Home-made Cream Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rennet
If using prepared rennet, follow the package instructions.
If not, steep a clean piece of rennet in weak brine for 2 days, rubbing it well before use.
Set the curd
Stir enough rennet into the milk to start coagulation in 12 to 15 minutes.
Keep the milk cool overnight.
In the morning, skim the cream and strain the warm milk through it to mix with the night's milk.
Prepare and drain
Prepare a draining box with a slat division or use a basket for draining the curd.
If desired, dissolve a piece of annatto the size of a hickory nut in 1 cup of hot water for coloring.
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.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Forms the body of the cheese once rennet coagulates its proteins into curd.
- Rennet extract
- Enzyme that causes the milk to coagulate into a soft curd.
- Annatto
- Adds a yellow-orange colour to the finished cheese.
The step that matters
Stirring in the rennet. Too little rennet leaves the milk slow to set or unset, while too much can make the curd rubbery. Aim for a firm, clean break within the stated 12 to 15 minutes, since timing controls the texture of the curd.
“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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