Doppelrahmstufe
Cream cheese is a soft, light fresh cheese with a creamy taste and moderate acidity, usually made from fresh cheese with milk and cream added. It spreads easily, which is why it most often turns up on breakfast bread.
Key Facts
| Country of Origin | Germany |
| Specific Origin | Chester, New York, the U.S. |
| Milk Type | Cow's milk |
| Milk Treatment | Pasteurized |
| Texture | Soft |
| Flavor | Buttery, creamy |
| Aroma | Lactic |
| Also Known As | cream cheese, schmear, queso Filadelfia |
What is Doppelrahmstufe Cheese?
Around 1873 William A. Lawrence, a dairyman in Chester, New York, became the first person to make cream cheese in large quantities. He had bought a Neufchâtel factory the year before, and by adding cream he arrived at a richer cheese that he called cream cheese. In 1877 he registered the first cream cheese trademark, a cow silhouette followed by the words Neufchatel & Cream Cheese.
In 1879 Lawrence went into business with Samuel S. Durland to build a bigger plant. The New York distributor Alvah Reynolds began selling their cheese in 1880 under the name Philadelphia cream cheese. Demand grew, so Reynolds turned to a second Chester dairyman, Charles Green, and later bought the Empire Cheese Co. in South Edmeston, New York. After the Empire plant burned in 1900, production moved to the Phenix Cheese Company, which bought the Philadelphia name in 1903 and merged with Kraft in 1928.
Making it is simple at home and difficult to do consistently at scale. Lactic acid bacteria go into pasteurized, homogenized milk and ferment at roughly 22 °C (72 °F). As the pH falls, the protein micelles lose their charge and the liquid coagulates. The producer then kills the bacteria by heating the mix to 52 to 63 °C (126 to 145 °F) at the isoelectric point. Heat it a moment too early or too late and the flavor and body suffer. Canadian rules define the cheese as cream coagulated with the help of bacteria, the whey drained, and stabilizers such as xanthan gum or gelatin capped at 0.5 percent.
The cheese is soft, light and easy to spread, with a clean creamy taste and a mild acidity behind it. American versions tend to run lower in fat than those made elsewhere.
Most of it gets spread on bread, bagels and crackers, or used as a dip for chips and in salads. It mixes with yogurt or jalapeño for spreads. In cooking it goes into cheesecake, thickens sauces, and replaces or joins butter in cakes and frosting, usually two parts cheese to one part butter. It is the filling in crab rangoon served at Chinese American restaurants, and it shows up in mashed potatoes and in some western sushi rolls. In New York Jewish cooking it is known as schmear, and the bagel with cream cheese, often topped with lox and capers, spread from there across the United States.
How Does Doppelrahmstufe Cheese Compare?
The most relevant cheeses to compare Doppelrahmstufe against.
