This is the very first effort in my foray into cheesemaking!
Aside from the fact I was attempting to make ricotta, it turned out pretty damn well.
It's a perfect spreadable texture. Look how it held the texture from the tea towel it was wrapped in! It's so creamy and the salt & vinegar give it so much tastiness. Also leaving it out at room temperature for a day gives it an extra little background flavour of cheesy funk that sounds gross in words but is delicious in your mouth.
Home Made Cream Cheese
Yield: 450g+
Time: 2 days, 20 minutes of actual work
Cost: $
Hardware:
- medium, heavy bottomed pot
- thermometer
- measuring cup
- fine mesh seive
- cheesecloth / clean tea towel
- clean string or twine
- wooden spoon
- tall jar or pot
Software:
- 1 1/2 litres of heavy cream
- 1/3 cup white vinegar
- Splash of balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp salt
Heat cream + salt in a clean, heavy bottomed sauce pan on medium heat until it reaches 180F on a thermometer. Stir it gently so it doesn’t burn on the bottom.
If you don't have a thermometer, you want it to be just near boiling, bubbling slightly, with steam coming off the top. It will be hot to the touch, but try not to bring it to a full boil.
Once it reaches 180F, pull it off the heat and let it cool 5-10 minutes. Add in your vinegar. Taste it with a spoon, if its not tangy enough, add more vinegar. If it’s not salty enough, add more salt!
Aside from the fact I was attempting to make ricotta, it turned out pretty damn well.
It's a perfect spreadable texture. Look how it held the texture from the tea towel it was wrapped in! It's so creamy and the salt & vinegar give it so much tastiness. Also leaving it out at room temperature for a day gives it an extra little background flavour of cheesy funk that sounds gross in words but is delicious in your mouth.
Home Made Cream Cheese
Yield: 450g+
Time: 2 days, 20 minutes of actual work
Cost: $
Hardware:
- medium, heavy bottomed pot
- thermometer
- measuring cup
- fine mesh seive
- cheesecloth / clean tea towel
- clean string or twine
- wooden spoon
- tall jar or pot
Software:
- 1 1/2 litres of heavy cream
- 1/3 cup white vinegar
- Splash of balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp salt
Heat cream + salt in a clean, heavy bottomed sauce pan on medium heat until it reaches 180F on a thermometer. Stir it gently so it doesn’t burn on the bottom.
If you don't have a thermometer, you want it to be just near boiling, bubbling slightly, with steam coming off the top. It will be hot to the touch, but try not to bring it to a full boil.
Once it reaches 180F, pull it off the heat and let it cool 5-10 minutes. Add in your vinegar. Taste it with a spoon, if its not tangy enough, add more vinegar. If it’s not salty enough, add more salt!
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: Let it sit
Leave in the pot with a tea towel over top over night, or at least 8 hours.
You'll notice that the cream begins to separate. You’ll have a thick layer of cream “curd” on top and a yellowy water underneath, that’s the whey.
You'll notice that the cream begins to separate. You’ll have a thick layer of cream “curd” on top and a yellowy water underneath, that’s the whey.
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/mascarpone.HTM
...which is PERFECT! Because there are so many delicious mascarpone cake recipes. Just add gelatin so it holds up as a cream filling, and then use in stuff like:
http://shesimmers.com/2010/08/strawberry-mascarpone-cream-cake-or-ice-cream-cake.html
and
http://sweetapolita.com/2013/02/vanilla-blackberry-mascarpone-cake-for-two/
UGHH thanks so much for this recipe!! will try soon.
But this recipe reminds me of the "fromage blanc" my mother used to make from milk that turned sour on the refrigerator shelf. She didn't have to use any vinegar to have the milk separate. It was a real treat : especially in summer with strawberries !…
Then again milk was not this watery white liquid they sell now. Each (glass) bottle was topped by a thick layer of cream … which was delicious too : another treat, another story !…
Thanks for sharing.
I was psyched to give this a shot but when I added the vinegar nothing happened! It tasted cheesy but never separated. No curds. No whey. I let it sit overnight, added more vinegar, reheated it and even did a cheesy dance with my kids. But all we got was vinegar cream soup. Where could I have gone astray with this??? It seems like a no brainer.
If you haven't thrown it away you can use it to to marinate meat (chicken livers, mmm) or if its not too vinegary, use it to make a bechamel for mac and cheese or something. Man! That's such a bummer. Let me know if you have the kind of cream with locust bean gum and all that garbage in it, that's gotta be the reason.
I did it again yesterday with a half gallon of whole milk and it turned out really well. However, I will be searching for some pure cream today because the whole milk version just doesn't look or tasted as creamy as the cream version looks like it will.
Thanks again for posting it!
I'm really glad you tried it again and it worked out! That makes me happy.
FYI...If you have ever seen a video of hard cheese being made, the milk is heated in a huge stainless steel tank, which resembles a table. The heater is underneath. The milk fills up this "table/tank" to a height of about 8 to 12 inches. After the milk comes to the correct temperature, and the salt is added, rennet is added, and stirred in manually. (Check Wiki for rennet... comes from a cow's stomach...blecchh...) The mixture (not yet cheese) begins to solidify almost immediately! The next day, the mixture (which now consists of curd and whey) is scooped into molds (mostly of a wheel shape), and then put into a press, to press out the remaining whey. After some time has gone by, they remove the baby cheese from the mold, and coat it with wax, and then put it onto shelves to age. The different qualities of the raw milk, and the rennet, and the amount of salt, etc., makes the differences in regional cheeses.
I believe it was an episode of NOVA which was devoted to a nun from a Connecticut convent who has studied cheese-making.... it was a fascinating program. Check the PBS archives, you may find it. You might also find something helpful on YouTube...
Now I'm going to try to put some home-made cream cheese on my table for lots less green stamps than I pay those "Philly" people. Good luck, and thanks once more!
Awesome for outside plants though!
What you have made is some kind of clotted cream. No wonder it's nice!
Fantastic guide I am watering at the mouth here
I have a question for you clever people would using lactose free milk work? (invade there is more than 1 type I use lactofree and they remove the lactose by adding a bacteria that eats it)
If nobodys sure I will have a go and let you know how it goes incase it helps anyone on a Fodmap or lactose free diet
Please let me know how it goes, I'm very interested.
...this also works using lemon and lime juice, and is a great sweet version for cream cake filler
That photo of the cheese and cracker looks delightful! I can almost taste it. It looks too good! I have got to try it myself now.
The part that kinda sucks for me is that a quart of heavy cream runs me close to five bucks which breaks down to more than what I would pay for a half pound of name brand cheese. As I mentioned above though, sometimes having complete control over the ingredients going into your food is well worth the extra cost.
Thanks for the creamy, cheesey-funk instructable!
Not really worth doing solely based the economy of it, unless you're making a half ton. However, the taste is way MORE! And its fun, and you look like a super whizz slapping that bad boy down on the table with some Ritz and being like.. yeah, I made that.. no big deal. *flex flex*
But definitely not as long as your store bought stuff, because that stuff lasts for an unnaturally long time. I would guestimate, the better part of a week.
Without the wrapper touching... it will begin to show mold inside 3 to four days.
(To the site admin: the captcha words are so illegible to me, that I have to get at least seven tries to get something I can read...I hope you can use something like adding numbers, or such...)
it will NOT allow