I’ve talked a lot about fermented foods and drinks lately, from my favorite water kefir, to homemade sauerkraut. Lately, I’ve been enjoying trying things like fermented condiments, salsas, and more.

Most of these recipes use whey to speed the lacto-fermentation process and for a long time, I avoided these recipes because I simply didn’t have and didn’t know how to make whey.

A friend and lacto-fermenting veteran shared an easy way to make whey, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t started doing this sooner! The best part is, you can make whey at home in any kitchen with ingredients available at any grocery store.

how to make homemade whey and cream cheese from yogurt at home

Whey and Cream Cheese Recipe

How to make whey for fermenting vegetables and other foods and get probiotic cream cheese!

Prep Time 5

Total Time 1 5

Calories 4kcal

Author Katie Wells

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Servings

Ingredients

32 oz full fat organic plain yogurt
cheesecloth or thin dish towel

Instructions

Pour the desired amount of yogurt into a cheesecloth or thin towel.
Pull the ends of the towel up and secure with string or a rubber band.
Tie the towel with yogurt in it to a cabinet handle and position a medium size bowl underneath.
Leave it alone overnight to drip. The dripping liquid is whey.
In the morning, if the dripping has stopped, pour the whey in the bowl into a glass jar and store in the refrigerator for up to six months.
The yogurt left in the towel is actually cream cheese now. Put it in its own container and use as you would store-bought cream cheese.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Whey and Cream Cheese Recipe

Amount Per Serving (1 TBSP)

Calories 4

% Daily Value*

Sodium 7mg0%

Carbohydrates 0.8g0%

Sugar 0.8g1%

Protein 0.1g0%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Notes

Make sure the towel is thin, as it will absorb too much of the whey if it is a very absorbent towel.
Use the whey for homemade salsas, sauerkraut, fermented veggies or pickles and more.

Like this recipe? Check out my new cookbook, or get all my recipes (over 500!) in a personalized weekly meal planner here!

Have you made whey before? If so, what is your favorite recipe using it? Share below!

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

158 responses to “How to Make Whey & Cream Cheese”

Rhonda

March 12, 2015

Does anyone know if this whey is casin free? Lactos free? I would love to be able to make fermented products but I can’t have casin.

Reply
1. Samantha
  
  April 4, 2015
  
  You don’t have to use whey to ferment. For veggies all you need is salt and water. The probiotic jar had a great chart you can print out. For beverages and fruits you can use ginger bug, brine from a finished veggie ferment, a starter culture like Caldwells, first ferment water kefir and spate query kefir grains. All began options and free of any dairy
  
  Reply
Heidi Sifein

February 1, 2015

Hi. How many cups does this recipe make please?

Reply
1. Billie
  
  February 10, 2015
  
  That will vary with the consistency of the yogurt, as well as how long you let it drain. Wish I could be more definitive than that.
  Maybe someone will see this, and give you a closer estimate, but will be what it will be, an estimate!
  
  Reply
Harry

January 30, 2015

When using whey as a starter can i still use plain live yogurt if it has thickeners added? I cant have cows milk so i use goat yogurt which is generally thickened with guar gum so i wasnt sure if it was ok to use for whey.

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1. Jennifer
  
  February 1, 2015
  
  I’m not really sure; I can’t see it making that much difference though; I would give it a try, just make a small amount first time. Give some feed back with the results. Bread with the whey starter really does taste awesome, it is worth a try!
  
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Jennifer

January 23, 2015

I’ve been making the ‘Greek Yoghurt’ for quite a few years. I use the whey when:
• Making homemade aioli, (extends fridge life);
• Making pancakes (150 milk + 100 ml whey, they are unbelievable!);
• Marinating meat, mix with garlic, herbs etc;
• Soaking grains & beans prior to cooking;
• Using in any recipe which calls for sour milk or buttermilk;
• Replacing/adding to liquid when making pizza dough;
• When making bread, (e.g sourdough starter; bigga starter; ciabatta bread etc);
• Add to homemade cream cheese frosting, extends the fridge life considerably;

The uses just carry on.

Reply
Katherine

January 17, 2015

What if I use lactose free yogurt or kefir? Will that change anything?usually the lactose is broken down to glucose and galactose so there are still sugars in there.

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1. Kshama
  
  May 16, 2016
  
  I drink my Kefir for the millions of microbes present in it and also because it is easier to digest compared to milk….also Useful for people who have problem with digesting lactose.
  
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Rachel

January 10, 2015

Hi Katie
I’m straining my first batch of yogurt ever and my whey is super milky at the bottom and can see semi clear liquid on top. Can I still use this in my Kvass? Plz HELP 🙁

Reply
1. Katie – Wellness Mama
  
  January 10, 2015
  
  Yes, it should still work.
  
  Reply
  1. Rachel
    
    January 10, 2015
    
    Thank you so much.. It was a difficult Day 2day, Autoimmune stuff.. Trying to get this down to a T for reversal of this situation 🙂
    
    Reply
Kelly

January 10, 2015

I just made this and the “cream cheese”/”yogurt cheese” is delicious! Although, I started thinking, if all the good stuff is in the whey… what nutrients am I getting from the leftover “cream cheese”?
Thanks!

Reply
1. Katie – Wellness Mama
  
  January 10, 2015
  
  It will still have probiotics as well.
  
  Reply
Tiffany

January 6, 2015

Do you know how much Whey this recipe yields? I only need 1 cup, so how much yogurt would I use?

