Awesome Uses For Whey – It is way too valuable to dump!

Uses for whey. Find value in every single drop. Whey deserves highest ratings and a prominent place in anyone’s natural food kitchen.

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Hello there! If you found this page, you’re probably faced with the ‘dilemma’ of leftover whey and what all to do with it. Whey results from straining yogurt, making cheese, or other coagulated and strained milk products such as bonny clabber.

It’s a blessing of a dilemma to have, indeed. And I’ve put together a list of many uses for this precious liquid that remains after you strain out the solids.

It is often assumed that the benefits are in the solids and that the watery whey is just a nutritionally empty by-product that can be discarded.

But to the contrary, whey is full of nutrients and health benefits and it would be a shame to flush it down the drain. Besides, doing so is actually bad for the environment. So let’s not do that and take advantage of all the goodness that whey has to offer.

Jump ahead to Uses For Whey

Uses for Whey deserves its own page!

Over the past months while writing about cheese, I’ve been tucking little notes about uses for the whey here and there into my various cheese posts.

But I’ve come to realize, that it would be much better, to just devote a page to it, that I can easily update as I think of or find new ways to use whey. And it will keep my other posts more to the point. Now I will just link to this page with regards to whey. 

Save the Whey!

Whey is a big part of cheese making, it’s the biggest, actually, volume-wise. And draining even smaller batches of cheese, yields plenty of it.

So it’s a good idea to have in mind some ways to use it. Definitely do not dump it! It deserves to be treated as the other part of the milk in its own right, not as the discard.

Always save your whey! It’s ‘whey’ too precious to dump!! (I know, this pun is ‘cheesy’! 🤣)

Properties and Health Benefits of Whey

Whey is praised by many health practitioners, and I’ve collected a few points here of what experts consider are the benefits of whey.

If you’re taking dietary supplements, you might find that some could be replaced simply by adding whey and other lacto-fermented foods to your diet:

• Muscle Building: Regular use of whey builds lean muscle, and after exercising it helps with muscle pain and recovery.
• Weight Loss: Whey increases metabolism, burns fat, and curbs hunger feelings. 
• Heart Health: Whey is said to reduce blood pressure, cholesterol levels and lowers the risk of heart disease and stroke.
• Immune Support: Probiotics in the whey can help strengthen your immune system, reduce disease, and keep you healthier.
• Gut-Health: Lactobacilli, which are plentyful in whey, are valuable to balance bacteria in the gut, restore the gut flora after illness and taking antibiotics, and helps with digestion.
• Anti inflammatory: Whey can reduce inflammation in all parts of the body. 
• Antioxidant: Whey is rich in glutathione, an antioxidant, which can reduce oxidative stress. 
• Whey protein is rich in essential amino acids.
• Whey is great for skin and hair care

Serum Lab article (I fixed some typos): Whey is a very powerful antioxidant with exceptional moisturizing characteristics. A beauty elixir used since ancient times. 

(whey is) rich in branched chain amino acids, B group vitamins, calcium, potassium, phosphorus and iodine. In addition to that it contains immunoglobulins, that boosts the immune system, and bioactive proteins like lactoferrin, also found in breast milk.

Its unique composition makes it a potent antioxidant that also has anti-inflammatory and hydrating properties. Its acidity balances the skin’s natural PH and promotes the regeneration of the protective acid mantle. This vitamins’, minerals’ and proteins’ mix makes whey a one-of-a-kind cosmetic.

According to Dr. Axe: Whey is so effective because it provides a more absorbable source of high protein than nearly any other type of food or supplement, and it’s easy to digest. Whey protein is one of the highest-quality proteins because of its amino acid content and rapid digestibility. 

Hey, not bad for a “discard” liquid, aye?

So let’s get to the point!

Some important aspects to keep in mind about using whey:

If you have whey from draining a cultured cheese or yogurt, any of these suggestions will work. However, if you used an acidifier, such as lemon juice, vinegar or citric acid to curdle your milk for making cheese, then some of these will not work. I did point out below which whey to use for what.

In general, use uncooked cultured whey any time when you’re looking to get the benefits of the probiotics that are produced during culturing.

The benefits of culturing will be destroyed by cooking, but you’ll still have the benefits of the nutrients in whey. Likewise, acidified whey will not provide these probiotic benefits, but it is still very nutritious too.  

When draining your whey, you’ll want to save the whey before salting your cheese, unless the cheese needs to be salted before draining. Save salted whey separately and use where appropriate. 

