As much as I like real food and blogging, I don’t really consider myself a “food blogger.”
Food bloggers make beautiful food and showcase it with stunning photography on their blogs.
Me? I’m lucky if I can get my homemade tortillas to remotely resemble a circular-like shape, and if I can make a entire batch that doesn’t have any holes, I’m thrilled.
However, sometimes I still like to pretend I’m fancy, so it’s kinda fun to say Fromage Blanc with a ultra-sophisticated accent.
But let’s face it- as fancy as the name is, this cheese is just as down-to-earth as I am.
It’s pretty much cheese-in-a-bag. Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about… 😉
There are a million-and-one versions of this cheese floating around the ‘net. Some folks mistakenly call it “cream cheese,” but that’s not entirely accurate, since it doesn’t call for cream. (Get my DIY cream cheese recipe here.)
However, it closely resembles cream cheese in color, taste, and texture- thought it might not be *quite* as creamy.
You can also make a version of this cheese using yogurt, although the yogurt version will be slighly tangier.
Regardless of how you want to make it, it is the ultimate beginner cheese- and it’s raw and cultured, so it’s good for ya, too.
Homemade Cultured Soft Cheese (Fromage Blanc)
Ingredients:
- 1/2 gallon of cow or goat milk *see my note below regarding milk
- 1/8 teaspoon of mesophilic culture
- 1 drop double-strength liquid rennet, diluted in 1/4 cup cool water
Instructions:
Bring your milk to around 80 degrees. Or, if you have just come into the house from milking, strain the fresh milk and use it right away without heating.
(You aren’t trying to cook or pasteurize anything, but the mesophilic culture you are using appreciates warmish temps.)
Pour the warm milk into a glass jar. Sprinkle the mesophilic culture over the top of the milk, and gently stir. Then gently mix in the rennet/water mixture- do not over mix it.
Cover the jar loosely, and allow to culture at room temperature for 24 hours. (I use a small piece of fabric and a rubber band to cover mine.)
At the end of the culturing period, the milk will have set up and look somewhat like yogurt. You may see some whey starting to separate, and that’s OK.
Dump the curd into a piece of cheesecloth (check out my ideas for improvised cheesecloth– works like a charm!) and tie into a bag. Hang this bag and allow the whey to drain out for 4-6 hours.
For smaller cheese recipes like this one, I’ve found this drip set-up to be the easiest: I simply tie the ends of the bag into a knot around a wooden spoon, and then place the spoon over the mouth of a large pitcher. The pitcher collects the whey with minimal mess.
You *can* also hang the bag from cabinet door handles using a rubber band, but that can cause your doors to warp over time, so I wouldn’t do it too much. (And I really don’t want to mess up my lovely new painted cabinets…)
Store the finished cheese in the fridge– it should last at least a week– although probably longer.
So now what do I do with it?
Lots of stuff!
Spread it on bagels, toast, or muffins.
Melt into scrambled eggs.
Use it in recipes that call for cream cheese- Some people even make a cheesecake-like dessert using soft cheese.
You can also make your own flavored spreads. Add sea salt (I love this one), dried/fresh herbs, or chopped nuts for a savory treat. Or, sweeten it up to serve with desserts.
For one of our favorite variations, simply sweeten the cheese to taste with real maple syrup, and then add a teaspoon or so of orange zest. It’s wonderful on pancakes, waffles, or anything else you can think of!
Kitchen Notes:
- Wondering what to do with all of the leftover whey? (You’ll end up with over a quart of it) Don’t toss it! I have a whole list of ideas for you.
- I have only ever used raw, whole milk for this recipe– either goat or cow is fine. You can use pasteurized milk for this recipe if you wish, but definitely avoid the ultra-pasteurized stuff.
- Want to use yogurt in this recipe instead? Easy! Just dump a quart of yogurt into your cheesecloth instead of the cultured curds/whey. Drain 4-6 hours, and there ya go.
- If you don’t have double-strength rennet, use 2 drops of regular rennet instead.
- The cheese in my pictures is a little lumpier than normal– usually it’s a slightly smoother consistency. I had to shorten my dripping period because I needed to take pictures, so I think that had something to do with it.
- I really love New England Cheese Making Supplies Co. for all of my cheese making supplies. They’re a great small company, and their cultures, rennet, and other cheese making supplies haven’t let me down yet!
