Cream Fromage

This week I had a go at making cream cheese.

The idea came after making some bagels last week - Philadelphia is just not cutting it, and at more than $5 for 250g, I can't smear with carefree whimsy.

In order to bring back some of that whimsy, I had a go at Gavin Webber's recipe. I already had all of the funny ingredients (culture and rennet) so all I needed to get was milk and cream.

The Happy Apple was completely sold out of non-homogenised milk (though they did have jersey cream from caldermede farm), so I went to IGA and picked up 3L of Schulz Organic Dairy. The 1L bottle had almost no solid cream at all, and the 2L bottle had a minimal amount, so this might not be the best milk for cheese-making, but we will see how it goes nonetheless.

Another thing to note for a future cheese making project - The Happy Apple now stocks raw cold-pressed milk! This is a legal and shelf-stable raw milk that maintains many of the nutrients that are cooked out by pasteurised milk, so it could introduce some more flavour. Perhaps I could try it out once I get a cheese fridge.

How does one make cream cheese?

1. Start off by mixing up the milk and cream, using a whisk to break up all the solid cream bits.

2. Let the mixture get to 21 degrees C. I did it in a water bath because it was a little chilly in the house.

3. Add the culture, wait 5 minutes, mix it in.

4. Add the rennet - dissolved in non-chlorinated water - and mix it in. I'll note here that I've got rennet tablets, not liquid rennet. I've used about half of a tablet here but I am not sure if that is the exact conversion from 4 drops (a drop is a real measurement, equal to a 64th of a teaspoon).

Half a tablet dissolving in a teaspoon of non-chlorinated water. I just bought a bottle of water from the shop - since Melbourne's tap water is chlorinated.

Here I am pouring the rennet in. Not all of the little bits of rennet made it out of the glass, so I added a couple splashes of non-chlorinated water and put them in the mixture.

5. Let the cheese rest at room temperature for 24-36 hours.

Fun fact while we wait: The French call cream cheese "La fromage à tartiner", meaning "spreadable cheese".

After almost 24 hours, the curds are starting to separate from the whey, however a finger test leaves me unsure whether they have set - They didn't feel very firm.

I went out for trivia that night (we won), and upon my return - roughly 26 hours after leaving the cheese to rest - I decided the curds had set.

6. Cut the curds into 5cm slices. Cutting through these curds I was even more unsure of my decision, there was a creamy layer on top - which was not a worry as Gavin also had this layer - however beyond this I could barely feel any resistance from the curds, so I thought it hadn't set.

The thick layer of cream looks quite delicious, it was very similar to butter, in both colour and texture.

7. Ladle curds into a muslin-lined colander, and let them drain for 30 minutes. The reason we aren't just pouring the curds is so they don't fracture, we want them to be intact.

The curds are looking nice and firm in their bucket of whey.

Here is where I made an almost fatal mistake. I wasn't thinking about the next step, and lined the colander with two separate pieces of muslin.

Here you can clearly see the separation between the curds, cream and whey.

Before draining.

After draining. Honestly not that much of a difference, but you can see that the curds have been absorbed into the sides. The colour difference is because I turned on another light.

8. Hang the curds for 12-18 hours until thick. This is where my past actions come to haunt me

Because I laid two pieces of muslin next to one another, instead of unfolding them and laying them on top of one another, there was fault line directly down the middle. I realised this when I started to bring the cheese out of the colander - it spilled out of the middle. I didn't have long before everything went down the sink, so I quickly moved it into the plastic container I was using before. I probably lost a few hundred grams of cheese in the process.

I re-ladled into a freshly lined colander while I mourned the cheese left behind. Since it had already drained I didn't repeat that step, and I went straight to hanging.

I only managed to tie two of the corners together before I ran out of extra cloth, so there is also a little bit of cheese spilling out the sides. I have learned from this experience that I need a larger cheesecloth. My hanging contraption is a carabiner on a string tied around the staircase frame.

At around 14 hours I put an end to the hanging. The cheese was starting to smell yum and it was definitely thick.

9. Weigh the cheese, and add 1% salt. My end mass was 1442g, so I added 14g of salt.

Make sure to zero the scales.

Based on what Gavin got, around 1850g, I lost a fair bit of cheese from my mistake. Still, comparing my cost to Philadelphia, I beat it when it isn't on sale (my cheese cost me around $4 per 250g) and I definitely beat it on flavour. I could probably increase yield by changing to a creamier milk, or letting the milk coagulate for a little longer.

My mum timed sourdough bagels to end up at the same time the cheese was ready, and having this on a fresh bagel was delicious.

And with smoked salmon the next morning.

Thanks for reading!