Recipe: Homemade Italian Mascarpone (Madhur Jaffrey)

HOMEMADE ITALIAN MASCARPONE

"This soft, sweet, buttery Italian cheese is now available in most specialty shops. But if for some reason you are stuck somewhere where you cannot lay your hands on it or simply find it too expensive, I offer a very simple recipe. All you really need are light cream and tartaric acid. Tartaric acid is easy enough to get but for some reason I often have great difficulty finding light cream with 25 percent butterfat, once a common item in all our supermarkets. My cheese coach suggested I experiment with 1/3 heavy cream and 2/3 skim milk, and this worked perfectly. Serve a little of this cheese on toast with jam or with fresh fruit."

2 cups heavy (whipping) cream
6 cups skim milk
1/2 teaspoon tartaric acid (I use cream of tartar, which works perfectly)

Place a large colander in the sink and line it with a clean dish towel or 3 to 4 layers of cheesecloth at least 24 inches square.

Combine the cream and milk in the top half of a double boiler and set it over high heat. Stir frequently with a wooden spoon and keep a thermometer nearby. When the temperature begins to near 175 degrees F, turn the heat down to low. You are aiming for a temperature of 185 degrees F, but you do not want to shoot past it.

As soon as you hit the correct temperature, turn the heat down to very, very low and scatter the cream of tartar over the top of the cream. Mix it in thoroughly, turn off the heat, but leave the double boiler in place. Within a minute, the cream should begin to thicken and set. You should also begin to see a thin line of greenish whey forming around the edges. If that does not happen, add just another pinch of the tartar, no more. Stir this in as well. Within 2 to 3 minutes, the cream should have coagulated.

Pour the contents of the pan into the lined colander in the sink. If the draining is held up by the thick curds, lift up the cloth by its 4 ends, forming a loose bundle. If the flow of whey slows down, encourage it by sloshing the cheese from side to side or pushing the bundle against the sides of the colander and pressing with a big spoon. When you feel you have got out as much whey as you can easily, put the cheese bundle in a small sieve, set the sieve on a small bowl, and put the whole thing in the refrigerator. The cheese is full of butterfat and will spoil easily, so let it drain in cool comfort.

When it stops dripping, 2 to 4 hours, remove the cheese from the cloth and put it in a tightly covered container before you refrigerate it again.

Makes about 2 cups (1 pound)
Source: Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian: More Than 650 Meatless Recipes From Around the Globe by Madhur Jaffrey
With the assistance of Ricki Carroll of The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company