Homemade Herb Cream Cheese
Appetizers Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian Recipes Budget Recipes Cheese
Did you know that you can make vegetable rennet from nettles for cheese making?
This week I experimented with this rennet and a low temperature to "set" the milk and obtained a herb cheese that's smooth and creamy, not at all acidic, similar to Almette. This vegetable rennet speeds up the curdling of milk, though it's indeed slower than store-bought animal rennet. The low temperature ensures light and homogeneous curdling, which is decisive for the smoothness and creaminess of the cheese.
Ingredients
2 liters full-fat milk (can be store-bought, but not UHT)
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable rennet
1 sprig dill
1 green onion (only the green tops)
1/4 bunch parsley
20-30g young nettle leaves
Vegetable Rennet
100g nettles
water
salt
Yield: 300g
How to prepare homemade herb cream cheese
- For the rennet: put the washed nettles in a small pot and add just enough water to cover them (use a measuring cup and remember how much water you added). Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer covered for 30 minutes. Add salt (1 teaspoon for each cup of water added) and stir until dissolved. Strain the liquid from the nettles. This is the vegetable rennet. It can be kept in the refrigerator (even for several days) until you use it. Do not add it hot to the milk.
- Chop the herbs as finely as possible. Add boiling water, just a little, enough to cover the herbs. Let them sit for 5 minutes.
- Mix the milk with buttermilk, rennet and blanched herbs (lightly drained of water). Pour into one or more containers (pot, tin cups, glass jars, etc. - very clean!). Cover the containers with lids or aluminum foil.
- Place in the oven at 35°C for 8 hours. After this time, the milk should be set, looking as if set with gelatin.
- Place a large strainer over a bowl. Line it with 4 layers of cheesecloth.
- With a knife, cut the set milk into squares. Place the pot of milk on the smallest burner and heat veeeery gently (just to warm it slightly, definitely don't heat it too much or you'll get a cheese with lumps similar to cottage cheese, not a smooth cream) only until you see whey gathering at the edge of the pot.
- Pour the set milk into the strainer. If it looks like cream - soft and uniform, without lumps - it means you're on the right track 😉 Let it sit for 5 minutes to drain a bit, then bring the edges of the cheesecloth over the cheese. Place plastic wrap on top, then aluminum foil, and finally a weight (I used beans) to speed up the draining. Make sure the bottom of the strainer doesn't reach into the drained whey.
- Let the cheese drain for 2 - 2.5 hours at room temperature. Check that it's no longer wet. With a spoon, gather all the cheese from the cheesecloth and transfer to a bowl. Add sea salt to taste and stir gently.
- Put the cheese in a jar and let it refrigerate for a few hours before eating. The taste will improve and it will firm up a bit, becoming a spreadable cream.
Boil the nettles for 30 minutes
Nettle water used for faster coagulation
Prepared herbs
Chopped blanched herbs
Milk with herbs goes into the oven for 8 hours
Pour into cheesecloth
Drain for 2 hours at room temperature...
... with weight on top
Mix cheese with salt
