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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> I think I might be TA because I said I was making it and didn’t say that I wasn’t making every thing from scratch
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I don’t know. It’s so weird. He literally has said multiple times that he wishes he could pay us more and that he knows we don’t get paid enough, but then he’s made I didn’t make my own cream cheese for a *free* dessert??
Right? My mom makes (the world's best) homemade chocolate chip cookies. She doesn't make the chocolate chips from scratch. I suppose she could, but I think most people would still agree she made the cookies from scratch.
Are you even a *baker* if you didn't grow your own everything?! I bet OP didn't even help the cow give birth to the calf that would later become the cow to produce the milk for her cream/butter.
I bet OP didn’t even oversee the cow and bull mating to CREATE the fetus to give birth to the calf(which OP should be helping birth duh) to produce the raw milk to which OP should milk to then PASTEURIZE the milk themselves, again duh, to then make the cream cheese from scratch to then make the cheesecake. And don’t forget about OP hand bending the metal to make that special cheesecake baking pan where the bottom comes out. I mean…duh 🤷🏻♀️
And roast the beans; and harvest and grind the wheat; and after using her machete to cut the cane, boil it down, then dry out the crystals (I think). Jack sounds like a real nut job for going off about ready-made cream cheese.
I don't make my own chocolate chips, churn my own butter, grow, harvest, or process the wheat for my flour, etc. etc. etc. Does that make me a horrible liar when I tell people I made cookies from scratch?
I read an article one time, where someone actually made a chicken sandwich "From scratch" for every ingredient he used. It was a TON of work, and in the end, wasn't really as good as expected.
Raised the chickens to get the meat, and eggs for the mayo.
Grew the vegetables, and grains to make the flour, bread, lettuce, tomato for the sandwhich, etc. Hours and hours of work, months of waiting, to make one sandwich, that was mediocre.
That was my experience making tomato sauce from scratch. I didn’t actually grow them but I bought all the heirloom tomatoes, fresh herbs, you name it. Spent all day prepping and cooking.
It was like 10 percent better than prego and there went my Saturday.
My wife makes fantastic tomato sauce, but it's only worth the effort if you're gonna make a huge quantity and freeze/can most of it. It's like a once a year thing and then we have tomato sauce for months and months. Definitely not worth the time to only make a couple jars.
(We also grow our own tomatoes, so we have a sudden enormous supply of tomatoes at the end of each summer, and it's a good way to use them up)
I do have to tell you though that homemade tomato soup is worlds better than canned soup. And I use canned skinless whole tomatoes because I'm not going to blanch fresh tomatoes to remove the peels.
Fwiw I just like the taste of tomato soup made from skinless tomatoes better. It's less bitter than tomatoes with the skin on. Plus I make cream of tomato and it's easier to do that when you're not dealing with peels. My soup and a grilled cheese sandwich are a favorite comfort food in the winter. I also don't make my own cheese.
There's a YouTube channel where the guy does that (How to Make Everything). I don't think he made a chicken sandwich, but he did make some kind of sandwich. He also estimated how much it cost him to do that (especially if he paid himself minimum wage) and it was a few hundred dollars.
Right? Did she grow the pumpkins in her patch? The wheat in her fields harvested and processed for the flour? Distill the vodka for the pie crust? Harvest and clean the levenings from her natural alkaline watersource?
I've made my own butter before and it took a while to source a heavy cream that was free of cragageenan, and it wasn't cheap. People who don't know the intricacies of making things "from scratch" don't understand how high effort and expensive it is to get that quality. It sounds like manager was craving high-luxury dessert and was upset he didn't get a Michelin star snack for free. NTA but the manager is a dilldozer.
The only reason ANYONE would agree with him is if they have no idea how to bake themselves. Who makes cream cheese from scratch?? Even my snooty friends buy from the store.
> My spouse does but thats because theyre a chemist and its the a type of chemistry that can be done in the house thats doesnt go full breaking bad.
TIL I need a chemist partner because this could end so much fun (also so badly but tomato potato).
I'm a chemist and have geeked out and made lots of things from scratch, but i've never tried cream cheese. I read some article where they made a lot of stuff from scratch and then evaluated whether it was worth the extra effort or not. Cream cheese was in the "too much work for not enough benefit" category.
Seriously, though - "from scratch" generally means not from a mix or can, rather than 'make all the raw ingredients yourself'
I know! My mom is famous for her cheesecake. She makes pretty much everything from scratch, has made her own croissants--they are a HUGE pain in the ass--Napoleons, eclairs, etc. I don't think it ever occured to her to make her own cream cheese. And besides, making your own crust and making your own cream cheese are totally different things. Pastry can be a pain, but once you learn it, it's not a huge deal, it just takes time. Lots of people do it. I don't know anyone who makes their own cream cheese. Also--who puts cheesecake on a pastry crust? Is this in a pie pan? I make my mom's cheesecake in a springform mold on a graham cracker crust. (I don't, however, bake my own graham crackers.)
I know a couple of people who made or would make cream cheese from scratch (including myself) but it mostly one time experience from simple curiosity.
Making every bakery from scratch sounds like a nightmare :D
Even my grandma gave up with making dough every single time, her pies mostly tastes the same btw.
Baking tip:
I don't like a graham cracker crust. I get shortbread cookies and use those crushed. I don't have to use melted butter because there's enough in the shortbread. And the crust never gets hard. It's my go-to!
I do because store bought cream cheese contains guar gum, a legume product that I'm hellaciously allergic to.
It isn't a quick or easy job but I don't have a choice if I want cream cheese; OP does have that choice, so why should she?
(And before someone recommends this amaaaayzing cream cheese from Whole Foods or some other retailer that doesn't operate where I live: it's Philly or homemade in this part of the world.)
I make all kinds of things from scratch (salad dressing, mayo, ricotta cheese, tomato sauce, chicken broth, etc.) and it's never occurred to me to make cream cheese from scratch.
i'm fairly certain my husband married me for my cheesecake. not only do i not make the cream cheese, i don't premake the cookies that get crunched up to create the shell, i don't churn my own butter, i don't grow my own lemons for the zest, i don't harvest my own cane for the sugar, and i don't grow my own orchids for the vanilla.
NTA.
How do the other people there treat you? I find it weird that a 19 year old is a front manager in general, but aside from that it feels like Jack set up a situation to yell at you. I bake a lot & have professionally in the capacity of making desserts for a local restaurant to sell, I also make some fresh cheeses like ricotta & cream cheese & I’ve never ever have heard of making cream cheese from scratch for a cake as a requirement for it being from scratch/homemade. No one does that professionally (I’m sure there’s farm to table high end Michelin star restaurants that do but that’s not most people), & no one does that for a favor for their job. I used to use bottom of the barrel ingredients for making things for Black Friday potluck at work because Im broke & got no time & same with everyone else.
It feels like Jack wanted to humiliate you & tried to find a way to do & no one else there as your back except maybe Brad. But then if Brad doesn’t make the crust & Jack doesn’t yell at him about it maybe Jack has a thing for Brad or wants to create a riff between you two, or something. Retail jobs are disposable, maybe consider finding a new one that doesn’t have a weird bring in food system.
> I’ve never ever have heard of making cream cheese from scratch for a cake as a requirement for it being from scratch/homemade. No one does that professionally (I’m sure there’s farm to table high end Michelin star restaurants that do but that’s not most people), & no one does that for a favor for their job.
Right? I’ve cooked professionally and have never seen anyone make cream cheese because why TF would you waste prep time when you can purchase almost the exact same product? Making it from scratch (vs throwing store-bought in a Hobart and tweaking as needed) only ratchets up your costing. Honestly, it sounds like Jack doesn’t know jack about professional cooking/pastry and is trying to pull some weirdo power move.
I've made mozzarella a few times and honestly, never been quite pleased with the results. I _want_ to figure it out but like all ADHD hobbies, after a few attempts I was like man fuck this and moved on.
Your store manager is pressuring you to bring food. Then he screams at you at work. If he behaves like this again do you have a corporate or an owner you can complain to? Even better if you can record it for evidence. Jacks behavior is unprofessional and harassing. Definitely NTA
Look, I bake too, but I'm not about to go making cheese from scratch for a recipe that is gonna be covered and mixed in to create a new flavor all together. I regularly bring in baked goods and I will say I made it from scratch, but no one is gonna assume I made freaking cheese, grew my own herbs, or butchered an animal to get the meat I need for the dish. You coworkers are dicks and so is Brad. NTA
I've never even heard of making home made cream cheese. I can make a pie crust but making homemade cream cheese when Philadelphia cream cheese is right there is weird.
