I can’t take another thread on that. I just can’t.
That seems to me to be an overly-strict definition of cheese, since not all cheeses are made with rennet, or have bacteria added. Unless you want to exclude cheeses like mascarpone or paneer.
I’m not sure what your point is or what you think my point is. In case I was not clear, the point I’m making is that whether cream cheese is real cheese is not a matter of opinion but a matter of fact. You seem to agree, as you cite Chipacabra’s post which gives a factual answer to the question. Why, then, I ask, is this thread a poll? Are we going to have polls now on whether the capital of France is Paris or Berlin?
Well, the poll question has “real” in quotes, so it might be understood to be asking not whether cream cheese is factually cheese, but how respondents perceive it. See the argument above that how things are “considered” is more significant than technical definitions.
A more solid form of milk? Like clotted cream? Butter? Ice cream?
I’m gonna say it’s Paris.
Yes, as you say, this is about perceptions of what is cheese, and those forms aren’t that far off from other products called cheese. Consider yogurt as an example, it is cultured, and could be considered cheese. I’m not speaking of the technical definition as Švejk is, but given the broad range of things called cheese, just about any milk product that is thicker than milk might be called cheese by someone.
It’s not “F”?
you and your fancy book learning.
No, as any cruciverbalist knows, the capital of France is the euro.
Not cheese. There’s too much sawdust and recycled newspapers in it to be cheese. Unless it’s true cream cheese, but I haven’t had that for decades.
Is this a double whoosh because it really went over my head? Ingredients in the cream cheese I buy:
Organic Pasteurized Milk and Cream, Cheese Culture, Salt, Organic Locust Bean Gum.
It is cheese.
Checking the ingredients of other cream cheeses I see they are all using SOLUBLE fiber now. As I recall, in the '80s it was different. But still, it needs filler to set properly? Maybe it can be cheese with an asterisk.
Sure goes great on a toasted bagel!
Is Sour Cream a Cheese too? Yogurt? Butter?
I vote no as it is.
Cream Cheese, Cottage Cheese and Ricotta Cheese are as close to cheese without actually being cheese in the proper form.
I guess with further processing they could become more cheese like…since it all starts the same way.
Pluto was a planet and tomatoes are berries…so what does anyone know anyway.
Just because they’re not pressed or aged cheeses does not mean they’re not cheese. Sour cream is not acidified, coagulated curds separated from whey. Nor is Yogurt. Nor is butter. Cream cheese is. Cottage cheese is. Ricotta is technically not quite a cheese, as it’s traditionally whey.
So you’re saying that Robert Webb wasn’t completely wrong? (some NSFW language)
A block of that ended up in my cart by accident. I’m glad I tasted a bit before it was used in anything. That stuff is atrocious. It was like eating wallpaper paste mixed with chalk. Blech.
I’ll note that the popular tubs (in the US) of Kraft Philadelphia Brand “cream cheese” are no longer “cream cheese,” but “cream cheese spread.” They’ve cost reduced it so much that they can no longer call it cream cheese in the US.
But if you buy it in those foil-wrapper bricks it’s still cream cheese.
I never bought those, but I was under the impression that they were spreadable cream cheese, so like spreadable butter (that usually has other oils in it), they weren’t exactly the same product as the bricks. Was this not the case?