How to Make Cream Cheese

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole milk (500 mL)
• 2 cups heavy cream (500 mL
• 2 Tbl fresh cultured buttermilk (30 mL)
• 1/4 tablet Junket rennet tablet
• Sterile cheese cloth (boil to sterilize, hang to dry thoroughly)

Method:

1. Combine milk and cream in a stainless pot.
2. Gently warm to 70 F (21 C), stir regularly.
3. Mix buttermilk thoroughly into the warmed milk-cream mixture; cover.
4. Let sit 15 minutes.
5. Dissolve 1/4 tablet of Junket rennet in 1/4th cup cool water (30 mL).
6. Stir solution of rennet thoroughly into inoculated milk/cream; cover again.
7. Allow to sit overnight at warm room temperature (70-75 F).
8. The mixture should have gelled by the next morning.
9. Sprinkle 1/2 - 1 tsp salt on the surface.
10. Stir briefly and gently with a whisk to produce pieces about the size of a pea.
11. Line a large strainer with the sterile cheese cloth. Pour the semi-liquid product gently into the cloth.
12. Let drain for 30 minutes.
13. Pick up the corners of the cloth, wrap corners in a looped thick rubber band, hang over a bowl to drain. Hang in refrigerator turning solidifying mass in the cloth to hasten drainage. Use within a week or so.