So New York delis have a cream cheese shortage. What more trauma does this pandemic have in store for us? The good news is, we have alternatives. Several other fresh cheeses can fill in for the schmear on your bagel. In fact, they’re tastier than Philly cream cheese. A lot tastier. They don’t have the gums that make Philadelphia cream cheese so…gummy. So go ahead and buy your bagels. Here are five great choices to go under the smoked salmon until we get this cream cheese situation resolved.
Bellwether Farms Sheep Cheese (California): Bellwether’s new fresh sheep log relies on a long, slow fermentation (almost 24 hours) to develop acidity and flavor. Cheeses made this way need minimal rennet, so the resulting curd is as soft as silken tofu. The curd is scooped into bags to drain for a day, with some gentle pressure. Then it’s salted, chilled and packaged as 3-ounce vacuum-sealed logs.
Green Dirt Farm Fresh Sheep Cheese (Missouri): Green Dirt Farm’s fresh sheep cheese is about the simplest sort of cheese one can make. The cultured milk is fermented overnight, the acidity slowly builds, a tiny bit of rennet helps things along and eventually there’s curd. As gently as possible, the curd is scooped into bags and hung up to drain for eight hours, then salted and packed. Ta-da. The date stamped on the bottom of the tub is 60 days from the make day, and the fresher the better. It has a bright, clean, cultured flavor with no sheepy aftertaste. My Whole Foods carries it.
Madame Loïk (France): Madame Loïk is a soft whipped cheese made by a large dairy co-op in Brittany. It has a mellow, clean crème fraîche taste, a whisper of salt and a plush texture that makes you think it has a million calories. But it doesn’t. Made with buttermilk, cream, skim milk, cultures and French sel de Guérande, it’s surprisingly low in fat. Where I live, I find it only sporadically (at Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco and Sunshine Foods in St. Helena) but I snap it up when I do.
Pennyroyal Farm Laychee (California): From a small goat and sheep in California’s Anderson Valley, Laychee is a mixed-milk cheese in spring and summer, when the sheep are producing milk. In fall and winter, it’s 100 percent goat’s milk, cultured slowly over 22 hours for maximum flavor. Packed in a tub at about two days old, Laychee is moist and fluffy when fresh, with a lemony flavor. In Boontling, the quirkly local jargon, laychee means milk.
Gina Marie Cream Cheese (California): Made by Sierra Nevada Cheese Company, this all-natural product is what I use for any recipe calling for cream cheese, like my favorite pumpkin cheesecake. Gina Marie has only three ingredients: cultured milk, cream and salt. No rennet and no stabilizers like guar gum or carrageenan. My local Whole Foods carries it repacked in small clamshells. It has just the right amount of salt and a soft, spreadable texture.
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