4 Recipes For You To Enjoy!
I was searching for organic raw cream cheese and couldn’t find any, so once again I did a bit of research and found that it is super easy to make your own cream cheese.
I am going to give you several different recipes in this post.
- How to make cream cheese if you have raw milk that hasn’t soured yet
- How to make cream cheese if you have soured raw milk.
- How to make cream cheese if you don’t have access to raw milk and want to make it with organic whole milk
- How to make liquid whey.
Don’t let all those different recipes scare you. This whole process will take you less than 5 minutes in prep time but does take some time allowing the milk to sit out.
So let’s get started. First up, this recipe is for fresh raw milk that hasn’t soured yet.
Making Cream Cheese with Non-Soured Raw Milk hasn’t
Here is how to make cream cheese with raw milk that has yet to sour:
1. Place 4 cups of milk in a small saucepan and heat over low heat until 90ºF.
2. Stir in 1/2 tsp of unrefined sea salt and 2 tablespoons of buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, just take 2 tablespoons of raw milk and mix in 1/2 tsp of white vinegar and place in a small bowl. Stir and let stand for 5-10 minutes. You now have buttermilk).
3. Put the milk mixture in a glass half gallon size mason jar and secure the lid tightly. Lay the jar on its side and allow to sit out at room temperature for 8-24 hours or until the milk has clabbered. It is very cold where I am right now, so mine actually took closer to 30 hours.
4. When the milk has clabbered, it will be thick and look like fresh yogurt or gelatin.
5. Once the milk has clabbered, place the milk in a jelly strainer, a thin flour sack or thin tea cloth, or cheesecloth (layered about 4 times). I am using a jelly strainer.
Allow straining at room temperature for several hours or up to 8 hours. The longer you allow it to strain, the thicker your cream cheese will be.
That is it! It is that simple. You will be amazed how wonderful real raw cream cheese really taste!
Try mixing a little raw honey and raw walnuts in the cream cheese and spread it on your favorite sprouted bread. Delicious! This will make about 6-8 ounces of fresh cream cheese.
6. The liquid that comes out when you strain it is the liquid whey. Do not throw out the liquid whey. You can use it in smoothies, or to soak your grains or oats in it. There are many recipes out there using real liquid whey. It will store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
If your raw milk goes bad and it is undrinkable because it is sour, don’t throw it out, make some cream cheese with it.
Cream Cheese If You Have Soured Raw Milk
- Simply put the 4 cups of milk into a 1/2 gallon glass mason jar, secure lid and leave out at room temperature until milk has clabbered.
- Place milk in a strainer, tea cloth/flour sack, cheesecloth and allow the whey to drip out for 2-8 hours, depending on the desired consistency.
- Do not throw out the liquid whey. You can use it in smoothies, or to soak your grains or oats. There are many recipes out there using real liquid whey. It will store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
If you do not have access to raw milk, then you can use organic whole milk.
Cream Cheese Without Raw Milk
How to make cream cheese if you don’t have access to raw milk and want to make it with organic whole milk.
- Place 4 cups of organic whole milk in a small sauce pan and heat over low heat until 90ºF.
- Stir in 1/2 tsp of unrefined sea salt and 2 tablespoons of buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, just take 2 tablespoons of organic whole milk and mix in 1/2 tsp of white vinegar. Stir and let stand for 5-10 minutes. You now have buttermilk).
- Put the milk mixture in a glass half gallon size mason jar and secure the lid tightly. Lay the jar on its side and allow to sit out at room temperature for several hours or overnight until the milk has clabbered. It will be thick and look like fresh yogurt or gelatin.
- Once the milk has clabbered, slowly stir and heat the mixture over low heat to 120ºF, it should start to curdle. Turn off heat and let sit covered for 10 minutes.
- Now place the milk in a cheesecloth (layered about 4 times), a flour sack or tea cloth, or a jelly strainer. Rinse all of these options with cool water before adding the milk to them. I am using a jelly strainer. Allow straining for several hours. The longer you let it strain, the thicker the cream cheese will be.
