Cream Cheese

The term “cream cheese” generally refers to spreadable, cow’s-milk cheeses, originally with a high butterfat content (though many versions now substitute various gums and gelling agents to produce a low-fat, yet spreadable, cream cheese). An early version of cream cheese was, strictly speaking, not even cheese (as it was not made from curds)—it was nothing more than cream hung to dry in cheesecloth until thickened. Some precursors of cream cheese were true cheeses, however. Some European cheeses—such as Neufchatel and Mascarpone—had similar properties: like our cream cheese, they were served young—with their lactic tanginess unmellowed by aging, but they were not the same as American cream cheese.