Why it works: Milk and cream 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
Combine the last quart of milk with the cream in a warm bowl.
Stir in 2 teaspoons of rennet.
After the curd forms, break it slightly with a skimming dish.
Press and dry
Spread cheesecloth on a sieve and place the curd on it, breaking it gently.
Transfer the curd to a vat and place a 2-pound weight on top.
After 12 hours, remove the cheese and wrap it with a fillet.
Turn the cheese daily on a clean board with fresh nettles or dock leaves until dry.
Ripen
If the weather is warm, the cheese will be ready in 3 weeks.
To hasten maturity, place the cheese between two pewter plates.
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.
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cream + docktop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Milk + docktop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Forms the body of the cheese once it is set into curd.
- Rennet
- Enzyme that coagulates the milk proteins so they set into curd.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving the cheese a softer, creamier texture.
The step that matters
Breaking the curd. Breaking the curd gently and only slightly controls how much whey drains out. Cutting it too finely or too roughly changes moisture and texture, which affects how dry and firm the finished cheese becomes.
Swap the dock
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Macefits better
- Dockthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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