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Dessert

To Make Cream Cheese

A fresh cheese made by curdling milk with rennet, draining, salting, and ripening under leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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To Make Cream Cheese

Why it works: Milk and strawberry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,130 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Make Cream Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Make the curds

  1. Dissolve the rennet in the milk and let it sit until it curdles.

  2. Break the curds lightly.

Drain and press

  1. Place the curds in a cloth over a sieve to drain until dry.

  2. Cut and turn the curds in a clean cloth.

  3. Return the curds to the sieve.

  4. Place a 2‑pound weight on top and sprinkle a little salt over it.

  5. Let it sit overnight.

  6. Once dry, place the cheese on a board to dry further.

Ripen

  1. Cover the cheese with strawberry leaves.

  2. Ripen the cheese between two plates in a warm place.

  3. Turn the cheese daily and add fresh leaves.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Milk + strawberrytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,130 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

Milk
Forms the base of the cheese, with its proteins setting into curds.
Rennet
Enzyme that curdles the milk so it separates into solid curds and liquid whey.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the cheese and draws out moisture as it drains.

The step that matters

Drain the curds until dry. Moisture left in the curds lets the cheese spoil or ripen unevenly. Pressing and drying remove whey so the cheese keeps its shape and texture.

“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.

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