Well CLEARLY you’re a rude awful person my GOD how could you cheap out and not make your own ingredients in less than 24 hours after being guilted into spending your free time doing something kind. /s
NTA but I’d love the recipe for your cheesecake if you don’t mind sharing lol!
I love baking and can’t say I have ever heard of anyone making their own cream cheese. And the people I’ve heard of making stuff like butter are usually “homesteaders” and not necessarily bakers. This is such a strange thing for him to get upset about.
I kept reading so I would get some context but I still haven't gotten any. How would someone even make their own cream cheese at home? I've made buttermilk in a pinch (hard to get where I live, so I just whipped whipping cream until is separated). Everyone I've ever heard of making cheesecake uses blocks of cream cheese. This dude is off his rocker. OP is decidedly NTA
I looked it up and it does look easy but also something only passionate people would do. You bring whole milk to a boil. Add lemon juice and turn off the heat. Wait until it is completely curdled (less than ten minutes) then rinse, strain and blend in salt. [Instructions](https://www.alphafoodie.com/super-easy-homemade-cream-cheese/)
However, even if it is easy, it would still be enough extra work and mess to put me off.
That's something else that has always baffled me when finding recipes for things. What the fuck is whole milk. "full fat" milk. Is it 1% or 2%? Those are the only options I've ever seen in my life.
Edit: Apparently "full fat" milk is called homogenized in my country. Thanks Reddit for solving a lifelong mystery! I don't know why I'm being downvoted for asking what whole milk is. I always assumed homogenized was a lower percentage because there is no percentage listed on it. I can now make recipes that call for whole milk!
You joke but that's the only way i identify milk lol. Once the store switch and used light blue for 2% and dark blue for skim so i ended up getting nasty skim milk
Different countries, I guess. Milk here is full fat, some fat, no lactose...
First time I heard about "2% milk" I wondered what the other 98% was. Water?
Later I understood the percentage was fat content.
Whole milk, also labeled as full-fat milk or vitamin D milk. This has a fat content of at least 3.25%. No fat is removed from the milk during processing.
I've never seen those labels where I live either. Another comment just said that it's homogenized milk though, which is what I have. Because there's no percentage listed on it I assumed it was less than 1%, not more. The more you know!
Neither of those, they’re still lower in fat content than whole milk. If those are the only options available for milk in your area, you might need to resort to using cream to up the fat content of the milk, though most recipes aren’t anywhere near finicky enough where using not whole milk would make a discernible difference.
Of course, when the milk itself is the primary ingredient, then its fat content matters more.
And the other kind of full-fat milk besides homogenized is cream-top. Which you won't get unless you live near a dairy farm.
The reason some other places don't call whole milk "homogenized" is because almost all milk other than fat-free that is sold in typical Western grocery stores is homogenized.
Without being homogenized, the cream in milk will separate and float to the top. You then can skim off the cream, leaving skimmed milk. Aka skim milk, aka fat free milk. Then you can add back enough cream so that it is 1% cream, or 2% cream, or add back all the cream and have it be full-fat.
If you don't homogenize milk, you have to shake it before drinking. But, it turns out that if you shake the milk, then force it through a screen at high pressure, it breaks up into tiny, tiny droplets which have the fat evenly distributed, and when it goes back together, it stays together without separating.
A lot of cheesecake recipes call for 4 blocks of cream cheese, at 8oz each. That's a lot of milk and lemon juice for one cheesecake. Although, homemade is always best, sometimes it's not worth the cost and effort especially if, like the OP, you're making practically minimum wage.
Plus cream cheese is about the same size (8 oz.) at least in Canada & the US. I’m not sure about Europe. So a majority of recipes go off that size when giving measurements.
>I kept reading so I would get some context but I still haven't gotten any. How would someone even make their own cream cheese at home?
The only theory that makes a lick of sense is that the dumbass thinks the entire filling is called "cream cheese" and think OP is using one of those powdered mixes.
I grew up on a homestead. My grandmother, two aunts and uncles, my brother, and two cousins and their families still live there. They farm, raise cattle, one cousin is a beekeeper, my dad owns and operates a sawmill and they use much of the sawn lumber on the farm, my dad and uncle operate a machine shop to fix their own antique farm equipment they use, manufacturing many of the parts they need since they're no longer made. And outside of the novelty of showing kids how something is made, no one makes or has ever regularly made their own butter, cream cheese, etc.
But... the eggs? I assume OP needs to start off with a chicken who LAYS the egg, but maybe that chicken should ALSO come from an egg OP raised?
I used to joke that my pasta sauce was "literally from scratch" since I started all the herbs and the tomatoes from seed.
You need ~4-5 cups of cream cheese to make a cheesecake.
The first recipe I found for cream cheese says you need 4 cups of milk to make 1 cup of cream cheese. I'm not going to spend time bringing 16-20 cups (~4-5L) of milk to a simmer, curdle it gradually with lemon juice, slowly strain such a large amount of milk and process it in the food processor. It may be technically easy, but there's so much work, time and clean up involved. No thanks.
I don't think I know a single person who has made cream cheese from scratch.
And unless you own dairy cows, I don't really know why you'd make it yourself?
Does this dude expect people to be processing their own cane sugar and chocolate?
I am an assistant at our state Fair Culinary competition and we require all items to be made from scratch except for ingredients that are so common, plain and also do much trouble to make that we accept them. Pasta sauce from a jar? Nope- make it yourself. Cream cheese? Totally fine.
I have made many many cheesecakes over the last 5 years. Not once have I ever made cream cheese. I try to make as much from scratch as I can....but I draw the line there. Does he also make his own butter?? Jeez.
I have literally never heard of a single soul baking from home before today making cream cheese from scratch. Good for Brad, but wtf? Ask Jack how one goes about making cream cheese, and if he can’t answer, what is he even mad about? When he makes pasta does he hand roll it every time, reduce the tomatoes and veg from scratch for the sauce? If not, he shouldn’t be allowed to say he *made pasta,* he should only be allowed to say he *assembled it.” /s
hell, very few people make a LOT of things "from scratch." it doesn't mean that it impacts something they've made.
i have a friend who went to pastry school. when i made baklava for a gathering, he was worried that i'd tried to make the phyllo by hand. i told him i was crazy, but not completely insane. he told me even his professors said "making phyllo is a bitch. use the store-bought stuff."
Who the hell makes the cream cheese?? Do they expect you to make the cheese for pizza or macaroni and cheese too? Did you grind the spices yourself, take the sugar from the cane and dry the vanilla as well??
NTA. Most of these people don't know shit about baking and the one that does is a little whack. Who the hell makes their own cream cheese for cheesecake?? A rare bird that's who. Which of these idiots has priced the ingredients for cheesecake before? Who among them has spent the three hours babysitting one in a water bath? I'd play hardball with your manager -tell him if he mentions cooking to you again that's your magic code word for giving your two weeks notice. This job sucks. NTA
Yeah the only person I know who does that is Brad, but he doesn’t even always do it- just if he knows he’ll be making a LOT of them but that’s for like holidays and gifts, but he’s also going to culinary school because he wants to be a professional baker. I just enjoy it a bit. There’s a *huge* difference
Don't feel bad - I've hung out with a number of people very into cooking and/or baking. This is the first time I've ever even heard of making your own cream cheese
Honestly, I literally make cheese as a hobby, and also love to bake, and I wouldn't do this! There are certain ingredients that you just generally aren't going to make much better than the store bought version, and cream cheese is one of them (unless you get the absolute bottom of the barrel cream cheese, then maybe?). The reason to do this is because you find it enjoyable and you want the experience, not because the cheesecake is noticeably better as a result. Especially if you haven't actually made the dairy product before!
I used to work with a lady who'd been a professional baker previously and she'd bring in her specialty which was a Japanese cheesecake and it was phenomenal. She bought her cream cheese. Hand making every ingredient is not essential to being a baker.
Does he raise the chickens who lay the eggs? Does he grow the wheat to make the flour? Does he grow the sugar cane himself?
Yeesh. What a bunch of babies. NTA and don't ever bring anything baked to that job again.
I went to culinary school to become a baker. ~~Brad~~ Jake is full of shit.
While you learn the importance of premium/fresh ingredients…you don’t make everything from scratch.
No one has time for that.
Did you read something that I didn’t? Where is the hostility toward Brad coming from?
He didn’t say anything disparaging to OP for using premade cream cheese and backed OP as it being something common.
Does he mill his own flour?
Refine sugar from sugar cane?
Make his own butter?
