Author Topic: Philly style Cream Cheese - reducing the make  (Read 2898 times)

jersey12

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Philly style Cream Cheese - reducing the make
« on: July 14, 2012, 02:11:35 PM »
I've made a couple of different cream cheese recipes, but found this one closest to the texture and taste of storebought (Kraft) Philladelphia Cream Cheese, but it needs some adjustments that I am not 100% sure about and would appreciate some help with.

Its the cream cheese recipe from The Home Creamery by Kathy Farrell-Kingsley.

6 cups whole milk
4 cups heavy cream
1 cup plain cultured yogurt
1 rennet tablet
1/4 cup cool water
salt

Combine milk cream yogurt in pot, stir well and heat to 100F.
Remove from heat, dissolve rennet tablet in water, add to milk and stir for 3 minutes.
Cover and stand for 1-1.5 hours or until curds are firm and breakaway from side of pan.  Make sure temperature remians above 85F.
Cut curds into 2 inch cubes, rest for 15 minutes.
Pour into muslin lined colander in bowl, cover with pastic wrap and place in fridge 8 hours or overnight.
Season with salt to taste.

I scraped down the sides of the muslin a few times while it was draining.

The alternations I would like to make (using raw jersey milk and cream from my cow):

Firstly, as I am the only one who eats it, I need to reduce the quantity to half this amount. The taste was a little mild, not as much taste as store bought Philly cheese has, so I would like to use the proper cultures I have now - either MA11, MM100 or Flora Danica but I don't know which one is better or how much to use for half the above recipe? (I don't have enough experience to know how each one will affect taste).

Secondly, after the third day it was very bitter which I am sure is due to the amount of rennet (I actually used a Junket rennet tablet for this one, so that is probably it).  The liquid rennet I now use requires 2.5ml per 10litres of milk.  Would one drop of rennet be enough to coagulate half the amount of milk and cream?

If anyone has a better recipe for making cream cheese as close to store bought Philly (LOL close to but better;) I would be happy to try it instead of this one.

linuxboy

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Re: Philly style Cream Cheese - reducing the make
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2012, 04:07:37 PM »
That produce uses whey concentrate and a gum stabilizer to achieve its mouthfeel and part of its flavor. Anything you make at home will be different. If you really want to imitate it, then use protein concentrate and a gum (carob, guar, possibly with xanthan added).

Use Flora Danica as a starting point. This is the typical culture. As for rennet, you technically don't even need it if you want to do a full lactic style, but it does help with the set and to help give you that gummy texture. Start with a few drops and let it set until coagulated, which should take 6-12 hours. Use 1/8-1/4 tsp culture per gallon of milk.

Personally, I would enjoy the natural texture and flavor of what my raw milk produced, but that's just me.

jersey12

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Re: Philly style Cream Cheese - reducing the make
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2012, 01:32:17 AM »
LOL blech, ok I don't want to imitate it that closely!  I will try the Flora Danica and see how that goes, I've been itching to try it:)

When you say the natural texture and flavour of raw milk, do you mean not using rennet and cultures but just clabbering the cream, or do you mean without adding the stabilizers and concentrate you mentioned in your first sentence?

janij

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Re: Philly style Cream Cheese - reducing the make
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2012, 06:10:57 PM »
Can I ask what happened?  What did you try and did you find something similar?  My husband wants cream cheese and though I make hard cheese all the time my soft cheese repertoire is very small.