The Home Creamery (6 page)
Authors: Kathy Farrell-Kingsley
HOMEMADE CRÈME FRAÎCHE
INGREDIENTS
1 to 2 tablespoons cultured buttermilk
2 cups (1 pint) heavy cream
This is a home version that comes close to the real French thing. Start with organic cream, if possible, to avoid additives. Do not use ultrapasteurized cream.
1.
Combine the buttermilk and cream in a medium saucepan and heat only to tepid (not more than 85°F). Check temperature with a thermometer. Pour mixture into a clean pint jar. Cover partially and let stand at room temperature (between 65 and 75°F) for 8 to 24 hours or until thickened.
2.
Stir and refrigerate at least 24 hours before using. The cream will continue to thicken and develop flavor in the refrigerator. It will keep about 2 weeks.
MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS
PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES
USING CRÈME FRAÎCHE
Here are some quick and delicious ways to use crème fraîche in your everyday cooking:
HERBED CREAM SAUCE
This is an extremely simple way to use crème fraîche in a no-cook sauce. Simply blend ½ cup of crème fraîche with 1½ teaspoons chopped fresh herbs such as chives, tarragon, basil, or thyme, and ¼ teaspoon lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve it with fish, poultry, or vegetables.
CREAMY PAN SAUCE
When you’re making a deglazed pan sauce after pan-frying poultry or beef, stir in a generous tablespoon of crème fraîche just before serving.
CREAM SOUP
For an extra-rich cream soup, try reducing the cream in the recipe by ¼ cup and substituting crème fraîche.
FRESH FRUIT
Crème fraîche makes a great topping for fresh berries or cut-up fruit such as peaches, plums, or pears. You can sweeten the crème fraîche if you prefer by adding 1 teaspoon of honey and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract to about ½ cup crème fraîche.
PLAIN
Crème fraîche can be drizzled over grilled vegetables, steamed or baked potatoes, poached or scrambled eggs, salads, or grilled fish, especially salmon.
QUARK
Quark is a soft, unripened German cheese made from buttermilk
that has a texture and flavor similar to sour cream. Quark can be used as a sour cream–substitute to top baked potatoes and as an ingredient in a variety of dishes, including cheesecakes, dips, salads, and sauces.
BUTTERMILK QUARK
INGREDIENTS
8 cups (2 quarts) homemade buttermilk
If the quark is too thick and grainy, it can be thinned and smoothed by stirring in a little milk. You can use the whey from the quark, flavored with fruit juice, as a beverage or use it in baking. Store it in the refrigerator and use within 2 days.
1.
Preheat the oven to 150°F. Pour the buttermilk into a large ovenproof baking dish or Dutch oven with lid. Cover and place in the oven 8 to 12 hours.
2.
Line a colander with a double layer of butter muslin and set over a large bowl. Pour the buttermilk into the cloth and cover with the ends of the butter muslin. Let buttermilk drain at room temperature for about 6 hours (after about 1 hour, weight the buttermilk by placing a plate on top to encourage the whey to drip through the muslin).
MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP
PREP TIME: 20 MINUTES
3.
The curds in the cloth are the cheese (quark). Transfer to a medium bowl and cover and store the quark for 1 week in the refrigerator.
BUTTERMILK LORE
• Irish folklore claims a glass of buttermilk will cure a hangover, and, when heated with a clove of garlic, buttermilk was sure to cure any variety of ailments.
• According to American folklore, drinking buttermilk will immunize against poison oak and ivy.
• Many pioneer women used buttermilk as a facial wash, believing the flecks of butter resulted in a smooth and creamy complexion.
SOUR CREAM
Traditionally, sour cream was made by letting fresh cream sour naturally
at room temperature. Naturally occurring bacteria in the cream acts as a thickener and creates a tangy flavor in the cream. If you left out today’s processed cream overnight, however, all you would get is spoiled cream.
Today, commercially made sour cream is produced by inoculating a pasteurized cream with a pure mixture of bacteria. Once the product has thickened, it’s pasteurized again to kill off the bacteria. Commercial sour cream has no natural bacteria, which is why you can’t use it as a starter for your homemade version. Adding some buttermilk to pasteurized cream will thicken the cream to a custardlike consistency and give it a recognizably piquant flavor.
HOMEMADE SOUR CREAM
METHOD 1
INGREDIENTS
2 cups (1 pint) light cream,
at room temperature
2 tablespoons cultured buttermilk,
at room temperature
It’s easy to make your own sour cream with some light cream and buttermilk, and the results are worth it. Homemade sour cream can be kept in the refrigerator an entire month, and it will get thicker and thicker and better and better during that time. Use homemade sour cream in any recipe calling for sour cream. For the best results, bring the cream and buttermilk to room temperature by letting them sit on the counter for 1 to 2 hours before you begin.
MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS
PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES
If the ingredients are too cold, the sour cream will take much longer to thicken or may not thicken properly.
1.
Place the cream in a medium bowl or a glass-lined thermos.
2.
Stir in the buttermilk and cover the mixture tightly with plastic wrap (or cover the thermos).
3.
Leave the mixture in a warm place for 24 hours, until thickened to a custardlike consistency. Stir to blend, and refrigerate at least 24 hours before using. The sour cream may continue to thicken in the refrigerator.
HOMEMADE SOUR CREAM
METHOD 2
INGREDIENTS
1 cup heavy cream
1½ cups whole milk
½ cup cultured buttermilk
In this recipe, the ingredients are first brought to room temperature by warming them over hot water. You can also leave the products at room temperature for about an hour, however, and achieve the same results. This method produces a thicker, richer sour cream than method 1 because it uses heavy cream and whole milk, which have a combined higher fat content than light cream.
MAKES ABOUT 3 CUPS
PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES
1.
Mix the cream, milk, and buttermilk in a medium bowl set over warm water (105 to 115°F), stirring until the temperature of the mixture reaches 68 to 70°F, about 15 minutes. Check with a thermometer. Remove the bowl from the water, cover, and let mixture stand at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours or until it has a custardlike consistency and is thick enough to cling firmly to a spoon. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. It will keep up to 4 weeks.
TIPS AND HINTS ON USING SOUR CREAM
• Sour cream makes a great base for dips, dressings, spreads, and sauces. Used as is, it is a tempering condiment for spicy foods.
• Never heat sour cream to the boiling point because it will curdle immediately. The best way to add sour cream to a hot liquid is to remove the liquid from the heat source and add the cream slowly while stirring gently.
• Avoid using sour cream in dishes with a lot of salt or lemon; the salt and lemon may cause the cream to curdle.
• Dishes made with sour cream do not freeze well.
PART TWO
SOFT, UNRIPENED CHEESES
The easiest cheeses to make at home are soft cheeses. They require no pressing, aging, or special humidity and temperature control. They do not take a lot of time in actual preparation, require little attention, and most of the equipment needed you probably already have — now that’s easy. Plus, because soft, unripened cheese has the highest moisture content, it has the least fat and the fewest calories among products in the cheese family.
What distinguishes soft cheese
is the creamy texture and spreadable consistency of most of them. Fresh cheeses also take well to flavorings: Fresh herbs, spices, vanilla, honey, and marmalade are all tasty additions. The at-home process of making fresh cheese is generally the same, regardless of the type of cheese you’re making. Once you understand the basic process, the different types of cheese you can make are only variations.
All fresh cheese begins with milk that is heated on the stove to a desired temperature (according to a specific recipe). A starter is then added to produce acid that causes the milk to coagulate. The starter also adds flavor. Starters can vary from simple items such as vinegar and lemon juice to purchased starters with bacteria cultures. You can also add animal rennet, which clots the milk into curds and allows it to separate from the whey. Curds will usually take about 30 minutes to form, again depending on a specific recipe. Some fresh cheese recipes call for curds to continue to be heated.
Once curds are formed, they’re cut into smaller pieces; this helps to express the whey further. Next, the curds are drained. At this point, they can be flavored and pressed into molds as well.
The secrets to making fresh cheese at home are patience and experimentation. The cheese you make may not taste the way you would like it to the first time. Maybe it’s the quality of the ingredients you used or the handling, but don’t despair. The process is simple, and it won’t take long before you’ll be enjoying successful results. Because home cheese making does require some degree of experimentation, it’s a good idea to keep notes detailing each process so you will have something to refer back to the next time around.
CREAM CHEESE
Fresh, homemade cream cheese is a simple cheese to make at home,
and its flavor is incomparably better than store-bought versions. The entire cheese-making process will take two days, but not much of that is actual work, and the finished product is well worth the effort. Fresh cream cheese will not look like store-bought cheese. It will be soft and appear slightly curdled, but it smooths once it is warmed to room temperature and stirred.
Once upon a time, cream cheese made no demands. You simply reached for the block in your refrigerator to spread on a toasted bagel or, if you were feeling somewhat adventurous, you may have whipped up a luscious cheesecake. But those days are gone as we discover the infinite number of uses for this soft, mild-tasting cheese. Its creamy texture adds richness and flavor to dips, spreads, pastries, cakes, frostings, cookies, pies,
and puddings, and it enhances a variety of savory dishes too, including soups, sauces, chicken entrées, Mexican foods, and pasta dishes.
It’s no wonder that cream cheese is one of America’s most widely consumed cheeses, ranking third as our favorite. (Cheddar and mozzarella are rated number one and two, respectively.) Americans consumed 2.5 pounds per person in 2004, which is nearly 4 times the 1970 level. And sales of this soft, creamy cheese grow steadily each year.