Reply
1. Wellness Mama
  
  January 7, 2015
  
  Honestly, it’s a bit hard to tell. It depends on how wet the yogurt is.
  
  Reply
Maria

December 28, 2014

Dear Katie,
I had to improvise with kefir, since I didn’t have yougurt and had already cut the cabbage for sauerkraut.
The kefir cheese is great too!
Thanks for your amazing contribution to mankind!

Reply
Kellie

October 28, 2014

My whey is yellow. I let it drip for over 24 hours. In the bowl it looked like it had separated somewhat. i just wisked it together and poured it through a strainer. Will it separate again? Did I do something wrong? It was definitely not clear. I used Stoneyfield Farm whole milk organic yogurt. The cream cheese tastes good though. I think I got that part right;-)

Reply
Alaena

October 10, 2014

Trying my hand at fermentation recently. Loving it. Was reading up on lacto fermenting and it occurred to me that it’s essentially sippy cup cheese, or at least the water part of it. Allllll these years I knew there was something you could do with that stuff. (not that I’d use that for actual fermenting but….) DOH!!

Reply
Dani

October 3, 2014

I love this and made so much yummy fermented salsa with it. Unfortunately we ran out of good ideas for the cream cheese? I’m loathed to try it again until I know I can put the cream cheese to use. Any ideas?

Reply
1. Wellness Mama
  
  October 3, 2014
  
  SO many things! Here are a couple: https://wellnessmama.com/2118/rice-free-sushi/, https://wellnessmama.com/3237/crockpot-spinach-artichoke-chicken/, https://wellnessmama.com/2085/irish-bangers-mash/
  
  Reply
April

September 2, 2014

Can you use goat milk yogurt to make whey? And do you know if it would work the same in recipes??Thanks for your time!

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Sara

August 28, 2014

Can whey been made like this from raw goat’s yogurt? Would there be any issue either with the ‘raw’ part or with the fact that it’s goat’s instead of cow’s?

I have seen a few others comments above asking this question about using goat’s milk/yogurt, but haven’t seen any replies either way.

Thanks!

Reply
1. Wellness Mama
  
  August 31, 2014
  
  I have never tried that, but it could work. Please let us know if you do try it.
  
  Reply
2. Rachel
  
  April 8, 2015
  
  Yes, you can use goat yogurt to make whey. Goat yogurt is a thinner consistency than cow yogurt. It’s more of a drink. I used a cloth to strain my yogurt and it worked just fine. I don’t think that my yogurt is raw by the time I get done with it because I heat it up, then let it cool. I’ve never tried to make it raw, just because the success of the yogurt is more iffy. If you have successfully made raw goat yogurt then I would imagine that you would still be able to strain the whey out. Once you’ve strained out the whey, the yogurt that is left seemed more like sour cream to me than cream cheese.
  
  Reply
Tim

August 27, 2014

Not sure why many people say the left over part is cream cheese. It doesn’t even taste like cream cheese and cream cheese has cream in it.

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Tim

August 27, 2014

That’s because it is not cream cheese. Cream cheese has cream in it! This is strained yoghurt, despite what many comments say.

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1. Erik
  
  November 6, 2014
  
  If you only leave it overnight like the article says it’s Greek yogurt. If you strain it 24 hours it is actually called “yogurt cheese” but it has the same consistency as cream cheese at that point.
  
  Reply
Kelly

July 28, 2014

Hi there!

Im making my first batch of whey using raw milk. Have you ever tried this before? I let it clabber for 24 hours and now have it straining. The whey doesn’t look clear at all. So Im thinking I need to let it sit longer? Could I bottle the “whey” I got and let it clabber longer and then try again? Thanks so much!

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1. Carleigh
  
  August 22, 2014
  
  I was wondering the same thing! We have found raw milk (FINALLY! :)) and I’m wanting to make whey from the milk.
  
  Reply
  1. Brad
    
    September 24, 2014
    
    I was wondering the same thing ….. I’ve got raw goat’s milk that I can 1) drink plain & 2) make into yogurt… drain part of it to make whey & cream cheese or 3) just make the whey & cream cheese from the raw milk itself. I suppose I like the idea of making it out of the yogurt, since it’s already been cultured, added probiotics, etc. but it sure would be nice to make the whey straight from the milk.
    
    Reply
Veronica

July 25, 2014

The cheese you get from this is really tart and doesn’t taste like cream cheese at all. I think it taste more like goat cheese. So I couldn’t figure out how to use it and decided to top a burger with it and it tasted pretty good.

Reply
Blanca

July 24, 2014

I usually have kefir at home and I was wondering if I could make whey out of it.

Reply
1. Wellness Mama
  
  July 24, 2014
  
  Sure! Let us know how it works…
  
  Reply
2. crazywoman/Billie
  
  August 24, 2014
  
  Yes, I think you can. Tho I’ve never bought commercial milk kefir, I’m thinking you will get a lot of whey vs cream cheese.
  I make my own milk kefir, and I use 1/2&1/2, and get a thin yogurt consistency. Every so often I drain it to make “cream cheese”, and also get whey.
  
  Reply
Lori

July 16, 2014

Will this multiple itself like the scobies do or will I need to repeat this when I run out?

Reply
1. Lori
  
  August 23, 2014
  
  You have to repeat. Although I’ve been making my own yogurt and milk kefir and since I like mine on the thick side i have lots of whey almost a gallon, since right now I’m having dentures made and am not sure on how well I will be able to eat the harder vegetables and if you heat them first, you kill the beneficial bacterias in the vegetables that allow them to ferment.
  
  Reply