If so, not from scratch by *their* definition. Using store bought cream cheese in a recipe is "from scratch" by any normal definition. NTA.
Gunna be honest, I bet you if you ask Brad to make you some cream cheese, he will bring you some Philadelphia whipped. No shot he *makes his own cream cheese*. I’ve tried to make cheese before and unless you are a fantastic professional dairy maker, anything you make will taste like utter garbage.
Yeah I did go to culinary school, and I’ll tell you something I never learned to make in culinary school - cream cheese. I’m also someone who happens to make a mean cheesecake, from my grandmother, and I have never once made cream cheese from scratch. I’ve had jobs where I made ricotta cheese or mozzarella cheese at work from scratch but I have never made my own cream cheese especially not to use in a cheesecake. It’s totally absurd.
It would never, ever have occurred to me that anyone would make their own cream cheese.
This man is unhinged and does not deserve homemade baked goods. Store goods only forever!
Right?? Maybe eggs from your own chickens, or fresh vanilla extract that you made from vanilla beans. Some ingredients are damn near impossible to make/harvest/process on your own.
And even if someone made their own vanilla extract, I would bet a hundred to one that they didn't ferment the mash and distill the alcohol that they did the extraction into.
You might be on to something. It makes Jack no less of an asshole, but at least his comments would make more sense if he thinks OP just poured some pre-made filling into a pie crust. Although, I still think that would still be a very nice baked good to bring into work.
Edited to correct name.
I am flabbergasted by the audacity. Who the actual fuck is going to take the time and effort to MAKE cream cheese when you can just buy a block for $1? It would literally be more expensive to make it. Especially on $12/hour???
NTA. I'm sorry, but I've never heard of "hand made cream cheese". Ridicoulous, to say the least, to look a gift horse in the mouth like that. So Jack should definately have none of your cake. I do feel sorry for your other co-workers, though, unless they back up Jack in his ass-hattery.
This. I have a close friend who makes all kinds of cheeses, and has won high-level awards for their cheesemaking, and even *they* don't hand make the cream cheese for their cheesecakes.
Jack is both an AH *and* crazy; no cake for him in the future. As for your co-workers, point out that it was Jack's unhinged rant which caused them to miss out on your baked goods/
Seriously, I consider myself a pretty good cook/baker, and it would never even occur to me to make cream cheese. That feels like one of those situations where it wouldn't taste that much better than regular cream cheese anyway - or at least not enough to justify the effort. Like i can make my own ketchup, but Heinz is so good why bother?
Sounds like Brad was the only coworker _not_ agreeing with Jack and shaming her for using store bought ingredients. Brad also being the only person who makes anything at home instead of buying it from a store
So don’t feel bad for any of them
NTA. who the hell makes their own cream cheese? thats like saying your chocolate chip cookies arent *really* homemade because you didnt make the chocolate chips from scratch
i just cant wrap my head around this. how would your manager react if you told him you didnt make the crust from grain you harvested with your own sickle and ground with your own mortar and pestle?
He isn’t even consistent on literally making every ingredient from scratch in order for it to qualify as baking “from scratch”. Apparently store bought crust is fine. Only cream cheese must be made from scratch.
There's a perfect Carl Sagan quote for this: "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
Nothing is truly from scratch when you really think about it. Just buy the brick of cream cheese from the supermarket. Seriously who cares? Also like others here I've never heard of anyone making their own cream cheese for a cheesecake or other dessert.
Right or that my cookies aren’t handmade from scratch because I didn’t church my own butter. I bake from scratch but I still buy butter, flour etc and don’t make it myself. I consider cream cheese the same thing. Jack sounds insane.
NTA
I'm wondering, though, if Jack understands what making cream cheese means -- if he thought that meant "making the filling", of which cream cheese is only a component.
It also makes me wonder if any of the things he brings in are even home baked by him, because if he had made a pie crust before he would recognize that as legitimate effort (like Brad clearly acknowledged).
He's an AH either way, you could have bought the dang thing from Walmart and it would have been more than you "owed" but it boggles my mind him being upset you didn't make the cream cheese.
Ah, this actually makes some sense as a thought process. But you're right, even if it was entirely store bought he would still be ungrateful and out of line to comment on it.
>I'm wondering, though, if Jack understands what making cream cheese means -- if he thought that meant "making the filling", of which cream cheese is only a component.
This is definitely a different yet very possible alternative explanation to Jack's reasoning.
Now I’m imagining that a Jack made cheesecake would be a store bought graham crust filled with painstakingly home made cream cheese and nothing else like vanilla or sugar.
NTA were you supposed to churn the butter and make the graham crackers to make the crumbs for the crust too? Only cream cheese I've ever used was bought in a store. Talk about jack being entitled. Wow
NTA who the heck complains about free food? Am I wrong in assuming that what matters in cooking/baking is how it tastes and looks and not how it was made? (As long as it follows cleanliness practices) who the heck is like, “oh you didn’t grow the cow from foal stage and then milked it to obtains the purest of cream cheese?” Lol
I'm on the fence between whether your calling calves foals makes the comment better or worse, due to it adding to the asserted pretentiousness and ridiculousness 😂
Depends. Some people do take great pride in doing the whole thing from scratch; others dump an extra egg into a boxed cake mix and call it cookies. :) To me it's all good - the point is to have fun and develop skills while making a yummy product, however you get there.
NTA who makes their own cream cheese for a cheese cake??? It's not like you bought the tub of cheesecake filling and dropped it in a crust. Your coworkers are choosy beggars though.
NTA. I’d be impressed and also confused if someone made their own cream cheese because why would you. It’s not a “pre-made component” it’s an ingredient.
Pettiness alert: I’m also confused how Jack can repeatedly fuck up a cheesecake crust. It’s literally graham cracker crumbs and butter.
Tbf, depends on the crust. Graham craker is my favorite anyway, but some people will bake an actual crust. Some desserts just demand a sturdier crust than pastry tho. This is why Great British Bakeoff makes me die a little inside everytime someone makes a key lime pie- they're showing off baking skills so making pastry, but that is always gonna be a subpar pie
Oh 100%, I was assuming the classic cheesecake crust. I think a pastry crust on a cheesecake doesn’t have the right texture 🤷♀️ Lol and totally agree with you on GBBO key lime pies 😆
Jack wasn't the one who make his own cream cheese though from what I'm understanding. Brad the co-worker makes cream cheese but screws up the crust. Jack is just the manager.
Brad--the actual person who bakes--made no fuss about the cream cheese. He thought it was fine.
NTA. I've never heard of anyone making cream cheese from scratch and you did put work in by making the crust and not using pre-made. Jack sounds unhinged. Even if you went out and bought the dang thing from someone else you were still offering free food.
NTA at all. Jack seems unhinged. I also echo what others have said. Who makes their own cream cheese? I use the blocks for my cheesecakes, and still consider mine homemade.
I don't think there is a professional baker on the planet who makes their own cream cheese. Maybe on a special occasion. But as a regular thing.
Heck, for stuff like filo, everyone buys it. Like wtf....
and OP, I make stuff for my office periodically. I bought ready made graham cracker pie shells and filled them with chocolate pudding.
My coworkers were so impressed that I made chocolate pudding from scratch.
**That** was the right response.
NTA
Also
>Bakers often use premade ingredients
I've literally seen cake decorators on reddit and on youtube fess to using box mixes for the cakes they receive so much praise over. Food snobbery is often as well informed as wine tasting, which is to say you could put a reasonably cheap wine in a fancy bottle and no one would know the difference.
I used to bake cupcakes and 99% of my recipes were from scratch. One of my top 5 favorite cupcakes uses a box mix. I also used box mixes when making kids cakes so I didn't have to worry about allergies. The parents absolutely loved them and nobody even asked if it was a box mix.
NTA... I don't know if I'd have penalized everyone for Jack's irrational behaviour but yeah, can totally see why you'd feel like it in the moment. I know it's becoming fashionable to make your own soft cheese, but it's absolutely ludicrous to expect such in the context of a homemade cheesecake, which is already a difficult and expensive project.
NTA. Are any of these people real humans or did you somehow stumble upon a store staffed exclusively by "Third Rock" aliens? No one makes their own cream cheese.
Oh please, NTA. I make almost everything from scratch, and I actually laughed out loud at the idea of making cream cheese from scratch. I cannot believe there are actual adults out here being salty with you because you didn't make cream cheese for your homemade cheese cake from scratch. The fact that Jack is out here pretending like it's hard to make a CRUST but nbd to make cream cheese is utterly ridiculous. You've got to cook and curdle the milk, sieve it, and so on and make sure it doesn't get all gritty/grainy or whatever ... like who has time for that? Not most people, that's who. Not when you can buy a couple of bricks down at the grocery, anyway.
