Why it works: Cream and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cream Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Make the curd
Mix the cream and milk together with the liquid rennet.
Set the mixture in a pan of hot water until it forms a thick curd.
Press and ripen
Line a small mold with Swiss muslin and pour in the curd.
Let it sit for 8 hours.
Place a thin board on top of the curd and weigh it down with a 1 lb weight to press it.
Leave it for one day.
Remove the cheese from the mold and wrap it in a linen cloth, changing the cloth frequently.
It will be ready to eat in four days.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
-
Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream
- Provides fat and richness, giving the cheese a smooth, creamy texture.
- Milk
- Supplies the proteins and liquid that curdle to form the cheese body.
- Liquid rennet
- Enzyme that coagulates the milk proteins so they set into a curd.
The step that matters
Set the mixture in a pan of hot water until it forms a thick curd. Rennet works within a narrow temperature range, and the curd must set firmly before it is moved. Too little setting leaves a weak curd that will not hold its shape when pressed.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
More cream cheese recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.