Anyway, put a fine metal sieve over a container, line it with the cheese cloth, and let the yogurt start to drain. The whey will be the liquid that drips into the container. After a bit has dripped out, tie the cheese cloth to a stick (here I used a wooden spoon) and let it sit for a few more hours until it stops dripping. Do not squeeze the ball, just be nice to it and let it drip.

I let mine sit in the fridge over night and in the morning had some homemade cheese that rivals cream cheese. I had a lot of whey left over to use in lacto-fermenting foods.

Why should we lacto-ferment foods? I am going to answer that question later in another post.