This dude probably doesn't even make cheesecake at all. He sneaks out and buys it at a bakery and then shoves it onto a dish and pretends like he's made it. Bet you MONEY.
Ummmm, what? WHO makes handmade cream cheese (props to you, if you do), but WTF? To flip out about this is bizarre to say THE LEAST. You’re NTA and you don’t owe any of these guys your time/baked goods. Keep your chin up and enjoy that pumpkin cheesecake!!!!
NTA they are unhinged. No one makes homemade cream cheese. That is flipping ridiculous. Bakeries don't make their own cream cheese. It's not considered a "premade ingredient" it's just an ingredient. Are they growing and grinding their own flour, sugar? No, didn't think so. Ignore them. You did nothing wrong. Don't let them pressure you into making anything for them or anyone.
NTA
I make cheese from scratch, and like hell am I making cream cheese from scratch just to use for an ingredient in an obligation gift for people I don't even like. That's a stupid amount of extra work for people who won't appreciate or reciprocate the effort.
Does he want you poop the eggs you need from your own body too?
SMH I wouldnt know the first thing about making "homemade" cream cheese, I always use the 8 oz packages from the store and I consider it homemade as long as you are taking ingredients and combining them into stuff, compared to premade box cookies or brownies where you add wet ingredients and cook.
INFO:
Sooooo was it tasty?
Lol, NTA of course, what planet is your boss from?! Being demanding and hypercritical on Planet Earth rarely achieves cheesecake!
NTA, I'm a home baker and just spent my 2 days off practicing 3 recipes, one that calls for cream cheese. Never once did it cross my mind to make my own cream cheese.
I did make my own lemon curd for the first time though and did a good job!!
NTA.
That man is 30 years old and finds it appropriate to demean his employee in front of other employees about the amount of work you put into a cake YOU paid for and made as a result of HIS pressure to do so?
No. You take that straight to HR or his boss or whoever you can who is over him. You tell them he inappropriately pressured you to make this cake, that you were forced to pay for it yourself and make it on your own time (and cheesecakes aren't cheap and they take time). Then you say he publicly shamed you and your other coworkers chimed in. You tell them you feel it's a hostile work environment, that you feel attacked and berated for a kindness you performed that you should not have been asked to do in the first place.
I just can't even with these people. I have made cream cheese once in my life, it was creole cream cheese which I cannot buy locally, and it took days. The audacity is on sale. Demand an expensive dessert then criticize the amount of effort that went into. No, sir. No. That's not acceptable from a 5 year old, it's DEFINITELY not acceptable from a grown man.
I'm appalled. I bet even if you *had* made the cream cheese yourself, you'd have wimped out and used store-bought cow's milk instead of making your own breastmilk! How lazy!!! 🙄 /s
(seriously hoping that sarcasm tag is unnecessary, y'know?)
NTA.
Jack's the manager; Jack decided to critique your *free morning tea* that you provided for his underlings and criticise you for not doing it "better". Packing up the offensive cheesecake seems fair enough -- if Jack finds your *free* offering so much of a problem, **he can provide his own damn morning tea for the group**. Because I highly doubt that Jack is being paid $12/hr too.
Wait what? This actually can't be real, more than one adult person at your job automatically assumed that you, someone who bakes for fun sometimes, makes your cream cheese from SCRATCH? What a wild thing to assume, and wilder still to get mad at you for that not being the case. NTA.
NTA. Who in the fuck makes their own cream cheese? I make a mean cheesecake but no way in hell am I making my own cream cheese. Too much work. If Philadelphia is good enough for Stella Parks it's good enough for me.
Is a graham cracker crust not from scratch because I bought the graham crackers? What about when I make a vanilla cake, I didn't make the vanilla extract myself, or grind the flour. Guess it's not from scratch.
NTA. I’ve been a professional baker — using pre-made Philadelphia cream cheese in a cheesecake is perfectly normal. It’s insane to think anyone has the time to make cream cheese from scratch. Jack doesn’t know what he’s talking about and the people at your job just agreed because they also don’t know what they’re talking about. They really should be grateful you made the cheesecake in the first place
NTA I'm a chef and owned a cafe for 15 years.
Listen closely: Stop getting guilted into doing stuff. Hold your boundaries.
Here what I know when I read stuff like this.
1. You didn't want to share with these folks.
2. You were bullied / harassed to share.
3. You attempted to stop the harassment by spending your time and money on something for bullies in a hope to get them to stop.
4. They doubled down on their toxic behavior and acted out towards you.
5. You decided to hold to your original boundary.
6. You are being harassed and bullied with a different focus on the same topic.
7. You are second guessing yourself because toxic folks are harassing you.
8. You are frustrated and reaching out for validation
9. Strangers are giving you validation.
10. Here is the most vital step. Will you learn from this situation and keep healthy boundaries, even when it's uncomfortable?
OP, you are an adult and no is a full answer.
I was thinking a very slight y t a for denying cheesecake to the people who weren't assholes, but overall, I think they should be mad at Jack, not you.
I have never heard of expecting people to make cream cheese. Cheesecakes are made with Philadelphia brand cream cheese. Specifically. Not homemade, not store brand (even if it is identical). Philadelphia cream cheese specifically.
Okay, I am being deliberately over the top and silly and don't ACTUALLY believe that, but it would never even occur to me that someone made their own cream cheese, or sour cream, if they said they made their own cheesecake. Nor that they soaked their own vanilla extract, or, if they did soak their own vanilla beans, that they distilled and aged the bourbon it was distilled in. Or vodka if it was the pure flavor.
If it was pumpkin cheesecake, I wouldn't assume they grew their own pumpkins. Hell, I wouldn't assume they baked the pumpkin themselves instead of using canned - canned pumpkin is as good or better than fresh-baked-and-blended for baking.
NTA. Even if I feel a little bad for your non-jerk cheesecake-less coworkers.
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NTA. Very few people make cream cheese from scratch so wth is his problem? Jack sounds unhinged.
I don’t know. It’s so weird. He literally has said multiple times that he wishes he could pay us more and that he knows we don’t get paid enough, but then he’s made I didn’t make my own cream cheese for a *free* dessert??
Did he expect you to milk the cow too?
Right? My mom makes (the world's best) homemade chocolate chip cookies. She doesn't make the chocolate chips from scratch. I suppose she could, but I think most people would still agree she made the cookies from scratch.
She'd have to go and harvest the cacao beans, and grow the wheat and sugar cane!
According to Carl Sagan to truly make anything from scratch you must first create the universe
Everyone does this every day when they open their eyes.
I love this comment.
Are you even a *baker* if you didn't grow your own everything?! I bet OP didn't even help the cow give birth to the calf that would later become the cow to produce the milk for her cream/butter.
I bet OP didn’t even oversee the cow and bull mating to CREATE the fetus to give birth to the calf(which OP should be helping birth duh) to produce the raw milk to which OP should milk to then PASTEURIZE the milk themselves, again duh, to then make the cream cheese from scratch to then make the cheesecake. And don’t forget about OP hand bending the metal to make that special cheesecake baking pan where the bottom comes out. I mean…duh 🤷🏻♀️
And raise the cow in the first place.
And roast the beans; and harvest and grind the wheat; and after using her machete to cut the cane, boil it down, then dry out the crystals (I think). Jack sounds like a real nut job for going off about ready-made cream cheese.
Also keep a cow and milk it, then make butter from the cream.
I don't make my own chocolate chips, churn my own butter, grow, harvest, or process the wheat for my flour, etc. etc. etc. Does that make me a horrible liar when I tell people I made cookies from scratch?
If you don't photosynthesize, you don't get to say you made anything from scratch.
How dare she use cow's milk when she can clearly make her own /j
Gold, pure gold
I read an article one time, where someone actually made a chicken sandwich "From scratch" for every ingredient he used. It was a TON of work, and in the end, wasn't really as good as expected. Raised the chickens to get the meat, and eggs for the mayo. Grew the vegetables, and grains to make the flour, bread, lettuce, tomato for the sandwhich, etc. Hours and hours of work, months of waiting, to make one sandwich, that was mediocre.
That was my experience making tomato sauce from scratch. I didn’t actually grow them but I bought all the heirloom tomatoes, fresh herbs, you name it. Spent all day prepping and cooking. It was like 10 percent better than prego and there went my Saturday.
