Cheese Yield From Milk Calculator

Work out cheese yield from milk instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Cheese Yield From Milk Calculator

Yield is a percentage of the milk weight, taking milk at 1.032 kg per litre, and the rest leaves as whey; hard cheeses give less because more moisture is pressed out. Yield is set mainly by the milk's fat and casein content, which is why ten litres of standardised supermarket milk gives a smaller wheel than farm milk.

Formulas

Cheese yield

cheese kg = litres x 1.032 x yield percentage for the cheese type

Milk requirement

litres per kg of cheese = litres / cheese kg

Worked example

With the default values below, Cheese Yield From Milk Calculator returns Cheese yield of 1.032. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Milkminimum 0.5 L: 10 L
Cheese typeone of Cheddar (about 10% yield), Mozzarella (about 12%), Fresh paneer / queso (about 15%), Ricotta from whole milk (about 8%), Hard alpine style (about 9%): Cheddar (about 10% yield)

Results

Cheese yield: 1.032 kg
Whey produced: 8.97 L
Milk per kg of cheese: 9.69 L
Yield used: 10.0%

Step by step

1Values used
2Cheese yield
3Milk requirement
4Cheese yield= 1.032 kg
5Whey produced= 8.97 L
6Milk per kg of cheese= 9.69 L
7Yield used= 10.0

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 2 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 3 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the Cheese Yield From Milk figure worked out?

cheese kg = litres x 1.032 x yield percentage for the cheese type. Yield is a percentage of the milk weight, taking milk at 1.032 kg per litre, and the rest leaves as whey; hard cheeses give less because more moisture is pressed out.

Why does this matter?

Yield is set mainly by the milk's fat and casein content, which is why ten litres of standardised supermarket milk gives a smaller wheel than farm milk.

What do I need to enter?

Enter milk, cheese type. The defaults shown are a realistic worked example — swap in your own figures to get a result you can use.