Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cream Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Make the curd
Boil the cream.
Combine the boiled cream with new milk, egg yolks, sugar, and rennet.
Mix well and strain through a clean hair sieve.
Press and age
Transfer the curd to a cheese vat and place a board and weight on top.
Let it sit overnight, changing the cloth several times and tightening it each time.
Continue transferring to clean cloths daily until ready to eat.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream
- Adds fat, which gives the cheese a rich, smooth texture.
- New milk
- Supplies milk solids and liquid that form the curd with rennet.
- Egg yolks
- Add fat and emulsifiers that make the cheese richer and softer.
- Sugar
- Adds a mild sweetness that balances the richness of the cream.
- Rennet
- Enzyme that sets the milk into a curd so it can be separated from the whey.
The step that matters
Straining through a clean hair sieve. Cleanliness matters because contaminating microbes can spoil the curd before it sets and ages. Straining while the curd is still soft separates it from the whey, and any leftover whey affects texture and shelf life.
“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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