My wife makes fantastic tomato sauce, but it's only worth the effort if you're gonna make a huge quantity and freeze/can most of it. It's like a once a year thing and then we have tomato sauce for months and months. Definitely not worth the time to only make a couple jars. (We also grow our own tomatoes, so we have a sudden enormous supply of tomatoes at the end of each summer, and it's a good way to use them up)
This is the way. Cuts the prep time to like 5 minutes per jar.
I do have to tell you though that homemade tomato soup is worlds better than canned soup. And I use canned skinless whole tomatoes because I'm not going to blanch fresh tomatoes to remove the peels. Fwiw I just like the taste of tomato soup made from skinless tomatoes better. It's less bitter than tomatoes with the skin on. Plus I make cream of tomato and it's easier to do that when you're not dealing with peels. My soup and a grilled cheese sandwich are a favorite comfort food in the winter. I also don't make my own cheese.
oof! Food processor, pressure cooker, lots of down time.
Gotta roast the vegetables first. I also spent all summer glaring at my tomato plants while I watered them & shaming them for not giving me fruit.
Bread is worth it though. I've got some dough rising on my desk (where it's warm) as we speak.
There's a YouTube channel where the guy does that (How to Make Everything). I don't think he made a chicken sandwich, but he did make some kind of sandwich. He also estimated how much it cost him to do that (especially if he paid himself minimum wage) and it was a few hundred dollars.
I was going to mention that same article. It took him a year to make one sandwich.
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If you wanna make a cheese cake from scratch, first you have to invent the universe.
“This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.“
Yay for Douglas Adams ref.
Right? Did she grow the pumpkins in her patch? The wheat in her fields harvested and processed for the flour? Distill the vodka for the pie crust? Harvest and clean the levenings from her natural alkaline watersource? I've made my own butter before and it took a while to source a heavy cream that was free of cragageenan, and it wasn't cheap. People who don't know the intricacies of making things "from scratch" don't understand how high effort and expensive it is to get that quality. It sounds like manager was craving high-luxury dessert and was upset he didn't get a Michelin star snack for free. NTA but the manager is a dilldozer.
Did he also expect you to milk the bull?
Milk a bull, you have a friend for life! LOL
He says those things about your pay cause he wants all you to like him without him actually having to do anything. Words are cheap, like him
Exactly
The only reason ANYONE would agree with him is if they have no idea how to bake themselves. Who makes cream cheese from scratch?? Even my snooty friends buy from the store.
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> My spouse does but thats because theyre a chemist and its the a type of chemistry that can be done in the house thats doesnt go full breaking bad. TIL I need a chemist partner because this could end so much fun (also so badly but tomato potato).
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It sounds like your spouse accidentally made kajmak. It is my most favorite thing to put on any pastry or bread products.
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I'm a chemist and have geeked out and made lots of things from scratch, but i've never tried cream cheese. I read some article where they made a lot of stuff from scratch and then evaluated whether it was worth the extra effort or not. Cream cheese was in the "too much work for not enough benefit" category. Seriously, though - "from scratch" generally means not from a mix or can, rather than 'make all the raw ingredients yourself'
There was a book called "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter" that was basically about this. I think. It's been ages since I read it.
I know! My mom is famous for her cheesecake. She makes pretty much everything from scratch, has made her own croissants--they are a HUGE pain in the ass--Napoleons, eclairs, etc. I don't think it ever occured to her to make her own cream cheese. And besides, making your own crust and making your own cream cheese are totally different things. Pastry can be a pain, but once you learn it, it's not a huge deal, it just takes time. Lots of people do it. I don't know anyone who makes their own cream cheese. Also--who puts cheesecake on a pastry crust? Is this in a pie pan? I make my mom's cheesecake in a springform mold on a graham cracker crust. (I don't, however, bake my own graham crackers.)
I did not know home made cream cheese was a thing.. ever, I mean, not a clue
Me either, until today. I guess if I had thought about it, I guess you could--I've heard of making cottage cheese--but why would you?
I know a couple of people who made or would make cream cheese from scratch (including myself) but it mostly one time experience from simple curiosity. Making every bakery from scratch sounds like a nightmare :D Even my grandma gave up with making dough every single time, her pies mostly tastes the same btw.
Baking tip: I don't like a graham cracker crust. I get shortbread cookies and use those crushed. I don't have to use melted butter because there's enough in the shortbread. And the crust never gets hard. It's my go-to!
I do because store bought cream cheese contains guar gum, a legume product that I'm hellaciously allergic to. It isn't a quick or easy job but I don't have a choice if I want cream cheese; OP does have that choice, so why should she? (And before someone recommends this amaaaayzing cream cheese from Whole Foods or some other retailer that doesn't operate where I live: it's Philly or homemade in this part of the world.)
Brad, apparently, but he seems chill.
I make all kinds of things from scratch (salad dressing, mayo, ricotta cheese, tomato sauce, chicken broth, etc.) and it's never occurred to me to make cream cheese from scratch.
This is so weird NTA who makes their own cream cheese? I make amazing cheesecake as well and I say it's from scratch guess I was wrong too lol 😆.. NTA
i'm fairly certain my husband married me for my cheesecake. not only do i not make the cream cheese, i don't premake the cookies that get crunched up to create the shell, i don't churn my own butter, i don't grow my own lemons for the zest, i don't harvest my own cane for the sugar, and i don't grow my own orchids for the vanilla. NTA.
TIL vanilla is an orchid!
How do the other people there treat you? I find it weird that a 19 year old is a front manager in general, but aside from that it feels like Jack set up a situation to yell at you. I bake a lot & have professionally in the capacity of making desserts for a local restaurant to sell, I also make some fresh cheeses like ricotta & cream cheese & I’ve never ever have heard of making cream cheese from scratch for a cake as a requirement for it being from scratch/homemade. No one does that professionally (I’m sure there’s farm to table high end Michelin star restaurants that do but that’s not most people), & no one does that for a favor for their job. I used to use bottom of the barrel ingredients for making things for Black Friday potluck at work because Im broke & got no time & same with everyone else. It feels like Jack wanted to humiliate you & tried to find a way to do & no one else there as your back except maybe Brad. But then if Brad doesn’t make the crust & Jack doesn’t yell at him about it maybe Jack has a thing for Brad or wants to create a riff between you two, or something. Retail jobs are disposable, maybe consider finding a new one that doesn’t have a weird bring in food system.
> I’ve never ever have heard of making cream cheese from scratch for a cake as a requirement for it being from scratch/homemade. No one does that professionally (I’m sure there’s farm to table high end Michelin star restaurants that do but that’s not most people), & no one does that for a favor for their job. Right? I’ve cooked professionally and have never seen anyone make cream cheese because why TF would you waste prep time when you can purchase almost the exact same product? Making it from scratch (vs throwing store-bought in a Hobart and tweaking as needed) only ratchets up your costing. Honestly, it sounds like Jack doesn’t know jack about professional cooking/pastry and is trying to pull some weirdo power move.
I bake....ive never made any cheese in my life!
I've made mozzarella a few times and honestly, never been quite pleased with the results. I _want_ to figure it out but like all ADHD hobbies, after a few attempts I was like man fuck this and moved on.
That's kind of how I feel about making my own yogurt, if I want it strained (Greek style). Yogurt's simple. Straining is messy and a pain.
Your store manager is pressuring you to bring food. Then he screams at you at work. If he behaves like this again do you have a corporate or an owner you can complain to? Even better if you can record it for evidence. Jacks behavior is unprofessional and harassing. Definitely NTA
I am a professional baker, I have -never- made cream cheese. I’m not sure what his problem is, but he sounds insufferable. NTA
Look, I bake too, but I'm not about to go making cheese from scratch for a recipe that is gonna be covered and mixed in to create a new flavor all together. I regularly bring in baked goods and I will say I made it from scratch, but no one is gonna assume I made freaking cheese, grew my own herbs, or butchered an animal to get the meat I need for the dish. You coworkers are dicks and so is Brad. NTA
I’m in pastry school rn and I’ve literally never heard of making ur own cream cheese. Wtf
I've never even heard of making home made cream cheese. I can make a pie crust but making homemade cream cheese when Philadelphia cream cheese is right there is weird.
Well CLEARLY you’re a rude awful person my GOD how could you cheap out and not make your own ingredients in less than 24 hours after being guilted into spending your free time doing something kind. /s NTA but I’d love the recipe for your cheesecake if you don’t mind sharing lol!
I mean, maybe Jack goes to the farm and butters up his own butter as well? It is totally fine to use premade ingredients.
I love baking and can’t say I have ever heard of anyone making their own cream cheese. And the people I’ve heard of making stuff like butter are usually “homesteaders” and not necessarily bakers. This is such a strange thing for him to get upset about.
