Homemade Cream Cheese

I'm back with making homemade cheese...  why?  Because I now have a steady and reliable source of fresh milk!  (this means I'm making my own yogurt again too!)

Of course my homemade cream cheese is nothing like the famous Philadelphia brand (or even the local Magnolia!); for one thing it is less salty and a tad more tangy, but what I love about my homemade cream cheese is that I know exactly what went in it!

I (generally) followed the recipe for Real Cream Cheese in "Artisan Cheese Making at Home" by Mary Karl.  I varied in that I used cultured buttermilk (instead of mesophilic starter, as suggested by a friend) and I used powdered vegetable rennet instead of the specified liquid rennet.  Reason for the variation?  I could not find mesophilic starter or liquid rennet! 

As usual, I used the "bird's eye" cloth diaper to drain my cheese instead of butter muslin or "real" cheese cloth, for the same reason of the latter's unavailability!