[Cheese] Whey cheese questions

[Joel Plutchak]

   After a two-year hiatus, I finally made the time to make
two batches of cheese over the past two weeks (a stirred-curd
cheddar and an attempt at a semi-hard sort-of Havarti with
dill; I also smoked 2/3 of the former).
   Both times, I just couldn't bear throwing out the collected
whey, so I tried both of the whey cheese (riccota) recipes in
the Carroll "Home Cheesemaking" book.  They are quite simple,
involving mostly just heating the whey to near boiling (one
with vinegar, one without), then draining through butter muslin
(I used tight-meshed cheesecloth).  One recipe said yield
should be about 1/2 pound per gallon of whey, while the other
simply said "yield is low."  Both times, I got a meager 3 to
4 tablespoons of soft cheese, in spite of adding some
extra milk or cream to help with yield.
   So my questions are, has anybody else done this, and if
so what yield did you get?  And if the yield should be
higher, what could I have done wrong to keep the yield so
low?  At this stage, I'm thinking it's not worth messing with
it in the typical low-scale home/hobbyist setting.
-- 
Joel Plutchak