Paneer/cottage cheese whey

[Alex Black]

hi all.

 just started making paneer and i've read a recipe where you can use the old whey from a previous batch to seperate the whey from the curds in a new batch. i used lemon juice for the first batch. i've since used that whey for a new lot and it's turned out a lot  more tender (kind of like philly). anyone know how many time the old whey can be used? not sure about bacteria etc.

 hope this makes sense

cheers

[Lisa Shock]

I had never heard that before, it sounds interesting. Generally, 5-7 days is the longest I'd keep it -refrigerated, of course. I suspect that the method is just using up excess acid from the first batch. It will probably get too weak somewhere after that second round. -Or else the recipe everyone uses for paneer has had us all wasting food (vinegar, lemon juice) for a long time!

[Martin Fisher]

Depends of the pH of the whey.

If you use live culture whey you should be able to keep it going indefinitely....theoretically anyway.