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
Add the cream to the new milk and warm the mixture moderately.
Add just enough rennet to curdle the milk.
When the curd forms, line a mold or sieve with a cloth.
Drain and press
Pour the curd into the mold and fold the cloth over it.
Allow it to drain, pressing gently to extract whey until the cheese is firm.
Turn the cheese out onto a dry cloth and press it.
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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- New milk
- Forms the body of the cheese once rennet curdles its proteins.
- Cream
- Adds fat, which makes the cheese richer and softer in texture.
- Rennet
- Enzyme that curdles the milk, separating curds from liquid whey.
The step that matters
Add just enough rennet to curdle the milk. Too much rennet can make the curd bitter and rubbery, while too little leaves the milk unset. Measuring carefully gives a clean, tender curd that drains properly.
“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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