108 THE BOOK OF CHEESE 



cheeses vary in water-content from 55 to 70 per cent; 

 in fat from 10 to 25 per cent; in casein from 18 to 25 

 per cent. 



135. Cream cheese. The Neufchatel process is also 

 used to make cream cheese. The material utilized is 

 commonly what has been called double cream. This is 

 produced by separating about half of a given volume of 

 milk and running the cream into the other half. Usually 

 cream cheese is made in the same factory as various 

 grades of Neufchatel. No material is lost. In some 

 instances, cream cheese is prepared by working thick 

 cream into the Neufchatel type of curd from practically 

 skimmed-milk. In working with high percentages of fat in 

 curd, care must be taken to avoid loss of fat in draining 

 and pressing. The curd is carefully chilled before press- 

 ing to reduce this loss. This may be done under refriger- 

 ation or upon cracked ice. Otherwise the manipulations 

 of the process are unchanged. The cheeses are commonly 

 molded in the Neufchatel machine into square cakes 

 weighing about 4 ounces and measuring approximately 

 3 by 2 J by | inches. These are wrapped in paper and 

 tin-foil and handled exactly as Neufchatel. 



Cream cheese of high quality made from reenforced 

 milk testing 7 to 9 per cent fat may be expected to test 

 approximately as follows : l 



Water 38-43 per cent 



Fat 43-48 per cent 



Protein 13-16 per cent 



Salt 0.5-1.25 per cent 



Yield 16-18 Ib. per 100 Ib. of cream. 



Increases of water, hence greater yields, are very com- 

 mon but usually associated with loss in quality both as 

 1 Taken from Conn. (Storrs) Exp. Sta. Bui. 78, page 328. 



