Make your own delicious cream cheese with a few simple steps.
15 minutes
45 minutes
4
INGREDIENTS AND EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE AT CULTURES FOR HEALTH
Fresh Cheese Making Kit
Fresh Cheese Making Kit
$45.99
Our most comprehensive choice, the Fresh Cheese Kit contains two starter cultures and supplies to make five different varieties of soft cheese - feta, cottage cheese, cream cheese, fromage blanc, and traditional quark. Kit contains a Mesophilic Cheese Culture, a Fresh Cheese Culture, calcium chloride, vegetable rennet, cheese salt, butter muslin, a thermometer, and an instruction and recipe booklet.
Packaging and Equipment in the kit may appear different than pictured.
Mesophilic Direct-Set Starter Culture
Mesophilic Direct-Set Starter Culture
$14.99
From cheddar, Colby, and Monterey Jack to Feta, Chevre, and more, you'll enjoy the flavor and variety of homemade cheeses made using this starter culture.
Liquid Vegetable Rennet
Liquid Vegetable Rennet
$7.99
Double-strength liquid vegetable rennet. Each bottle contains enough rennet to set (24) 2-gallon batches of cheese.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 quart heavy cream
- 1 packet direct-set mesophilic starter
- 1 drop liquid rennet diluted in 2 Tbsp. of cool, unchlorinated water
- Cheese salt
INSTRUCTIONS:
- In a medium-size non-reactive stockpot or double boiler, warm the cream up to 65°F over low heat. Once this temperature has been reached, add the starter and mix in slowly using steady up-and-down motions. Add the diluted rennet by pouring it through a cheese spoon and incorporate using the same up-and-down strokes for 1 minute.
- Cover the cream and allow to set at a constant 65°F for 24 hours.
- Line a colander with clean butter muslin and suspend it over a bowl. Pour in half of the cream cheese curd, then sprinkle the poured-out half with 1 tsp. of the cheese salt. Pour in the remaining curd and sprinkle with 1 more tsp. of salt.
- Fashion a draining sack with the butter muslin and hang the cheese to drain for 12 hours.
- Take the cheese out of the butter muslin sack and place into a cheese press lined with damp cheesecloth and press at 10 pounds of pressure for 5 hours.
- Remove the cheese from the mold and store in a covered bowl in the fridge until you are ready to eat/use it.
This cheese can be rolled in herbs, sugar, or peppercorns for added flavor.
