Essecke: Cream cheese (Frischkäse/kotijuusto) with basil and caraway

Lots of people in Switzerland drive frequently to Germany to shop because it's cheaper there. For me there is really only one reason to drive to Germany and that is a Bio-shop in Konstanz. There I can buy some products that remind me of Finland and which I unfortunately haven't been able to find in Switzerland. One of them is the rye chips of Linkosuo and the other one is piimä which they call Schwedenmilch. It tastes pretty similar to kefir but it's produced a bit differently and with another bacteria. So far the Schwedenmilch is the closest thing to piimä which I have been able to find here. The buttermilk in Coop doesn't come even close.

The label of the Schwedenmilch bottle

So last week on Monday I had a day of and I had been craving of piimä for some time because the last time in Germany had been in summer. My Hubby had to work anyways so I thought why not to spend some time to drive to Germany to do a quick shopping. Well, when I got to the shop in Konstanz there was only one bottle of Schwedenmilch left! How irritating!! I had, of course, wanted to buy at least five because I went through the trouble of driving there. Well, no can do.

Back side of the Schwedenmilch bottle

I wanted to use some Schwedenmilch to make cream cheese, but I didn't want to spend my one and only precious bottle for that so I used only calcium lactate. That can be bought in a pharmacy and it's basically a calsium salt of lactic acid. Milk for the cheese I bought at the farm in our village so it's real fresh milk. When I want to buy milk at the farm I have to pay them a visit when they are milking the cows and that's about 5:30pm. They give me the real fresh milk which is still warm meaning it comes pretty much straight from the udder. It cost 1 CHF per 1 litre.

So all that I need to make some cream cheese are milk, pot, calsium lactate, cheese cloth and I also use a cheese mould because I happen to own one. You can also place the cheese cloth on a sieve if you don't have a special cheese mould. And, of course, I also need some seasoning and spices/herbs. This time I used salt, basil and and some crushed caraway seeds.

The wooden frame is my cheese mould which I have got from my grandma. I have no idea that where has she bought it....somewhere in Finland for sure.

Calcium lactate for curdling the milk.

I mix the calsium lactate to the milk and then I bring it slowly to boil. After that I turn off the stove and let the pot stand on it for some time. You can see how the curd separates from the whey. After draining most of the whey (which you can use for example to make bread) I add the salt and desired herbs. Then a place the curd into the cheese mould, fold the cheese cloth on top of it and place it preferably over night into a fridge. The next day I demould the cheese and it's ready to serve.