Mysost: Caramelized Whey Cheese

I had some whey leftover from making Camembert, so today I took a tip from my co-author, Ken Albala. Slowly cooking down whey turns it into a concentrated caramelized cheese called mysost. And it's so, so delicious, even though I neglected it at a few key moments. (I allowed it to boil, which made ricotta, so it's grainy rather than smooth. I also let it burn a tiny bit during the last caramelization stages, so it has some brown flecks in it.)

Nonetheless, it is just ridiculously cheesy and fudgy, and would have been nearly effortless had I kept the heat low enough and paid attention when it started to thicken, like the recipe says. Ken calls it "precisely midway between candy and cheese," which is apt. Umami like mad. Be prepared to spend a long time scratching at the pot and licking the spoon. Even a tiny scraping of mysost will make you wiggle in delight.

From almost a gallon of whey, I got almost a cup of mysost. What an excellent space-efficient use for the jars of whey that wind up sitting around after making cheese!

Incidentally, the recipes for both Camembert and mysost appear in our new book, The Lost Arts of Hearth and Home, the very first advance copy of which just reached me today!