Milch Cows and Dairy Farming / Comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and Other Stock, the Selection of Milch Cows, with a Full Explanation of Guenon's Method; The Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and Cheese: Embodying the Most Recent Improvements, and Adapted to Farming in the United States and British Provinces. With a Treatise upon the Dairy Husbandry of Holland; To Which Is Added Horsfall's System of Dairy Management

by Charles Louis Flint

The Use of the Whey of Sweet Milk Cheese.

—On what remains of the milk devoted to the making of sweet milk cheese in the manner above described, or the whey which runs off in the pressing of the cheese, there forms, after it has stood a few days, a fine creamy skin, which is carefully taken off with a wooden spoon, put in a clean jar, and stirred from time to time. This cream is collected to make butter, and it can be done once a week. This butter-whey is healthful and good, to be sure; but, on the whole, is not so fine and delicate flavored as good cream butter, and on this account is cheaper.

The butter-milk which comes from the churning of the cream of whey is a good food for swine. They greatly relish it.

Whey is also sold as a beverage, and is called “sweet whey.” When fresh and untainted, it is quite an agreeable drink, very cooling, and good for the health in spring, purifying the blood, though somewhat purgative in its effect on the kidneys. Later in summer, when the heat is very great, whey is thought to be rather injurious to the health than otherwise. It is then used exclusively for swine.