Salted whey can be used for many applications, which will require salting later, but should not be used on plants, for animals, as a gut tonic, for making whey cheese.

Salted whey should also not be used for soaking your grains and beans to reduce phytates (salt will discourage the phytic acid from being released).

In General, use your common sense judgment to help decide when to use salted whey. 

Uses for Whey

01 Uses for any whey

• You can just drink it. Or use it with smoothie powders or fruits in place of plain water.

• Whey is great to use in bread recipes in place of water. It will give the bread a good rise and a nice, soft crumb.

• Use it in recipes that call for buttermilk.

• Cook your rice in it.

• Use it in soup stock.

• Use it to marinate your meat in it. You can use the salted whey for this as well. 

• Soak your beans and grains in it for 24 hours before cooking, to reduce phytic acid and make them more digestible. Do not use salted whey here!

02 Uses for cultured whey (see notes in the paragraph above):

• You can use cultured whey as a starter culture for lacto-fermented vegetables or fermented eggs. In fact, you can use your salted, cultured whey for this too and omit the salt in the recipe.

• Start your next batch of clabber or chevre with a tablespoonful per quart and speed up the process. 

• You can even use it as a starter culture to turn store bought pasteurized milk into buttermilk or cheese. 

• Use whey to clabber whipping cream. Then churn it into delicious cultured butter (I use my blender). In Germany most of the butter when I was growing up was from cultured cream. It has more flavor and tastes so much better in my opinion, especially on Pretzels :). Furthermore, the liquid you get after making butter from cultured cream is true buttermilk and tastes delicious! 

• Use as a starter culture for any mesophilic cheeses, even hard cheeses. But you will also need to add some rennet for hard cheeses. 

• It will help to repopulate the gut flora with beneficial bacteria and probiotics after a course of antibiotics. In fact, you can freeze some to keep on hand for such occasions.

• Make fizzy lemonade: per pint: 1/8 cup of whey, 1/8 cup lemon juice, 1/8 cup of sugar or to taste, water to fill the bottle. Then cap tightly, shake to mix, and let stand 3 full days at room temperature. Burp the bottle once a day. Then refrigerate and enjoy.

• Make whey caramel. I have not tried that, but it sounds delicious and it is on my list to try someday. But for now, this post shows how to make it. Be sure to use unsalted whey for this!

• Make whey cheese! Gjetost (goat milk based) or Mysost (when using cow’s whey) are whey cheeses that are very popular in Scandinavia! I have never made it myself, but plan to eventually. It was served for breakfast on a smorgasbord every morning while I stayed in Norway many, many years ago. It’s more of a fudge, really, than a cheese, but you should check into it if you have a bucket full of whey to use up. I found this recipe posted on-line, but you can also find it in the “The art of natural cheesemaking” by David Asher. 

• Use cultured whey as a daily tonic for several weeks after a treatment with chemo, to help restore your gut flora.

• It helps homemade mayonnaise keep longer if you add some whey.

03 If you have animals, whey is great for them too. 

• Dogs and cats benefit as much as we humans do from the gut-healthy bacteria. Use unsalted cultured whey in this case!

• Pigs adore whey. They’ll love you forever for donating it to them! Besides, did you know, commercial pig operations commonly feed whey to the pigs. Pigs will be happy with any whey, but hold off on the salted kind if it’s very concentrated!

• Chickens love whey, they know what’s good for them. Use only unsalted cultured whey for chickens!

• Some people feed whey back to their dairy animals. Apparently it increases milk production according to some studies (ScienceDirect). Hmm… I might try that and if I do, I’ll report back the results. Use only unsalted cultured whey for that!

• Cultured whey is great to have on hand when you have a sick critter or human in the house. It will help with diarrhea or constipation and other stomach issues. Just feed a little with some electrolytes for a pick-me-up and to support the gut flora. Only use unsalted cultured whey for this!

04 Plants love whey

Whey, diluted with water at least 1:10, will also make a great fertilizer used occasionally, especially for acid-loving plants such as blueberries, lingonberries and huckleberries.

Tomatoes, especially, love it too. Use any whey except salted. Although, a small amount of natural sea salt with all its minerals, is actually good for plants, but keep in mind here that a little goes a long “whey”!

05 Uses for Whey in Skin and hair care

• Whey can be soothing and support the healing process with eczema, skin inflammation, acne or psoriasis, cracked skin, and skin abrasions. Use unsalted cultured whey.

• According to legend, Cleopatra bathed in it. And as we know now, regular baths and washes with the addition of whey are considered a natural remedy for skin problems and to keep it healthy and youthful. 

