Thursday 25 April 2013

Cream cheese


While I was making the yogurt I put on a batch of soft cheese. It takes a little longer as I had to hang it overnight to strain the whey. It has a mild flavour that is improved by the addition of fresh herbs from the garden and a good quality salt. It doesn't last very long, maybe 3-4 days in the fridge so it's best to make it in small quantities or freeze batches of it.


I filtered and heated up the fresh milk in a saucepan. Once it was up to 30-35 degrees I added the rennet and kept stirring the surface to prevent the cream rising. When it started to thicken I left it for an hour.
I got a knife then and cut the curds into cubes. This releases more whey.

I then filtered it through a cheese cloth lined strainer. I covered it and left it overnight.
n the morning a put it into a cheese mold and placed it under a cheese press for a few hours. This released more whey. I then flavored and seasoned it with sea salt, parsley and spring onions from our garden.
We used a lot of it on a fresh loaf and give the rest to fellow neighbours.




2 comments:

  1. oh I like your cheese press! very nice :) I never thought of freezing the cream cheese, that's a great idea. We are getting 10L of milk a day from our cow and I'm struggling to use it all, there's only so much time for cheese-making! I usually make cream cheese without rennet, but just thinking maybe I should try it your way to see the difference.

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  2. It was a disaster that turned around ;-o I was actually trying for a harder curd! but I'm not sure was the rennet too long in the fridge ( a few months ) or was the temperature wrong. So I just made a cream cheese instead with the soft curds. I usually make it with cider/lemons also. They taste very similar.
    I'm assuming the rennet is kept in the fridge because it has a shelf life?

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