Mascarpone

In a nutshell, mascarpone is created by heating heavy cream to about 180F, then adding an agent that helps coagulation to separate the whey and, optionally, culturing. Once cooled, you have Crème Fraîche (French for "fresh cream"). You can then let it sit at room temperature to culture it. The next step of filtering it with a fine meshed cheese cloth to separate the whey from the cheese is what turns Crème Fraîche into mascarpone.

The kicker here is there are a large variety of agents you can add to help with coagulation and culturing, some of which will promote culturing better than others, but can impact taste differently:

I want simple for my first attempt. Yet, after just making sour cream, and not having it work out originally with fresh made buttermilk, but working great when I added lemon juice, I'll go with a combo solution. Part of the reason is that while lemon juice seemed to help, it adds a sour that may be great in sour cream, but not necessarily what I'm looking for in mascarpone.

My First Batch (Oct 2018)

So, how about a combo of buttermilk, lemon juice and cream of tarter, since I have all these. This allows me to increase odds of success with some lemon juice, while using less of it resulting in a milder flavor profile.

Because I only want to use 1 cup of heavy cream for my first try, let's convert the amount needed based on that for each of the three agents, presuming you only used one of them:

1.5 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbs buttermilk
3/4 tsp cream of tartar

So, to portion that for 1 cup of heavy cream, being a little heavy on the buttermilk:

1 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbs buttermilk
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

There is a huge variation in online recipes on what you do next, besides cooling at least 30m. Some filter right away. Some let it sit 12-24 hours before filtering. Some filter in fridge. Some filter at room temperature. Let's compromise again.

We'll let it cool 30m. Then see if transferring to a jar makes sense for further culturing. Either way, we'll let it culture at room temp for another 8-24 hours. If overnight, then in oven after it was warmed for a couple minutes to ensure it doesn't cool too much overnight.

After it appears solid enough, begin filtering. If it cultured enough at room temp, can do that in fridge. If not, do at room temp then transfer to fridge.

Instead of doing a double boil to better control temp, I'm just going to use a heat spreader it put under my pan when I make my sauce and don't want to burn the bottom while I slow cook it. It has the same impact of more evenly heating it slowly.

Because I am an all-grain brewer, I sanitized everything with Star San. Don't know if it is needed. Might extend final shelf life. Might not. But it is like instinct to a home brewer. I fully rinsed it so it does not interfere in any way.

Stirred in the buttermilk, cream of tarter and lemon juice mixture once it held 180F for a minute or so. You could immediately see it begin to thicken a little. Lowered heat from medium to low for 3 minutes, then removed to cool. (2:45p)

Transferred to a jar for further culturing after 30m of cooling. Tasted light and tangy. Not sour like sour cream, but definitely had a light tangy taste added to the creaminess. You can see how this can be used to create desserts, with sugar and chocolate and other flavors added. Thicker and heavier than whipped cream. Yet, a much lighter texture than sour cream. A little creamier than pudding, but close to it. It is definitely too creamy to be a cheese, at least warm like it is (haven't tried putting it in fridge). But, Creme Fraiche is definitely something I'll explore in the future. (3:15p)

Based on experience culturing sour cream, loosened lid on jar. Cultures need to breath. (4:07p)

Put on cheesecloth in strainer over bown in fridge. (12a midnight)

Scooped into plastic container. (9a next day) There was at most a few drops of whey. Not clear if it just reached consistency by cooling, or if evaporation played a role. Some could of been absorbed into the cheesecloth, but it was already wet with water when used, so that's not too likely. Need to try with whole milk or half and half and see how much whey comes out.

Outcome

It came out nearly perfect. Definitely right texture. I think taste would of been perfect if I didn't have it in a jar that formerly had dill pickles. While I washed it with dish soap, and even soaked it in sanitizer, there was a slight dill taste that came through. This was the same day, so it hasn't been throught he dishwasher, yet, which might completely clear the dill taste from the jar. Other than that, came out great. Heck, if you wanted a little dill taste, would of been perfect.

Tried on pizza. The dill taste helped a little bit, because what I discovered is that on a pizza, it really needs a strong taste to balance it because it is so mild by itself. I'd like to try prosciutto with it. If I paired with vegetables, would probably want them to be well seared and with a strong flavor. Sausage would probably go well with it.

Lessons Learned

Demonstrated that the combo of lemon, cream of tartar and buttermilk really worked well, although another run without the dill pickle taste would confirm it.
Filtering in the fridge worked. Didn't need to do this at room temp.

Not clear if culturing at room temp helped at all, or if leaving the jar lid loose was required. In next batch, can decrease time at room temp and see if it makes a difference. Ultimately, you want the best mascarpone with the least time and effort, so need to try to see what part of the process can be reduced without losing quality.

Buttermilk and lemons may not always be available, so interesting to see how it comes out without either. Cream of tarter should always be available.

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