You'll never buy Philadelphia "cream cheese" again!
2 pints full cream milk
1 /4 pint double cream
rennet
salt
Put the milk on to heat to blood heat, then add about 6 - 7 drops of rennet; I use Vegeren, which is a vegetarian rennet. Whisk into milk, and leave for the curds to set.
When set, it will look like this:
Drain the curd from the whey into scalded muslin, and leave hanging, to drip overnight, to leave the curd dryish:
Next, beat in the cream with a fork or whisk, adding salt to taste. At this stage, you can also add in flavourings if liked - black pepper, garlic, etc. For this one, I used wild garlic in the form of tri-cornered leek, which is at its peak in the garden just now.
This cheese is wonderful - the fresh taste is miles from anything you can buy - give it a try!
Where do you buy your veggie rennet?
ReplyDeleteYou can find it either in health food shops, or in the supermarket among what they call "baking sundries" - baking powder, muffin cases,etc. Should be fairly easy to find, and not expensive, useful for lots of things.
ReplyDeleteI really want to make cream cheese - I wonder what rennet is in French?
ReplyDeleteRosie x
Found this, Rosie:
ReplyDelete"Rennet in French is présure – présure animale being derived from animals, présure végétale is vegetable rennet and présure de synthése is microbial. ..."
Hope that helps!
I will definately give this a go!
ReplyDeleteMrs L - thanks for the translation - I was just off to find my dictionary and realised you had done it for me. I'll try to get o the Health Food shop this week and give the cream cheese a go. Feedback to follow!
ReplyDeleteRosie x