- Do not throw out the liquid whey. You can use it in smoothies, or to soak your grains or oats. There are many recipes out there using real liquid whey. It will store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months. That is it, that simple!
Image Credit: On Just A Couple Acres; image credit: Cheesemaking.com
Recipe adapted for pasteurized cream cheese recipe courtesy of Ehow.com
Thanks Halle. I will definitely be trying this out soon.
I had my inlaws pick me up a loaf of sourdough from Berlin Natural Bakery after reading your appreciation for it. It was so GOOD! 🙂
I know, isn’t it delicious Julia? Try spreading this cream cheese on it drizzled with a little honey (part of my breakfast this morning) 🙂
*GASP* That sounds sooo good!
I found a market in San Diego that supposedly carried this. I’ll try to bring some home on my next trip.
I have reintroduced raw cheese and raw milk back into my diet…so far, no reaction! YAY! I will be making this soon. : )
the best foods are usually easy,I’m sure a staple somewhere backwhen before mass production and didn’t have some expensive manmade gadget to use. Glad you doing all this research and testing Thank You 😉
whats the main difference between sour cream and the cream cheese? It seems the cream cheese is just strained more is that right? Do they have a similar taste and just different consistency?
@kayleeh Cream cheese is made from clabbered (sour) milk and sour cream is made strictly from cream. The cream cheese does have a slightly sour taste where as sour cream is really sour. There consistencies are quite different. Sour cream is not as thick as the cream cheese. Both are great!
Halle Thank you so much for the different options! I am actually am a little more interested in extracting the whey from Organic Whole Milk. Although my mom is thrilled because I save her the cream cheese. What I was told was that I could leave the milk out at room temperature for 48 hours or until it achieved the same consistancy as you also describe. Then I could simply pour it in to the cheese cloth and allow the whey to seperate out. Is the cooking method you describe more efficient? Also as long as I use organic buttermilk am I still ensuring that I am getting “Organic” pure whey? Thank you so much!
@noahdoran I would definitely heat the milk after is sits and also heat beforehand too. You are dealing with a delicate balance. I think organic buttermilk would work just fine. Let me know how it turns out 🙂
@hallecottis
Thank you I will!
I made the cream cheese and it was softer than yours. Should I have let it clabbered longer?
thank you, i’m new to making cheese. i have raw milk that has soured and am going to make this. can you please explain why you don’t have to heat the soured milk and i’m assuming you don’t have to add the buttermilk because it’s already soured. is heating the milk to 90 degrees so it will solidify or what is the point of heating it? total novice, thank you.
Dont heat. It’ll kill many useful bacterias
So I am lactose intolerant and I can drink raw milk with out any problems. I have been looking for cream cheese that won’t cause GI discomfort. I have heard that heating the raw milk can break down the lactase which then makes it undesirable for lactose intolerant people. Do you know if you can make cream cheese with say the brand Lactaid milk?? Thanks!!
Stacy if you can drink raw milk you are not lactose intolerant – raw milk has just as much lactose as pasteurized milk. And the lactase you digest lactose with is your own – it’s not in the milk – so your lactase is not affected by what you do to milk before drinking it. You are probably intolerant to something else in industrial milk. So don’t drink pasteurized milk, and I wouldn’t recommend a highly artificial processed product like Lactaid milk either.
I found your website when I was looking for recipes for cream cheese. I started using raw milk about two months ago. I had some in a bottle that was past its date and did not taste sweet, so I did the soured raw milk method, but my cream cheese is somewhat bitter. Was my milk not sour enough and therefore needs to do the other raw milk method? I am loving discovering the things I can do with raw milk. It does not upset my stomach like regular milk and I make kefir that I drink everyday that seems to keep my IBS at bay. Love it!
Products made with “older” raw milk will be bitter. Best to use fresh raw milk. We have a small raw milk dairy.