Cream Cheese

Ingredients

• 250 ml fresh, non-UHT milk
• 250 ml yoghurt
• 1 lt fresh cream
• 5 g table salt
• 6 g citric acid
• 130 ml lemon juice

Method

Cream cheese is acid acid-in-cooking curdling plus straining. The acid denatures the milk proteins, causing them to clump and separate from the whey. You're working with a high-fat base — cream and yoghurt — so the finished cheese will be dense and rich, nothing like the fluffy ricotta you'd get from whey alone.

Combine the milk, yoghurt, cream, and salt in a heavy-bottomed pot. Stir to homogenise, then heat slowly to 80°C, stirring often. This temperature is a threshold: hot enough to begin protein unwinding but not so hot that the curds become grainy and expel all their fat. When you hit 80°C — check with a probe thermometer, not guesswork — add the citric acid and lemon juice in one pour. The pH drops sharply. Stop stirring immediately and let the curds form undisturbed for 2 minutes. You'll see the liquid turn cloudy within 30 seconds as the proteins curd coagulate. Continue heating to 90°C over the next 3–4 minutes without agitation; this firms the curds gently. They should feel like soft tofu when you run a spoon through them.

Remove from heat and let the pot sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. The curds will continue to firm as they cool and the acid works deeper. Don't rush this. Line a colander with fine cheesecloth and pour everything through, reserving the whey if you want to use it elsewhere. Gather the cloth corners and hang the bundle to drain — a kitchen cupboard door handle works — for 4–6 hours. You want most of the whey gone but the cheese still yielding slightly to pressure; over-draining makes it chalky.

Transfer the finished cheese to a sealed container and refrigerate. It will firm slightly as it cools. The texture should be spreadable, somewhere between cream cheese and mascarpone. Consume within a week; without preservatives or heat treatment, the high moisture content means it spoils faster than aged cheese-making. Add fleur de sel and fresh lemon zest before serving if the blank canvas feels too austere.