Neufchatel

A little more spreadable and creamy, but still too salty

After my attempt at making Boursin I decided to start at square one, which was to get a comfortable with neufchatel. I took another stab at it this weekend with some better results.


Ingredients:
Milk:

• Quantity: 1/2 Gallon
• Brand: Cub 2% Reduced Fat Milk.
• Notes: It says it's pasteurized, I don't know if it was ultra pasteurized. Grade A, Homogenized.

Other Ingredients:

• 1/8 tsp. Organic Vegetable Rennet. Double Strength Plus, Gluten Free, Non-GMO 
• 1/8 C. milk
• 1/8  Tbsp. of lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Steps & Notes:

1. Buttermilk: I still don't have buttermilk so, again, I mixed 1/8 Tbsp of lemon juice with 1/8 C. of milk. This seemed to be the general substitute for buttermilk I could find on the internet.
2. Mix Buttermilk w/ Milk: I added the 1/8c. of 'Buttermilk' to the 1/2 Gal. of milk
3. Warm milk: Warmed milk to 65° F 
4. Add Rennet: I added 1/8 tsp. of rennet (Which was pre-mixed into 1/8c. of cold water).
5. Let Sit: I let it sit for 12 hours covered and undisturbed at room temperature. The curd was a little harder this time around, but still seemed a little soft. I don't know if having real cultured buttermilk will make the difference on this one or not.
6. Cut Curd: into 1/2 inch curds.
7. Strained Curd: I put the curd in a handkerchief and and let it strain overnight, because the curd still wasn't very hard, the whey was hard to separate out and it still seemed pretty moist. 
8. Add Salt: I added about 1/2 tsp. of salt into the cheese
9. Whipped cheese: The cheese still seemed a little curd-y and not very smooth, so I decided to experiment and whip it up a little to see if it smoothed out.
10. Let dry some more: I let it hang in the fridge a few more hours to get a little more of the whey out.

Results:

• Taste: Salty still. 1/2 tsp. was still a little too much for the 1/2 Gal. recipe. 
• Texture: It is a little more smooth and spreadable like a cream cheese.
• Overall the flavor and texture reminds me more of a fine curd cottage cheese. I think that's because I'm not using buttermilk. I read a few cottage cheese recipes where they use lemon juice to acidify the milk, but I haven't seen that in an neufchatel recipes.
• My wife likes it, except for how salty it is, so that is a good sign.
• I would give it an overall rating of about 3.5 stars. 

Possible Improvements:

• Use less salt.
• Use real cultured buttermilk. I think you might really need the buttermilk cultures, not just the acidity, so a imitation like adding lemon juice to milk doesn't help you much.
• I also had the idea of using the steamer pot that has a strainer that fits nicely into a majority of the pot. I can cut the curd, then lift the curd out and let the whey drain off more easily than trying to scoop out the already delicate curds.