SOFT RENNET CHEESE
The soft cheese made with rennet may be classified as fresh and cured.
Neufchatel.—The fresh soft cheese of the Neufchatel or Cream Cheese type is easily made and may be produced in any house from a small quantity of milk. The milk is set at a comparatively low temperature, usually 72° F., with very little rennet, just enough to coagulate the milk in about eighteen hours. During that time a slight acidity develops in the milk. When it is firmly curdled it is carefully dipped on to cheese-cloth suspended on a frame, or into cotton bags where it drains overnight.
To make the cheese quickly a starter is sometimes used and more rennet employed. The milk is heated to 80° F., 25% starter and 7½ c.c. of rennet extract, or one rennet tablet per hundred pounds of milk, are added and the milk curdles in about 30 minutes.
After draining for a few hours the curd is gently pressed for a similar time. When the whey is fairly well expelled, the curd is kneaded or run through a meat cutter with a little salt, not more than 2½ oz. to 10 lbs. of curd. The outfit and the manipulation is essentially the same as described under Cottage cheese.
A superior quality is obtained by pasteurizing the milk and if that is done a pure culture starter should always be used. If the slow setting method is used a very small amount of starter, say ½%, is sufficient, but when the quick process is employed 10% to 25% may be added.
Molding Neufchatel cheese
To give it a good appearance for market, the cheese is molded in little tin molds very much like a quarter-pound baking powder can with open ends. The cylindrical roll of cheese is wrapped in parchment paper and tinfoil and is immediately ready for consumption. In an ice box it will keep for a week or so. Neufchatel cheese may be made from whole milk or partly-skimmed milk. The yield is from 10 to 20 lbs. out of 100 lbs. of milk.
Cream Cheese is usually made in the same way. A mixture of cream and milk containing about 10% butter-fat is used, though sometimes the cream is not added until the time of salting. The mold is square, 2½” × 1½” × 2” deep. These soft kinds of cheese are often mixed with chopped peppers, olives or nuts and make excellent sandwiches.
Cured Soft Cheese.—For Cream or Neufchatel cheese, made for curing, the curd is salted more than for fresh cheese, or the molded cheese is rolled in salt. For a week or two it is placed in a curing room on straw mats or the like where it ferments slightly before being wrapped and packed for shipment.
French Soft Cheese.—The many forms of French soft cheese as represented by the Brie, the Camembert, etc., are subjected to special fermentations which give to each its peculiar flavor. Attempts have been made to use pure cultures of the bacteria active in such fermentations and so reduce the art of cheesemaking to a more scientific process. But it has been found that any desired kind of cheese cannot be made simply by adding a culture of this or that bacterium to pasteurized milk. Of vastly greater importance for the development of the proper bacteria and flavor is the handling of the milk and the curd by the experienced cheesemaker. Inoculation with a pure culture alone does not make the special cheese wanted.