Curds and Whey FAIL

Usually, when my cooking hits a snag, it's at least recoverable in a way that is edible, even if it is not pretty. But not today.

I swung by the raw milk dairy again and picked up a couple of gallons. The cheese making went smoothly, even if I did forget to add salt. That's OK, the final product just won't have salt. It's still cheese. But I had hoped to take the leftover whey and make ricotta. It is, after all, a whey cheese, and it's supposed to be easy.

The amount of whey left over from a gallon of milk was probably 3 quarts. According to the recipe in Home Cheese Making, I was to just heat the whey until foam formed, let it set for 5 minutes, skim off the foam and then strain in butter muslin. I even invested in butter muslin in order to have a better chance of making this work. I followed the directions. I poured. No ricotta.

I heated up the whey again, got more foam, went through the whole process again. The amount of ricotta on the muslin was barely a quarter of a teaspoon, not the promised quarter of a pound. I'm not even really sure what I did wrong. All I know is that I now have just over 2 quarts of whey left and no clear plan for what to do with it. I have heard that some people drink it, and others use it in soups to add nutrition. I'm storing it in the fridge until I figure it out. Suggestions welcome.