What’s the best part of making your own soft cheese from raw milk?
Raw milk contains probiotics of course!
Raw milk left to sit out and get warm means those probiotics are proliferating.
This raw milk mascarpone is teeming with living flora. It’s an indulgent, tasty health food that you can enjoy in both sweet and savory dishes!
What Is Mascarpone?
Mascarpone is a soft cheese — fluffier than creme fraiche, milder than chevre, richer and less tart than cream cheese.
It hails from Lombardy, Italy, and is often used in desserts like tiramisu.
Citrus vs. Rennet In Mascarpone
While mascarpone is commonly made with fruit-derived lemon juice, citric acid, or cream of tartar, I wanted to use rennet for a fruit-free approach.
Most of the soft cheese available today is going in the opposite direction, however, with vegetarian, rennet-free instructions. It almost impossible to find a rennet-based, soft cheese recipe!
What’s the difference between using acids or rennet?
With the three common acids I mentioned above (lemon juice, cream of tartar, and citric acid), the acid is added directly to the milk to coagulate the milk proteins.
With rennet, the enzyme converts the lactose in milk into lactic acid, which in turn coagulates the milk proteins.
In both of these methods, the proteins clump into curds, and the liquid separates off as whey.
Mascarpone curdled with rennet yields a cheese similar to a sweet cheese custard.
If you’ve never made cheese before, this recipe is an excellent place to start.
Raw Milk Mascarpone Cheese
Mascarpone is a soft cheese — fluffier than creme fraiche, milder than chevre, richer and less tart than cream cheese. This raw milk mascarpone is teeming with living flora. It's an indulgent, tasty health food that you can enjoy in both sweet and savory dishes! Makes approximately 2-1/2 cups mascarpone cheese.
Ingredients
- 2-quart pot
- large colander
- bowl or bucket to fit under the colander
- double-layer fine cheesecloth
- thermometer that measures as low as 86 degrees Fahrenheit
- 2 cups raw cream
- 2 cups raw whole milk
- 1/8 organic vegetable rennet tablet Non-GMO*
- 2 tablespoons pure water
Instructions
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First, make sure your hands, countertops, and all of your tools are very clean and free of chlorine.
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In a saucepan, slowly heat raw cream and raw milk to 86 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring slowly.
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Once milk reaches this temperature, turn off the heat.
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Crush 1/8 rennet tablet into a powder and dissolve into water.
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Add rennet water to the warmed milk and cream.
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Slowly stir -- mimic a Ferris wheel when you stir: up and over in circles -- for 20 seconds, until well mixed.
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Then counter-stir for 5 seconds.
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Cover the pot with a large tea towel and set aside at room temperature for 10 to 12 hours, or overnight.
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Do not disturb the pot.
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After 10 to 12 hours, there may be a pooling of whey on the surface and an overall thickening of the milk.
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This is a very soft curd that has formed. On the other hand, your cheese may have very little visible whey and scoop like yogurt. It all depends!
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Now, rinse the cheesecloth in hot water and wring out.
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Line a colander with a double thickness of cheesecloth, and nest the colander into a bowl or bucket.
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Ladle the thickened cream into the prepared colander.
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Cover loosely with a large tea towel or large corners of cheesecloth.
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Place this in a cool location or refrigerator. (I leave mine out when we go to sleep, as our home cools off considerably overnight.)
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Allow the cheese to drain 2 to 12 hours, until desired thickness is achieved. (Reserve leftover whey for the base of a smoothie, or use in place of milk in your favorite pancake recipe.)
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Transfer to a glass storage container and refrigerate.
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Consume within 1 week.
Uses For Mascarpone
The first time I made mascarpone, I drizzled a bit of maple syrup over it and ate it in a bowl with a spoon. It was incredible, yet very rich.
You may want to top yours with berries or create an authentic tiramisu.
Mascarpone is equally lovely in savory dishes — as a layer in your favorite lasagna recipe, served on an antipasto platter with olives and sprouted nuts, or anywhere you’d use chevre, ricotta, or cream cheese.
The first time I made this cheese, I left it out for my husband to enjoy while I ran an errand. He texted me to let me know how he liked it, even adding kiss and fireworks emojis: “Best dairy product I’ve ever eaten!!” he said.
Do you enjoy making simple, probiotic cheeses? Have you ever made mascarpone
Other Cultured Dairy Recipes
- How To Make Cultured Butter
- Compound Butter {Butter Gets Dressed Up!}
- Homemade Raw Cheddar Cheese
- How To Make Homemade Buttermilk + 5 Buttermilk Substitutes
- How to Make Sour Cream
- What To Do With Soured Cream?
- Homemade Cottage Cheese From Raw Goat Milk
- Trim Healthy Mama Fuel Pull Cottage Cheese {homemade}
- Cultured Cream Cheese (+5 flavor options!)
- Middle Eastern Kefir Cheese Balls {with free video!}
- 3 Variations of the Traditional Holiday Cheese Ball
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This sounds great! Can’t wait to make it. I will just have to check out what the Rennet table is as I have never heard of it before. Not to worry!
I have previously made Kefir Milk Cream Cheese.
Regards France from South Africa
Whats the shelf life? Is it lengthened or shortened by the fact that it contains a live culture?
Hi Mark, the shelf life is the same. It is not a long shelf life, about 5 days.
I only have liquid rennet. Do you know how to substitute liquid for the tablet form?
I know your question is from quite some time ago, but I looked this up because I had the same question. This is the first time I’ve seen this post. 1 rennet tablet = 1 tbsp liquid rennet
i tried this without a tablet, but with a gathered and tied bunch of creeping charlie. i just left the bunch in there when bringing to heat, and while stirring and pulled it. pulled the flowers and left them in it.
i wonder if it will work, lots of historic text mention the herbs use as a rennet, but i cannot find a single recipe, maybe i will make a tea and reduce it to concentrate it if this does not work…
i will report back.
thankyou for the recipe, if you know of any way to use, yarrow, creeping charlie, or any other herbs as a rennet in this, i would love to hear!
I’ll look forward to hearing your results!
welp, it needed more, i ended up with something a lot like clotted cream and whey. i am going to try making a strong tea with it, and reducing it down.
the cream was good on bread.
I don’t have access to raw milk at this time, would this process work with pasteurized milk?
Thanks.
Can the mascarpone be frozen for later use?
Thanks
I would rather use lemon juice instead of rennet. Will that work?