Yesterday, I was watching Caprial & John’s Kitchen on PBS, and one of the things they made was this very yummie-looking dip. However, I did not know exactly what fromage blanc was, except for the fact that it is French for “white cheese” and that it was a very soft cheese. Caprial and John really didn’t go into details as to what this cheese was and where it could be bought.
So I Googled it, and one of the top results was a recipe for homemade fromage blanc from Emeril Lagasse. Usually anything with Emeril’s name on it is something you can’t go wrong with, also, I had the feeling that this might be something that is difficult to find in the store.
Emeril’s recipe looked surprisingly easy, so I decided to try it. What is nice about it is that you don’t need to buy any unusual equipment or ingredients. The only two items that are necessary but that you might not have are the cheesecloth and an instant-read thermometer. Cheesecloth can often be found in the kitchen equipment aisle of your supermarket, and perhaps they’ll have the thermometer there, too. And besides, an instant-read thermometer is one of those things that I think should be in every kitchen.
You MUST use whole milk for this, it needs to have enough fat in it for this to work. Buttermilk and the lemon juice are the souring agents you need to make the milk (and cream, if using) curdle. If you can’t find buttermilk, you can easily make your own. You will need two cups for this recipe. So pour two tablespoons of white vinegar or lemon juice into a two-cup measure. Pour in enough regular milk to make two cups. Let stand for about ten minutes or longer…the vinegar or lemon juice will *sour* the milk and cause it to thicken. When I made this last night, I did use the cream, but Emeril says that it’s optional.
As I slowly heated all of the dairy products, I was a bit skeptical as to how well this was going to work. But if you follow the directions exactly as given…heat the milk very slowly, only stir twice, take its temp often, remove from heat as soon as it reaches 175º F, and finally, let it stand for ten minutes…it does curdle as advertised.
You really have to stay nearby and keep an eye on this…this is NOT the time to go online and see what your friends on Facebook and Twitter are doing. Once the milk gets heated, it’s not long before it gets really hot, boils over, and then you end up with a DOGawful mess on your stove.
Here is how I *hung* the cheesecloth bag to allow it to drain further, after a few minutes in the colander…
As you can see, I just tied the bag to the handle of this wooden stirrer thingy, you can use whatever long-handled spoon or whatever you have. The container that you hang this in needs to be deep enough so that the bag is not touching the bottom, it should be at least a few inches off the bottom. This is because the liquid (called the whey) will be dripping out through the cheesecloth, and you don’t want the bag to be sitting in it, that defeats the purpose of the whole procedure.
You should put this in the fridge, as this is a fresh cheese. I let mine drain like this overnight, and this is what it looks like when it’s done…
If you want it denser than this, let it drain for longer. This is satisfactory for my purposes, though. I am going to use half of it (it did make about two cups, as advertised) for that roasted shallot dip. But you can do other stuff with it, Emeril gives a few suggestions in his recipe.
By itself, it has a rather mild flavor, and I would definitely want to season it up a bit before eating it.
Enjoy! 
