How I made Mascarpone Cheese at Home

Yes, we can easily make Mascarpone cheese from Amul Fresh Cream, readily available in almost all retail chains in India. After a tiring hunt for Mascarpone cheese in Chennai, I consoled myself thus, as I knew the cheese wouldn't survive while transportation, even if I could get it. :(

To make 6 oz or 3/4 cup or a large orange sized ball of cheese:

Amul Fresh Cream(25%)- 300 ml (one and a half tetra packs)

Fresh lime juice- a tbsp

Well, Amul Fresh Cream confronts us as 200 ml tetra packs sitting pretty on general racks of major stores and I was lucky enough to grab two of them from Spencers Daily of Gandhi Nagar during my latest Chennai visit ( no luck in Besant Nagar, my usual place).

I opened both the packs, emptied the first one completely and half from the second one (a total of 300ml) into my 1.5 ltr milk cooker, (remember Indian milk cookers are the perfect double boilers) removed the 'whistle' as I din't really want the shrill disturbing noise while stirring the cream ;).

Placing the cooker with cream on a medium high flame, I waited till the cream started simmering, expecting to see bubbles on the sides of the pan as I was told. To my disappointment I failed to spot the bubbles even after 20 minutes and I was at a risk of boiling off the water completely from the double boiler. The cream was really HOT and added a tbsp of fresh lime juice. Gentle stirs but no fine streaks of separation of whey from the solid protein!!!.

I was losing my heart!

Yeah, I found myself stirring the cream continuously on a mild flame and could see the cream getting thicker, but still no streaks of liquid part!

Next, I placed the damp cheese cloth, folded twice, on a metal sieve which I placed carefully on a bowl.I poured the hot thick cream carefully on the sieve,lined with cheese cloth.

Alas! I could hear that wonderful sound of liquid trickling down from the sieve!!!...

YAY!! Not a disaster, for sure!..the cream had the consistency of 'hung curd' at this stage.

I refrigerated the whole set, overnight and was overjoyed to see the firm cheese(yay) and whey, down in the bowl which measured almost 20 ml :)

Hugs to my sweet girls, Swapna, Ria and Divya for clearing my silliest doubts and for making the post, Possible! :).

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