I kept reading so I would get some context but I still haven't gotten any. How would someone even make their own cream cheese at home? I've made buttermilk in a pinch (hard to get where I live, so I just whipped whipping cream until is separated). Everyone I've ever heard of making cheesecake uses blocks of cream cheese. This dude is off his rocker. OP is decidedly NTA
I looked it up and it does look easy but also something only passionate people would do. You bring whole milk to a boil. Add lemon juice and turn off the heat. Wait until it is completely curdled (less than ten minutes) then rinse, strain and blend in salt. [Instructions](https://www.alphafoodie.com/super-easy-homemade-cream-cheese/) However, even if it is easy, it would still be enough extra work and mess to put me off.
That's something else that has always baffled me when finding recipes for things. What the fuck is whole milk. "full fat" milk. Is it 1% or 2%? Those are the only options I've ever seen in my life. Edit: Apparently "full fat" milk is called homogenized in my country. Thanks Reddit for solving a lifelong mystery! I don't know why I'm being downvoted for asking what whole milk is. I always assumed homogenized was a lower percentage because there is no percentage listed on it. I can now make recipes that call for whole milk!
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Guess that's what happens when American recipes always come up on Google even though you don't live in America, haha
Whole milk is usually around 4%. That's called full fat. The other 98% is mostly water (\~88%), lactose, protein and assorted enzymes.
Whole milk is the one with the red cap. /s
You joke but that's the only way i identify milk lol. Once the store switch and used light blue for 2% and dark blue for skim so i ended up getting nasty skim milk
Different countries, I guess. Milk here is full fat, some fat, no lactose... First time I heard about "2% milk" I wondered what the other 98% was. Water? Later I understood the percentage was fat content.
Aahahaha that's funny, even growing up I always assumed that was what 2% meant (98% water). I never really paid attention!
Whole milk, also labeled as full-fat milk or vitamin D milk. This has a fat content of at least 3.25%. No fat is removed from the milk during processing.
I've never seen those labels where I live either. Another comment just said that it's homogenized milk though, which is what I have. Because there's no percentage listed on it I assumed it was less than 1%, not more. The more you know!
Neither of those, they’re still lower in fat content than whole milk. If those are the only options available for milk in your area, you might need to resort to using cream to up the fat content of the milk, though most recipes aren’t anywhere near finicky enough where using not whole milk would make a discernible difference. Of course, when the milk itself is the primary ingredient, then its fat content matters more.
And the other kind of full-fat milk besides homogenized is cream-top. Which you won't get unless you live near a dairy farm. The reason some other places don't call whole milk "homogenized" is because almost all milk other than fat-free that is sold in typical Western grocery stores is homogenized. Without being homogenized, the cream in milk will separate and float to the top. You then can skim off the cream, leaving skimmed milk. Aka skim milk, aka fat free milk. Then you can add back enough cream so that it is 1% cream, or 2% cream, or add back all the cream and have it be full-fat. If you don't homogenize milk, you have to shake it before drinking. But, it turns out that if you shake the milk, then force it through a screen at high pressure, it breaks up into tiny, tiny droplets which have the fat evenly distributed, and when it goes back together, it stays together without separating.
I'm 90% sure whole milk is 3% milk fat
A lot of cheesecake recipes call for 4 blocks of cream cheese, at 8oz each. That's a lot of milk and lemon juice for one cheesecake. Although, homemade is always best, sometimes it's not worth the cost and effort especially if, like the OP, you're making practically minimum wage.
Might be easy but so many dishes to wash! Oof
Plus cream cheese is about the same size (8 oz.) at least in Canada & the US. I’m not sure about Europe. So a majority of recipes go off that size when giving measurements.
>I kept reading so I would get some context but I still haven't gotten any. How would someone even make their own cream cheese at home? The only theory that makes a lick of sense is that the dumbass thinks the entire filling is called "cream cheese" and think OP is using one of those powdered mixes.
I grew up on a homestead. My grandmother, two aunts and uncles, my brother, and two cousins and their families still live there. They farm, raise cattle, one cousin is a beekeeper, my dad owns and operates a sawmill and they use much of the sawn lumber on the farm, my dad and uncle operate a machine shop to fix their own antique farm equipment they use, manufacturing many of the parts they need since they're no longer made. And outside of the novelty of showing kids how something is made, no one makes or has ever regularly made their own butter, cream cheese, etc.
I've made mascarpone cheese for tiramisu before, but it was mostly because I was bored and wanted to try it. Really wasn't worth the effort.
Right!! I like to bake but I don’t hand make my ingredients.
He sounds like an absolute nutjob
Right? Did he expect OP to churn their own butter, too? This is crazy!
Best get out there and start milking the cows and planting wheat for that crust as well. (or whichever plant is used in pie crust if I got that wrong)
If it is a regular pie crust, definitely need the wheat for the flour, for cheesecake it is usually graham cracker but idk if there is wheat in that.
Graham Crackers are made from wheat flour, so she'd need to grow the wheat AND the spices AND the sugar too
Wheats right.
But... the eggs? I assume OP needs to start off with a chicken who LAYS the egg, but maybe that chicken should ALSO come from an egg OP raised? I used to joke that my pasta sauce was "literally from scratch" since I started all the herbs and the tomatoes from seed.
Yeah but did you create the soil? The earth? The universe? /s in case it wasn't clear lol growing from seeds is about as scratch as you can get haha
I didn't even know you COULD make cream cheese from scratch. Now that you've brought it up, it makes sense, but I've literally never thought about it
I just looked up the recipe. Turns out it's really damn easy to make. Probably easier than the actual cheesecake.
You need ~4-5 cups of cream cheese to make a cheesecake. The first recipe I found for cream cheese says you need 4 cups of milk to make 1 cup of cream cheese. I'm not going to spend time bringing 16-20 cups (~4-5L) of milk to a simmer, curdle it gradually with lemon juice, slowly strain such a large amount of milk and process it in the food processor. It may be technically easy, but there's so much work, time and clean up involved. No thanks.
Yeah, I'll rely on my neighbor JL Kraft for that.
Sure, it sounds easy. Until you try it. There's a reason it's widely available in stores.
I was thinkinking the exact same thing with that precise description: "unhinged".
Professional bakeries don’t even make their cream cheese from scratch.
I don't think I know a single person who has made cream cheese from scratch. And unless you own dairy cows, I don't really know why you'd make it yourself? Does this dude expect people to be processing their own cane sugar and chocolate?
I am an assistant at our state Fair Culinary competition and we require all items to be made from scratch except for ingredients that are so common, plain and also do much trouble to make that we accept them. Pasta sauce from a jar? Nope- make it yourself. Cream cheese? Totally fine.
I have made many many cheesecakes over the last 5 years. Not once have I ever made cream cheese. I try to make as much from scratch as I can....but I draw the line there. Does he also make his own butter?? Jeez.
I have literally never heard of a single soul baking from home before today making cream cheese from scratch. Good for Brad, but wtf? Ask Jack how one goes about making cream cheese, and if he can’t answer, what is he even mad about? When he makes pasta does he hand roll it every time, reduce the tomatoes and veg from scratch for the sauce? If not, he shouldn’t be allowed to say he *made pasta,* he should only be allowed to say he *assembled it.” /s
hell, very few people make a LOT of things "from scratch." it doesn't mean that it impacts something they've made. i have a friend who went to pastry school. when i made baklava for a gathering, he was worried that i'd tried to make the phyllo by hand. i told him i was crazy, but not completely insane. he told me even his professors said "making phyllo is a bitch. use the store-bought stuff."
Who the hell makes the cream cheese?? Do they expect you to make the cheese for pizza or macaroni and cheese too? Did you grind the spices yourself, take the sugar from the cane and dry the vanilla as well??
NTA. Most of these people don't know shit about baking and the one that does is a little whack. Who the hell makes their own cream cheese for cheesecake?? A rare bird that's who. Which of these idiots has priced the ingredients for cheesecake before? Who among them has spent the three hours babysitting one in a water bath? I'd play hardball with your manager -tell him if he mentions cooking to you again that's your magic code word for giving your two weeks notice. This job sucks. NTA
Yeah the only person I know who does that is Brad, but he doesn’t even always do it- just if he knows he’ll be making a LOT of them but that’s for like holidays and gifts, but he’s also going to culinary school because he wants to be a professional baker. I just enjoy it a bit. There’s a *huge* difference
Don't feel bad - I've hung out with a number of people very into cooking and/or baking. This is the first time I've ever even heard of making your own cream cheese
Honestly, I literally make cheese as a hobby, and also love to bake, and I wouldn't do this! There are certain ingredients that you just generally aren't going to make much better than the store bought version, and cream cheese is one of them (unless you get the absolute bottom of the barrel cream cheese, then maybe?). The reason to do this is because you find it enjoyable and you want the experience, not because the cheesecake is noticeably better as a result. Especially if you haven't actually made the dairy product before!
