Homemade Brazilian cream cheese (requeijão) is the soft, spoonable cheese on pão de alho and on morning bread. It is cooked whole milk, curdled, then blended with butter and a little cream. US brick cream cheese is the fallback spread, not the same product. Catupiry and other Brazilian-shop tubs are the usual buy when there is no time for a pot.
What it is
Requeijão cremoso is a Minas and all-Brazil table cheese. The home pot curdles hot milk with lemon juice or white vinegar, drains the curd, and blends it smooth with butter, salt, and cream (nata or creme de leite). The result is looser than a US brick of cream cheese and milder than an aged cheese.
Use refrigerated whole milk, not boxed UHT. UHT often will not curdle cleanly. In a US store that is the plastic gallon in the dairy case.
How it is used
Stir two tablespoons into the garlic butter for garlic bread on the grill (pão de alho). Spread it on pão francês, a bolillo, or a soft roll. It is not a grilling cheese. For the grate, use queijo coalho.
Where to buy it
A Brazilian market may have requeijão or Catupiry in a tub. That is the real buy. If the shop is empty, make the pot below, or use US cream cheese on pão de alho.
What to buy
- Low: US cream cheese, only as the fallback in a garlic-bread spread
- Usual mid: a homemade pot from whole milk
- High: a Brazilian-shop tub (requeijão or Catupiry)
Ingredients (about 1 cup / 250 g)
- 1 quart (1 liter) whole milk, refrigerated, not UHT
- 2 tablespoons, 30 ml (2 colheres de sopa) lemon juice or white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons, 28 g (2 colheres de sopa) unsalted butter, soft
- 3 tablespoons, 45 ml (3 colheres de sopa) heavy cream or table cream
- 1/2 teaspoon (1/2 colher de chá) fine salt
Method
- Heat the milk in a heavy pot over medium heat until small bubbles form at the edge. Keep it under a hard boil. Take it off the heat.
- Stir in the lemon juice or vinegar. Let it sit 5 minutes. The milk should split into white curds and pale whey. If it does not, warm it again for 1 minute and add 1 more teaspoon of acid.
- Line a sieve with a clean cloth or a coffee filter. Pour in the pot. Drain 5 to 10 minutes. Leave a little moisture in the curd so the blend stays smooth.
- Put the warm curd in a blender with the butter, cream, and salt. Blend until there are no grains. Add a spoon of the warm whey only if it is too stiff to spin.
- Spoon into a clean glass jar. Cool, then refrigerate at least 2 hours.
How you know it is done
The jar is smooth and spoonable, not grainy and not as stiff as a US cream-cheese brick. After a night in the fridge it firms a little. If it tastes sharp from the acid, the curd needed a brief rinse under cold water before blending.
When it goes on the table / storage
Make it the day before the fire. Keep the jar cold. Use it within 5 days. A clean spoon every time. This homemade pot is not a factory tub.
What to leave out
The dairy-case gallon is the first milk. If the shop is empty, US cream cheese works as a spread on pão de alho. This is a spread, not a grilling cheese.
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