Mesost or Brunost: A Foray into Whey Cheese

UPDATE: Assay #2 with goat whey yeilded a hard block of crunchy caramel candy! This was despite the addition of cream. (And not sugar!) I think the key will be NOT bringing it up to the hard crack stage. Though how it gets that lovely dark brown color then, I don't know. Not yet at least. It is so like candy in the final stages, that I think the soft ball should do it. Well, at least I have 3 lovely little crottins for my efforts. Wrapped in grape leaves.

This thread of thinking was spurred on by the indominable Janet, aka The Old Foodie, who has posted some whey recipes. It then made its way to the ASFS listserve, via Cara, and then to Anne Mendelson, who gave me more details about what to do with whey. I just happened to have some whey sitting on the counter after making cheese this weekend. One quart has some carrots fermenting, but the other was destined for glory as cheese. Well, not exactly cheese. It's more like caramelized whey fudge. You've had gjetost, right? This is the same thing, but made with cow's milk rather than goat. It's disconcertainly sweet at first, but when you think of it as cheese not caramel, it's lovely, especially thinly sliced. The procedure could not be simpler, though it takes Herculean patience. Put a quart (or two, whatever you want) of whey in a pot. Mine had been fermenting a couple of days at rooms temperature. Put it on the lowest possible temperature and leave it there for about 5 or 6 hours. Late last night I really wanted to go to sleep, but stayed up with the mesost. By the end it was brown, and coming together exactly like caramel. This first shot was a little too salty, since I'd salted the curds from the first cheese originally to drain more whey, and all that salt went in. I think if you have whey without salt, add just a pinch, because at the end the quart gives you maybe 3/4 of a cup of cheese. Anne told me to add cream, but I didn't have any, and it came out very smooth and lovely. I'm just assuming this is the original way it was done. Lovely texture, gorgeous aroma, I think less salt and it will be magnificent.