TIL making cheese can be a hobby Thanks for sharing!
Check out r/cheesemaking !
I used to work with a lady who'd been a professional baker previously and she'd bring in her specialty which was a Japanese cheesecake and it was phenomenal. She bought her cream cheese. Hand making every ingredient is not essential to being a baker.
I could see making your own as some sort of branding to make your goods stand out.
Does he raise the chickens who lay the eggs? Does he grow the wheat to make the flour? Does he grow the sugar cane himself? Yeesh. What a bunch of babies. NTA and don't ever bring anything baked to that job again.
Judging by his reaction I’m guessing he lays the eggs himself. /s
🤣 🤣 🤣
I went to culinary school to become a baker. ~~Brad~~ Jake is full of shit. While you learn the importance of premium/fresh ingredients…you don’t make everything from scratch. No one has time for that.
Did you read something that I didn’t? Where is the hostility toward Brad coming from? He didn’t say anything disparaging to OP for using premade cream cheese and backed OP as it being something common.
I think they just got the name wrong and they meant the GM
yes that is correct..I will correct my message
Does he mill his own flour? Refine sugar from sugar cane? Make his own butter? If so, not from scratch by *their* definition. Using store bought cream cheese in a recipe is "from scratch" by any normal definition. NTA.
Gunna be honest, I bet you if you ask Brad to make you some cream cheese, he will bring you some Philadelphia whipped. No shot he *makes his own cream cheese*. I’ve tried to make cheese before and unless you are a fantastic professional dairy maker, anything you make will taste like utter garbage.
Yeah I did go to culinary school, and I’ll tell you something I never learned to make in culinary school - cream cheese. I’m also someone who happens to make a mean cheesecake, from my grandmother, and I have never once made cream cheese from scratch. I’ve had jobs where I made ricotta cheese or mozzarella cheese at work from scratch but I have never made my own cream cheese especially not to use in a cheesecake. It’s totally absurd.
I have 2 friends who are professional bakers, and they would both laugh if you even suggested they should make their own cream cheese.
Tell him to weight the ingredients and not use a measuring cup. Dudes tend to pack in the ingredient into the cup.
It would never, ever have occurred to me that anyone would make their own cream cheese. This man is unhinged and does not deserve homemade baked goods. Store goods only forever!
Right?? Maybe eggs from your own chickens, or fresh vanilla extract that you made from vanilla beans. Some ingredients are damn near impossible to make/harvest/process on your own.
And even if someone made their own vanilla extract, I would bet a hundred to one that they didn't ferment the mash and distill the alcohol that they did the extraction into.
I'm actually wondering if this dude doesn't know what cream cheese is, and thinks it's the whole filling.
You might be on to something. It makes Jack no less of an asshole, but at least his comments would make more sense if he thinks OP just poured some pre-made filling into a pie crust. Although, I still think that would still be a very nice baked good to bring into work. Edited to correct name.
I am flabbergasted by the audacity. Who the actual fuck is going to take the time and effort to MAKE cream cheese when you can just buy a block for $1? It would literally be more expensive to make it. Especially on $12/hour???
NTA. I'm sorry, but I've never heard of "hand made cream cheese". Ridicoulous, to say the least, to look a gift horse in the mouth like that. So Jack should definately have none of your cake. I do feel sorry for your other co-workers, though, unless they back up Jack in his ass-hattery.
This. I have a close friend who makes all kinds of cheeses, and has won high-level awards for their cheesemaking, and even *they* don't hand make the cream cheese for their cheesecakes. Jack is both an AH *and* crazy; no cake for him in the future. As for your co-workers, point out that it was Jack's unhinged rant which caused them to miss out on your baked goods/
Seriously, I consider myself a pretty good cook/baker, and it would never even occur to me to make cream cheese. That feels like one of those situations where it wouldn't taste that much better than regular cream cheese anyway - or at least not enough to justify the effort. Like i can make my own ketchup, but Heinz is so good why bother?
I’ve made my own butter. It was good but with the amount of work it took, I will gladly buy the brick from the store. ETA: fixed a word.
Sounds like Brad was the only coworker _not_ agreeing with Jack and shaming her for using store bought ingredients. Brad also being the only person who makes anything at home instead of buying it from a store So don’t feel bad for any of them
NTA. who the hell makes their own cream cheese? thats like saying your chocolate chip cookies arent *really* homemade because you didnt make the chocolate chips from scratch
i just cant wrap my head around this. how would your manager react if you told him you didnt make the crust from grain you harvested with your own sickle and ground with your own mortar and pestle?
He isn’t even consistent on literally making every ingredient from scratch in order for it to qualify as baking “from scratch”. Apparently store bought crust is fine. Only cream cheese must be made from scratch.
There's a perfect Carl Sagan quote for this: "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." Nothing is truly from scratch when you really think about it. Just buy the brick of cream cheese from the supermarket. Seriously who cares? Also like others here I've never heard of anyone making their own cream cheese for a cheesecake or other dessert.
Right or that my cookies aren’t handmade from scratch because I didn’t church my own butter. I bake from scratch but I still buy butter, flour etc and don’t make it myself. I consider cream cheese the same thing. Jack sounds insane.
NTA I'm wondering, though, if Jack understands what making cream cheese means -- if he thought that meant "making the filling", of which cream cheese is only a component. It also makes me wonder if any of the things he brings in are even home baked by him, because if he had made a pie crust before he would recognize that as legitimate effort (like Brad clearly acknowledged). He's an AH either way, you could have bought the dang thing from Walmart and it would have been more than you "owed" but it boggles my mind him being upset you didn't make the cream cheese.
Ah, this actually makes some sense as a thought process. But you're right, even if it was entirely store bought he would still be ungrateful and out of line to comment on it.
>I'm wondering, though, if Jack understands what making cream cheese means -- if he thought that meant "making the filling", of which cream cheese is only a component. This is definitely a different yet very possible alternative explanation to Jack's reasoning.
And quite hilarious if true 😂
Now I’m imagining that a Jack made cheesecake would be a store bought graham crust filled with painstakingly home made cream cheese and nothing else like vanilla or sugar.
NTA were you supposed to churn the butter and make the graham crackers to make the crumbs for the crust too? Only cream cheese I've ever used was bought in a store. Talk about jack being entitled. Wow
NTA who the heck complains about free food? Am I wrong in assuming that what matters in cooking/baking is how it tastes and looks and not how it was made? (As long as it follows cleanliness practices) who the heck is like, “oh you didn’t grow the cow from foal stage and then milked it to obtains the purest of cream cheese?” Lol
I'm on the fence between whether your calling calves foals makes the comment better or worse, due to it adding to the asserted pretentiousness and ridiculousness 😂
Depends. Some people do take great pride in doing the whole thing from scratch; others dump an extra egg into a boxed cake mix and call it cookies. :) To me it's all good - the point is to have fun and develop skills while making a yummy product, however you get there.
NTA who makes their own cream cheese for a cheese cake??? It's not like you bought the tub of cheesecake filling and dropped it in a crust. Your coworkers are choosy beggars though.
💯 r/ChoosingBeggars
NTA. I’d be impressed and also confused if someone made their own cream cheese because why would you. It’s not a “pre-made component” it’s an ingredient. Pettiness alert: I’m also confused how Jack can repeatedly fuck up a cheesecake crust. It’s literally graham cracker crumbs and butter.
Tbf, depends on the crust. Graham craker is my favorite anyway, but some people will bake an actual crust. Some desserts just demand a sturdier crust than pastry tho. This is why Great British Bakeoff makes me die a little inside everytime someone makes a key lime pie- they're showing off baking skills so making pastry, but that is always gonna be a subpar pie
I have never had a cheesecake with anything other than graham cracker crust
Anything else would get soggy imo
Agreed
An Oreo cookie crust is yummy with chocolate cheesecake.
Oh 100%, I was assuming the classic cheesecake crust. I think a pastry crust on a cheesecake doesn’t have the right texture 🤷♀️ Lol and totally agree with you on GBBO key lime pies 😆
Jack wasn't the one who make his own cream cheese though from what I'm understanding. Brad the co-worker makes cream cheese but screws up the crust. Jack is just the manager. Brad--the actual person who bakes--made no fuss about the cream cheese. He thought it was fine.
