Homemade Neufchatel Cheese (Similar to Cream Cheese)

In the past couple of months we’ve experienced all kinds of shortages on grocery store shelves.  While deli meats have been particularly hard hit, cream cheese has been in poor shape as well at times. 

I really like cream cheese.  Really, really like it.  And I don’t want to do without it.  I like it on bagels and in Alfredo sauce.  It’s nice in Jell-O salads, even though we don’t eat many of those anymore.  It’s wonderful spread on crackers, especially with some pepper jelly. 

The commercial dehydrated stuff marketed to preppers is absolutely horrid.  Really, really awful.  And yes, they say you can drain the whey from yogurt to make something like cream cheese.  I tried it a long time ago and wasn’t impressed.  I should give it a try again.  But not today.

I decided to venture into making Neufchatel cheese before going all in on cream cheese.  Neufchatel looked a lot easier—almost fool-proof.  This lowfat alternative to cream cheese originated in France and is also known as farmer’s cheese.  It spreads easily on crackers and can be used to make cheesecake.  It seemed like a great place to begin. 

This recipe happens to use rennet tablets.  Rennet also comes in a liquid form, which cheese-making gurus seem to prefer as being stronger and more reliable.  Unfortunately, the liquid form doesn’t have the shelf-life of the tablets, and it’s not generally available in stores.  Junket rennet tablets are sold in some grocery stores and online.  My large chain grocery store doesn’t carry them, but the small independent store does. And then, you only need fresh milk and cultured buttermilk to make your own Neufchatel at home.

Neufchatel Cheese

1 gallon milk
1/4 cup cultured buttermilk (the substitute using vinegar or lemon juice will not work here)

1/4 Junket® rennet tablet

1/4 cup cool water

Dissolve the ¼ Junket tablet in the water and set aside.  In a large non-reactive pot, gradually warm the milk to 65°F.   When the milk reaches 65°F, remove from heat and stir in the buttermilk thoroughly.  Then stir in the rennet water and whisk thoroughly. 

Cover and let sit overnight undisturbed at room temperature.

The next morning, a clean break should have developed.  (A clean break indicates coagulation is complete.  “Use clean fingers, a nonreactive spoon, or a plastic spatula. Press lightly on the surface of the curd until it breaks, or make a small slice in the surface. Scoop your finger or tool upwards and examine the whey that rushes in to fill the cut. If it is clear and yellow, you have achieved a clean break. If it is whitish, cloudy, or milky, wait a bit longer and check again.”  From https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/cheese/cutting-the-curd/)

If a clean break hasn’t yet been achieved, let the milk sit up to 12 more hours, until it does become firm enough. 

After the clean break is achieved, cut the curd into ½” cubes.

Line a large strainer with cheesecloth and place it over a large bowl to collect the whey.  Spoon  the curds and whey into the cheesecloth.  Save the whey for making ricotta, bread, smoothies, etc.  When most of the whey has drained, gather the corners of the cloth and suspend the cheese curd in a cool place to continue draining overnight (in the refrigerator, if possible).  The next day, turn the cheese into a bowl and mix in up to 1 tablespoon of salt, according to taste.  It may be eaten immediately or stored covered in the refrigerator until use.

Family reviews:  The best way to test cream cheese in this family is on bagels.  So I spread some cheese on the toasted bagels and passed them to the kids that were here.  I had been a bit distracted with news out of Ukraine and rising gas prices, and I told the kids I wanted to know what they thought of this cream cheese, totally forgetting that it was actually Neufchatel.  Everyone ate it and was fairly happy with it, especially as compared with the nasty dehydrated commercial stuff.  Everyone rated it at between an A- and B+--that’s what we all said, individually and not as a group, and evaluating it against store-bought cream cheese.  So yes, we could really happily eat this in place of cream cheese. 

The only changes I would make would be in reducing the size of the recipe.  As written, this makes about 32 oz of Neufchatel, way more than we need at any given time.  Unfortunately, breaking Junket tablets into smaller, precisely measured pieces is a bit difficult.  You’d probably want to use a full ¼ tablet dissolved in water and then use the requisite portion of the solution to make a smaller batch of cheese.

Links to related posts:

Homemade Cottage Cheese  

05.03.24