Looking for Philadelphia Cream Cheese

[elhombresinnombre]

Try queso blanco Tregar

EQDSO* prefers Tregar over Finlandia but in my opinion the latter is closest to Philadelphia in taste and texture of all the mainstream brands.



*Ella Que Debe Ser ....etc. Readers of John Mortimer will understand.

 

[Paige55]

I just saw this Cuisine & Co. product at the DISCO on Gorostiaga in Cañitas. Can't say it's any good but it's the first I've seen it on shelves. And, right there on the package it says it's "The Real," so must be legit.

 

[jantango]

They can write anything they want on packaging.
"oooooh yeah!" is a hint to the buyer.

"High in saturated fats" and "avoid excessive consumption" are written in Spanish that English speakers will miss or ignore. These statements are required by law on the packaging.

 

[Paige55]

They can write anything they want on packaging.
"oooooh yeah!" is a hint to the buyer.

"High in saturated fats" and "avoid excessive consumption" are written in Spanish that English speakers will miss or ignore. These statements are required by law on the packaging.

I know, the product also has the dreaded 'sello' that isn't exactly small, or hidden. I was being cheeky. Surely it's a processed food like all cream cheeses. And a lot of other things. The way the world is going, I don't care what I ingest anymore and Philadelphia (which the poster is seeking) is also a highly processed food that you shouldn't consume in high doses. But, we all have free will, thankfully. The air and water are polluted, and we're all made of 70% microplastics at this point. Who am I to tell someone not to consume too much processed food at this juncture? I eat my weight in helado annually and I don't regret it. I'm not worried about shaving a few years off my life when the leaders of the free world will likely nuke us long before then anyhow.

 

[on the brink]

Thanks for all the responses. I want the cream cheese for a heavenly almond crust pie with a Philadelphia cheese & fresh strawberry filling.

I agree that Mendicrim is the closest thing to sour cream, but I haven't seen it lately. Casancrem is a poor substitute; ok in a pinch but kind of bland.

 

[Utopos]

I usually use Tregar queso blanco as a substitute for cream cheese.

I've not tried Mendicrim for a sour cream, as I make crème fraîche (google it). It is slightly less tangy than U.S. sour cream (I'll add a bit of lemon or lime juice before using, if needing a sour boost), but it has the definite advantage of not curdling when heated, plus there are no polysyllabic additives. The gentle heat of my router/cable box is a perfect place to keep it while developing thickness and flavor. I use 'crema para batir' for it's higher fat content, and a good yogurt as a starter (real buttermilk seems to be a thing of the past everywhere).

 

[elhombresinnombre]

I know, the product also has the dreaded 'sello' that isn't exactly small, or hidden. I was being cheeky. Surely it's a processed food like all cream cheeses. And a lot of other things. The way the world is going, I don't care what I ingest anymore and Philadelphia (which the poster is seeking) is also a highly processed food that you shouldn't consume in high doses. But, we all have free will, thankfully. The air and water are polluted, and we're all made of 70% microplastics at this point. Who am I to tell someone not to consume too much processed food at this juncture? I eat my weight in helado annually and I don't regret it. I'm not worried about shaving a few years off my life when the leaders of the free world will likely nuke us long before then anyhow.

I sympathise! I think we are advised to avoid "Ultra-processed" food rather than just "processed" food since more or less everything is "processed" before we eat it. Chopping vegetables is processing them.

I believe food is now classified as whole/natural/whatever (fresh fruit & veg etc); processed (butter, cheese, etc and anything natural just cooked or canned) and ultra-processed which is mostly stuff which has a long list of ingredients which most people don't understand and wouldn't keep in their family kitchen cupboard. The difficulty is in deciding where the boundaries are and whether it's important.

Philadelphia - and I think the Tregar and Finlandia cheeses too - contains milk, salt, guam gum and citric acid. I don't have guam gum in my kitchen but I often use a dash of citric acid in my bread recipes because it helps the bread rise. And talking of bread: a true sourdough loaf just has flour, salt, water and the massa madre starter but have you ever looked at the list of ingredients on an ordinary factory-made. shop-bought loaf of bread? Now that's what I call ultra-processed!

Incidentally, to drag this back on topic, if one has the time and the inclination it's not that hard to make one's own Philadelphia style cheese in the kitchen and forget about the guam gum and the citric acid. I regularly make my own ricotta - which is even easier.

 

[Paige55]

I sympathise! I think we are advised to avoid "Ultra-processed" food rather than just "processed" food since more or less everything is "processed" before we eat it. Chopping vegetables is processing them.

I believe food is now classified as whole/natural/whatever (fresh fruit & veg etc); processed (butter, cheese, etc and anything natural just cooked or canned) and ultra-processed which is mostly stuff which has a long list of ingredients which most people don't understand and wouldn't keep in their family kitchen cupboard. The difficulty is in deciding where the boundaries are and whether it's important.

Philadelphia - and I think the Tregar and Finlandia cheeses too - contains milk, salt, guam gum and citric acid. I don't have guam gum in my kitchen but I often use a dash of citric acid in my bread recipes because it helps the bread rise. And talking of bread: a true sourdough loaf just has flour, salt, water and the massa madre starter but have you ever looked at the list of ingredients on an ordinary factory-made. shop-bought loaf of bread? Now that's what I call ultra-processed!

Incidentally, to drag this back on topic, if one has the time and the inclination it's not that hard to make one's own Philadelphia style cheese in the kitchen and forget about the guam gum and the citric acid. I regularly make my own ricotta - which is even easier.

Agree with you on this. However, some folks see a word they don't know and assume it's bad when it really is just a more scientific word for a common ingredient that's very, very safe to ingest. I see fear-mongering YouTube videos like this all the time...where folks are in the super market and looking at labels, saying foods are toxic when the ingredient is something that equates basically to sugar, etc...haha. They make a lot of money fear-mongering to the general public who take random influencer pap as rule of the gospel. So, I like to push back on that when I see it.

The cream cheese I listed above, that I've seen in Jumbo from Cuisine & Co., it's exact ingredients are as follows: Leche recombinada entera pasteurizada, Crema de leche natural pasteurizada, Sal, Cultivos lácticos, Goma garrofín, Goma guar, Leche.

So, on par with Philadelphia and not nearly as scary as one user has suggested. So, we're in the clear and it seems it might be a great substitute if OP isn't inclined to make their own Cream Cheese, can't find Philadelphia, and sees this on store shelves near them. Crisis semi-averted. Unless someone is sitting down to shovel a case full down their gullet, then...yikes. Surely, bad times ahead for that chap/dame.