How do you make Smearcase?
As a child my mother used to make something she called Smearcase which I thought was some sort of variation to cottage cheese. I am curious to know if anyone out there can tell me how I can make it (or how my mother altered the cottage cheese to make it smoother) and how to enhance it. I tried to "google" it but everything that came up talked about smearcase cake and that isn’t what I am trying to achieve. It is for a Kentucky Derby party I am going to on Saturday so feel free to add your Derby winner guess too!
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June 29th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, in her Pennsylvania Dutch ‘Domestic Cookery’ of 1845, to make ‘Smearcase’, emulsifies the Cottage Cheese with fresh double cream, having seasoned the curd with salt and pepper first. That may well be the extra step, or a variant of it, your mother made to render the curd so much smoother, as you remember it?
Lea’s recipe is a little spartan as regards method, but here it is in full:
"Cottage Cheese, or Smearcase.
The best plan of making this dish is to set the pan of clabber on a hot stove, or in a pot of water that is boiling over the fire. When the whey has risen sufficiently, pour it through a colander, and put the curd or cheese away in a cold place, and just before going to table, season it with salt and pepper to your taste and pour some sweet cream over it."
In the Netherlands-Dutch version ‘Smeerkaas’, the manufacturing process perfected in the late 19thC as a method for using up misshapen hard cheeses, the ground up cheese is also mixed with emulsifying milk powder and butter fats (and <cough> a chemical or two), which echoes the same principle, differently executed.
Variant readings from the same period I have here, with the passing of the years, then also begin to add finely chopped chives, basil, etc, using the smearcase as the carrier for more sophisticated flavours.
Hope this helps some fo the way at least.
June 29th, 2010 at 9:40 am
I tried several things it is a dry cottage cheese curd, here are three links the first one has a recipe that is the closest thing i could fine I hope this helps!
http://www.kitchenproject.com/kpboard/recipes/German_Caraway_Cheese_Fresh_Farmer_Cheese.htm
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06019/640078.stm
http://www.scdiet.org/4faq/drycurd_description.html
June 29th, 2010 at 9:40 am
is it this one?
Two Cheese Bagel Smear
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed,drained,squeezed dry
8 ounces soft fresh goat cheese
6 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese, room temperature (2oz.)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint
1 teaspoon grated lemons, rind of
In a food processor, or blender, with the machine running, drop the garlic clove through the feed tube and finely chop.
Add all the remaining ingredients and process until well combined and mostly smooth.
Season to taste.
Cover and refreigerate until ready to use.
Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before using.
June 29th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Smearcase Cake recipe:
Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cooking oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar
Filling
16 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons flour
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (13 ounce) can evaporated milk or 1 1/2 cups sweet milk
Cinnamon
Sift dry ingredients for cake. Add eggs, oil and sugar; stir well. Press into a 13 x 9-inch pan. Spread cake dough in bottom and on sides. Make filling.
Filling: Mix all filling ingredients together; beat until smooth. Pour filling into shell. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake in 325 degree F oven for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.