Recently there has been a shortage of cream cheese . For several weeks we tried to order cream cheese from our regular grocery store and found out all cream cheese and its derivative products were out of stock. Since making cheese has become my wife's thing, she decided to address this shortage the same way she addressed other shortages during covid by making her own. She searched the web for a cream cheese recipe. One thing she noticed was that the recipes for buttermilk on the web were basically ‘take milk and add acid (lemon juice, vinegar, etc). Then the recipes on the web for cream cheese were also basically ‘take milk and add acid.’ Huh? Acidulated milk is the panacea for all things cheesy on the net? She also noticed that other recipes involved such things as rennet or cream cheese cultures that she didn’t have.
She decide to make her own recipe incorporating various aspects of the recipes she read and her own experience making cheese curd. The basic approach seemed to be combine milk and cream and curdle. She had success making cheese using buttermilk to curdle the milk so she decided to use a variation on that technique. For example, she saw that the rennet based recipes used a ratio of milk to cream of 4:1. She also used an approximation of the ratio of buttermilk to other ingredients that worked for the other cheese she made. She used those ratios to make the cheese (see the ingredients listed below). Then instead of pressing the curd as she did before, as per some of the recipes she read, she whirred it in a food processor to make it creamy and the consistency of cream cheese. The result was really fantastic. If she can make this, we do not need to buy commercial cream cheese. The picture below is "schmear" of the cream cheese she made on a crumpet she also made. It was very good!
Ingredients:
8 cups whole milk
Directions.
Combine the ingredients in a large heavy bottomed pan. Slowly heat mixture until it starts to separate into curds and whey (#1). (This will start to happen just before the mixture reaches 212 degrees.) Remove from the heat and let rest for 10 minutes. Ladle the curds into a colander lined with 3 layers of cheese cloth (#2). Squeeze out as much whey as possible. Then add the curds to a food processor (I used a motorboat blender) and whir until the curds reach creamy consistency. Stir in salt to taste. The consistency will become thicker as the mixture cools. Spread a “schmear” on a piece of toast and enjoy.
This cheese was very good. The taste of the cream really came through followed by a slight tanginess of the buttermilk. The flavor got better over the next few days. This tasted great on a cracker with a glass of wine.
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