If you are new to cheesemaking, this is a wonderful place to start. And you’ll feel super sophisticated when you can say, “I made Fromage Blanc today…” 🙂
How to Make Fromage Blanc {Raw, Cultured Soft Cheese}
Ingredients
- 1/2 gallon of cow or goat milk
- 1/8 teaspoon of mesophilic culture
- 1 drop double-strength liquid rennet, diluted in 1/4 cup cool water
Instructions
- Warm milk to around 80 degrees, unless you’ve just milked, then simply strain and use right away without heating because the mesophilic culture just likes warmish temps (not hot)
- Pour into glass jar and sprinkle mesophilic culture on top
- Gently stir and mix in your rennet/water mixture
- Cover jar loosely (a small piece of fabric and rubber band work)
- Allow to culture at room temperature 24 hours
- Milk should look somewhat like yogurt, with possibly some whey starting to separate
- Dump curd into a piece of cheesecloth and tie into a bag
- Hang bag for 4-6 hours allowing whey to drain out
- Tip: Tie ends of bag in a knot around a wooden spoon, and place spoon over mouth of large pitcher to collect whey
- Store finished cheese in fridge– it should last a week or longer
This recipe looks so easy. I really want to try making my own cheese, but I am so scared to. Some recipes looks crazy complicated this one looks pretty doable for a first timer like me.
You can do it Carolyn! 🙂
Hey, I made that this week. Only, I was trying to make yogurt. I anticipated opening to a soft, smooth, creamy delight and found water. I put my spoon in and pulled out cheese curd. Weirdest thing ever. I drained it off and we have a cross between ricotta and cream cheese. I used live yogurt cultures and beef gelatin. Imguess thengelatin thought it was rennet!
Hmmm… that is interesting– I’ve had some wild results with yogurt as well sometimes– it’s always a tiny bit different. 😉
One more note for those of us stuck living with city water, the water to dilute the rennet needs to be unchlorinated! Regular chlorine can be evaporated or filtered out of city water, but if your municipality uses chloramine, you’ll need to buy bottled water.
Carolyn, go for it! A recipe like this, or cream cheese, or cottage cheese, anything un-pressed and un-aged, are great ones to start with.
Yes– thanks for the reminder Trish! I forget that point since we have well water. 🙂
You’re lucky, I wish we did! 🙂
Something else to be aware of is that if your municipality uses chlorine and ammonia, that this also will combine to make chloramine. This chemical causes and/or aggravates all sorts of health and learning problems, not just affecting cheesemaking. 🙁 You will be able to smell a lasting smell on your clothing after washing and drying…even outside on the line, and so that is one way how it is different from chlorine…it does not evaporate. We also learned that distilling the water will not take it out.
Unfortunately, we think that in the past 6 months our municipality started using chloramine or the combination that I stated, and according to the above post, I can no longer just take our water from the distiller to make cheese. 🙁 The news keeps on getting worse, but it is good to know before I go waste our good milk/cream. I hadn’t even thought of that, since our cow is currently dry. We are heading toward hooking up our well again. We do miss it terribly. Hopefully it still has water as it was dry years ago when we disconnected it…
This isn’t very different from making Greek yogurt. I use a half-gallon pasteurized milk and three tablespoons yogurt. I heat my milk in my trusty slow-cooker to 180 degrees, let it cool to 110 degrees. then I mix in the yogurt and pour it into my trusty Yogotherm for 7 – 12 hours, depending on when I started the process. When it is set up I pour it into a colander lined with cheesecloth, set it over a bowl, and let it drain for about 4 hours. I freeze the whey to use in homemade bread and enjoy the wonderful yogurt. (I do like your idea of tying the cheesecloth and suspending it by a large spoon over a pitcher better).
Yep- soft cheese and yogurt are pretty similiar– they just use different cultures.
Perfect timing! Our hogs go to the butcher on Tuesday which leaves me with lots of extra milk to play with! I was wondering where to get the cheese making supplies… Now they are just a click away! Thanks for saving me a 2 hour drive! I am curious though… Looked like there were lots of meso. Culture options… Is there one better than the other for a beginner? I saw the one specifically for this type cheese, but I am a multi-task kinda gal… Which culture do you use?
I actually make fromage blanc (and fromage frais, chevre…big soft cheese fan) quite often and I saw your last picture and went, ‘mine don’t look like that’, so I’m really glad you mentioned it wasn’t fully drained. I love this cheese, it has at least 100 uses around here.