• Whey is great for dry facial skin. Just apply it as a toner without washing it off. Use unsalted cultured whey.

• Use as a first aid against mild sunburn. Use unsalted whey.

• Use whey as an anti-aging skin toner. Use unsalted cultured whey.

• Whey can be nourishing and balancing for sensitive skin prone to allergies. Use unsalted cultured whey.

• Use it as a conditioner in your hair after washing. Then rinse out. Use unsalted whey.

How to store the whey

Keep some whey in stock for later uses, such as for times of sickness, when you’ll be glad to have it on hand. And you might want to keep some to use as starter for new batches of cheese or yogurt.

Freeze whey

You can freeze the whey. If you plan to use it as starter culture, freeze it in an ice cube tray, then save the cubes in a plastic bag or freezer-safe container.

• Use one 1 ounce whey ice cube in a half-gallon batch of milk that you want to clabber or make cheese with. The bacteria will then inoculate it and get the milk to clabber faster.

• Turn even pasteurized milk into buttermilk, or pasteurized cream into sour cream with your cultured whey.

• Use it to make any mesophilic cheese or if it’s from drained yogurt, you can make more yogurt with it. But for hard cheeses you will need to add rennet.

Keeping it refrigerated

Cultured whey also keeps in the refrigerator for months. However, whey from acidified milk will keep only about a week to 10 days.

If you find whey valuable for daily use, make clabber regularly

If you don’t make cheese regularly, but you want a constant supply of whey for health benefits, you can just mix a spoonful of the last batch of whey with a quart of milk and culture more whenever needed.

Now you have the whey for your preferred use and you’ll have the resulting curds for a sweet treat or a healthy snack, or to use like sour cream or yogurt. You can also use it in cake or bread baking.

So if that’s not enough to convince you to save the whey, I give up. But I think you get the idea that you’re dealing with a powerfully healthy elixir here, which is worth doing something with.

You might even find yourself wishing for more whey with all the great uses for this wonderful dairy product.

For the fun of it, let us all know in the comments below if you have other ideas for using whey. And do sign up for my food for life garden newsletter so you don’t miss out on more great ideas for natural cheesemaking and other traditional ways of preparing and preserving foods. 

My favorite literary resources that cover uses for whey:

One book that covers a lot of uses for whey, is Nourishing Traditions, and I recommend that as a “must have” for a natural-foods-based kitchen. It is a deep excursion into natural foods and why traditional food preparations are better to follow than fads.

 “The Art Of Natural Cheesemaking” by David Asher. If you don’t own this book, and are into cheesemaking, I highly recommend it. It aligns wonderfully with a natural cheesemaking philosophy.

Other recipes you might like:

Make your own chevre cheese from scratch – How to make super versatile creamy, spreadable cheese that can be used as a dip, or spread, for baking, for savory or sweet shakes, fresh or aged. Replace store bought cream cheese with this healthy version!

Bonny clabber – What is clabber milk and its uses Learn to make bonnyclabber, the original cheese. This is nature’s way of preserving milk. I love turning it into a tasty kind of cream cheese that makes a really good frosting for einkorn zucchini bread and other sweet breads.

Natural cheese making process – Make your own mesophilic and thermophilic cheese starter and use it to make cheese the natural way. You can also make yogurt from scratch with your own homemade starter too.

Queso Fresco cheese recipe – The quickest, easiest cheese you’ll ever make and so versatile!

Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar – This lovely vinegar is made from apple scraps, not the actual apple cider. But it is just as effective, easier to make and uses all those leftover apple scraps or ugly apples.

Fermented Ginger Honey – Keep this potent fermented health food on hand. Use the powers of Ginger and Honey in a tasty syrup form that you’ll love.

Make A Lemon Balm Salve – Benefits of lemon balm and how to make a salve for cold sores, bug repellant, bug bite relief and more.

How to make your own sourdough starter – This forms the basis for any sourdough bread. Once you get a starter going, you can keep it going for a hundred years or more. Just feed it occasionally and use it to bake whenever you like. In fact, it transforms a hard to digest bread into bread that your gut will be happy about.

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Flour sack towels for draining cheese and yogurt
Organic flour sack towels
Cheese cloth This is quality buttermuslin for draining cheese
Rennet
Lemon juice
Vinegar
Citric acid
Redmond’s Real Salt mineral-rich salt for cheese making
Himalayan Pink Salt
Celtic Sea Salt
The Art Of Natural Cheesemaking by David Asher
Nourishing Traditions