I’m with you – love this stuff!! I would add that if you want it creamy and smooth a stick blender works wonders. I do this for my sour cream because I like a cream and milk mix (straight from the cow) cultured, then drained as you did, for my sour cream. It is always lumpy with the difference in the cream vs the milk so a stick blender makes gorgeous smooth sour cream for me. I enjoy your articles – keep up the great work!
Yes– I was thinking I should have blended it a bit this time!
Would you mind sharing your sour cream recipe? I always enjoy Jills posts and the comments that follow them.
I really like that! Do the cultures and rennet add the texture? The last time I made cheese with homemade yogurt, the texture was not the same as yours. I’m curious, because I have not used cultures before.
I have been dabbling in cheese making. This looks so easy. I will have to give it a try.
Add a little salt after draining if you’re going to use it like cream cheese, or just as a spread. The salt not only adds flavor, it helps preserve the cheese by slowing mold from growing. I always make too much yogurt to use right away, so I drain it into soft cheese after a couple of days. It seems the longer the yogurt sits before making the soft cheese, the better the flavor!
This looks so great! But how much cheese does 1/2 gallon of milk make?
Hmmm… I should have measured, but I think I got around 2 cups of cheese out of this last recipe.
I always wanted to make my own cheese. Do you have other recipes for various types of cheeses?
I’m planning on doing mozzarella last this month– and yogurt too. 🙂
Cool! Mozarella I can get on board with … I think my wife would definitely like the yogurt
Love this post! I’ve made real cream cheese with half cream, half milk and it turned out pretty good. I’m going to give this a try. Besides I like the fancy name 😉
I make my own yogurt for a while now. I took cheese class and we heated the milk up and added just lemon juice and had the curds then drained them put them in a mixer to make a soft cheese then add you flavors. I not sure what the difference in making it with a culture and rennet? maybe it adds taste? Anyway I will have to try your way to know..Thanks
This looks easy peasy! I need to try it (I know! I know!).
Hi Jill, I was wondering if you added the entire 1/4 cup of water rennet mixture? When I first started making cheese I used rennet and water but for some reason I don’t think I added it all, can’t remember! :/ I have some mesophilic starter but it’s direct set, I think I need to research to see if theres a difference in that…I started using direct set cultures because I was using buttermilk and rennet but really didn’t like the texture from the buttermilk, sometimes made the cheese slimey-ish…but I have a whole bottle of rennet I’d love to be able to use instead of having to buy new direct set cultures. Thanks for inspiring me to get back to making cheese! my family will be happy lol Love your blog by the way! 🙂
Cheryl
Hi Cheryl,
Yes, I do add the entire 1/4 cup of water. Happy cheese making!
I just made fresh cheese using 1/2 gallon whole milk and a quart of buttermilk. It made nice curds and lots of milky whey, pretty similar to the original buttermilk. My son loves buttermilk– he’ll probably drink it all, no problem. I feel like I got something for free, but I’m not sure if it’s the cheese or the buttermilk.
Sounds gorgeous Laurel- way to go!
Why use bought rennet?
You can make it yourself during the summer. And it’s a lot more safe then the bought kinds..
Would this freeze ok?
It should! 😉
Hi Jill,
I tried making the fromage blanc cheese and not sure what I did wrong, I made it yesterday morning, and when I poured it out of the jar into the cheesecloth this morning, it was all still milk! I used raw milk, it had not separated, had a very thin layer of a yellowish skin on top, smells really good, sweet even, I used double strength liquid veg. rennet, and the mesophillic culture. I poured it back in the jar, and not sure what to do? Ideas anyone?? Oh and it was on the kitchen counter for the 24 hours.
Hmmm… sometimes that happens! Your culture may have been dead–that’s usually the case for me when that occurs. Hopefully it’ll work better next time. 🙂
I went ahead and left it on the counter overnight again, and when I checked it this morning it looks like yogurt consistency, it still smells good, could it be it just took a bit longer? Would it be safe to eat? Sorry for all the questions this is my first try at making this.( it’s been pretty humid here in MO, and our a/c has been running quite a bit, made me wonder if that affected anything?) thank you Jill !
Hi Jill,
You probably don’t check this post anymore, but I’m about to begin making my own cheese and found your recipes very helpful! I do have one question: How do I control the acidity of the cheese? I prefer a sweeter, less sour-tasting fromage blanc (I’m trying to replicate my favorite from a local cheese maker.) Should I just culture the milk for less time? Can I taste the curds before draining so I know when I’ve achieved the right taste?
Thanks!