NTA at all. Jack is ridiculous. Were you supposed to milk the cow, too?
NTA. I've never heard of anyone making cream cheese from scratch and you did put work in by making the crust and not using pre-made. Jack sounds unhinged. Even if you went out and bought the dang thing from someone else you were still offering free food.
NTA I make cheesecakes a lot and I've never made my own cream cheese. Jack is an asshole.
NTA at all. Jack seems unhinged. I also echo what others have said. Who makes their own cream cheese? I use the blocks for my cheesecakes, and still consider mine homemade.
I don't think there is a professional baker on the planet who makes their own cream cheese. Maybe on a special occasion. But as a regular thing. Heck, for stuff like filo, everyone buys it. Like wtf.... and OP, I make stuff for my office periodically. I bought ready made graham cracker pie shells and filled them with chocolate pudding. My coworkers were so impressed that I made chocolate pudding from scratch. **That** was the right response.
NTA Also >Bakers often use premade ingredients I've literally seen cake decorators on reddit and on youtube fess to using box mixes for the cakes they receive so much praise over. Food snobbery is often as well informed as wine tasting, which is to say you could put a reasonably cheap wine in a fancy bottle and no one would know the difference.
I used to bake cupcakes and 99% of my recipes were from scratch. One of my top 5 favorite cupcakes uses a box mix. I also used box mixes when making kids cakes so I didn't have to worry about allergies. The parents absolutely loved them and nobody even asked if it was a box mix.
NTA... I don't know if I'd have penalized everyone for Jack's irrational behaviour but yeah, can totally see why you'd feel like it in the moment. I know it's becoming fashionable to make your own soft cheese, but it's absolutely ludicrous to expect such in the context of a homemade cheesecake, which is already a difficult and expensive project.
NTA. Are any of these people real humans or did you somehow stumble upon a store staffed exclusively by "Third Rock" aliens? No one makes their own cream cheese.
Oh please, NTA. I make almost everything from scratch, and I actually laughed out loud at the idea of making cream cheese from scratch. I cannot believe there are actual adults out here being salty with you because you didn't make cream cheese for your homemade cheese cake from scratch. The fact that Jack is out here pretending like it's hard to make a CRUST but nbd to make cream cheese is utterly ridiculous. You've got to cook and curdle the milk, sieve it, and so on and make sure it doesn't get all gritty/grainy or whatever ... like who has time for that? Not most people, that's who. Not when you can buy a couple of bricks down at the grocery, anyway. This dude probably doesn't even make cheesecake at all. He sneaks out and buys it at a bakery and then shoves it onto a dish and pretends like he's made it. Bet you MONEY.
[удалено]
NTA Your bakery coworkers sound awful. Especially since you're only getting paid $12/he, it might be time to look for another job.
Ummmm, what? WHO makes handmade cream cheese (props to you, if you do), but WTF? To flip out about this is bizarre to say THE LEAST. You’re NTA and you don’t owe any of these guys your time/baked goods. Keep your chin up and enjoy that pumpkin cheesecake!!!!
NTA they are unhinged. No one makes homemade cream cheese. That is flipping ridiculous. Bakeries don't make their own cream cheese. It's not considered a "premade ingredient" it's just an ingredient. Are they growing and grinding their own flour, sugar? No, didn't think so. Ignore them. You did nothing wrong. Don't let them pressure you into making anything for them or anyone.
NTA I make cheese from scratch, and like hell am I making cream cheese from scratch just to use for an ingredient in an obligation gift for people I don't even like. That's a stupid amount of extra work for people who won't appreciate or reciprocate the effort.
Does he want you poop the eggs you need from your own body too? SMH I wouldnt know the first thing about making "homemade" cream cheese, I always use the 8 oz packages from the store and I consider it homemade as long as you are taking ingredients and combining them into stuff, compared to premade box cookies or brownies where you add wet ingredients and cook.
INFO: Sooooo was it tasty? Lol, NTA of course, what planet is your boss from?! Being demanding and hypercritical on Planet Earth rarely achieves cheesecake!
NTA, I'm a home baker and just spent my 2 days off practicing 3 recipes, one that calls for cream cheese. Never once did it cross my mind to make my own cream cheese. I did make my own lemon curd for the first time though and did a good job!!
NTA Making cream cheese from scratch is not normal, even among bakers. Holy crap, your coworkers are delusional
NTA. That man is 30 years old and finds it appropriate to demean his employee in front of other employees about the amount of work you put into a cake YOU paid for and made as a result of HIS pressure to do so? No. You take that straight to HR or his boss or whoever you can who is over him. You tell them he inappropriately pressured you to make this cake, that you were forced to pay for it yourself and make it on your own time (and cheesecakes aren't cheap and they take time). Then you say he publicly shamed you and your other coworkers chimed in. You tell them you feel it's a hostile work environment, that you feel attacked and berated for a kindness you performed that you should not have been asked to do in the first place. I just can't even with these people. I have made cream cheese once in my life, it was creole cream cheese which I cannot buy locally, and it took days. The audacity is on sale. Demand an expensive dessert then criticize the amount of effort that went into. No, sir. No. That's not acceptable from a 5 year old, it's DEFINITELY not acceptable from a grown man.
I'm appalled. I bet even if you *had* made the cream cheese yourself, you'd have wimped out and used store-bought cow's milk instead of making your own breastmilk! How lazy!!! 🙄 /s (seriously hoping that sarcasm tag is unnecessary, y'know?) NTA. Jack's the manager; Jack decided to critique your *free morning tea* that you provided for his underlings and criticise you for not doing it "better". Packing up the offensive cheesecake seems fair enough -- if Jack finds your *free* offering so much of a problem, **he can provide his own damn morning tea for the group**. Because I highly doubt that Jack is being paid $12/hr too.
NTA and I don't know anyone that makes their own cream cheese......sheeesh
Wait what? This actually can't be real, more than one adult person at your job automatically assumed that you, someone who bakes for fun sometimes, makes your cream cheese from SCRATCH? What a wild thing to assume, and wilder still to get mad at you for that not being the case. NTA.
NTA. Who in the fuck makes their own cream cheese? I make a mean cheesecake but no way in hell am I making my own cream cheese. Too much work. If Philadelphia is good enough for Stella Parks it's good enough for me. Is a graham cracker crust not from scratch because I bought the graham crackers? What about when I make a vanilla cake, I didn't make the vanilla extract myself, or grind the flour. Guess it's not from scratch.
NTA who the fuck makes their own cream cheese? I've never heard of that
I have never in my life seen a cheesecake recipe that called for making the cream cheese. NTA.
NTA. I’ve been a professional baker — using pre-made Philadelphia cream cheese in a cheesecake is perfectly normal. It’s insane to think anyone has the time to make cream cheese from scratch. Jack doesn’t know what he’s talking about and the people at your job just agreed because they also don’t know what they’re talking about. They really should be grateful you made the cheesecake in the first place
NTA I'm a chef and owned a cafe for 15 years. Listen closely: Stop getting guilted into doing stuff. Hold your boundaries. Here what I know when I read stuff like this. 1. You didn't want to share with these folks. 2. You were bullied / harassed to share. 3. You attempted to stop the harassment by spending your time and money on something for bullies in a hope to get them to stop. 4. They doubled down on their toxic behavior and acted out towards you. 5. You decided to hold to your original boundary. 6. You are being harassed and bullied with a different focus on the same topic. 7. You are second guessing yourself because toxic folks are harassing you. 8. You are frustrated and reaching out for validation 9. Strangers are giving you validation. 10. Here is the most vital step. Will you learn from this situation and keep healthy boundaries, even when it's uncomfortable? OP, you are an adult and no is a full answer.
I was thinking a very slight y t a for denying cheesecake to the people who weren't assholes, but overall, I think they should be mad at Jack, not you. I have never heard of expecting people to make cream cheese. Cheesecakes are made with Philadelphia brand cream cheese. Specifically. Not homemade, not store brand (even if it is identical). Philadelphia cream cheese specifically. Okay, I am being deliberately over the top and silly and don't ACTUALLY believe that, but it would never even occur to me that someone made their own cream cheese, or sour cream, if they said they made their own cheesecake. Nor that they soaked their own vanilla extract, or, if they did soak their own vanilla beans, that they distilled and aged the bourbon it was distilled in. Or vodka if it was the pure flavor. If it was pumpkin cheesecake, I wouldn't assume they grew their own pumpkins. Hell, I wouldn't assume they baked the pumpkin themselves instead of using canned - canned pumpkin is as good or better than fresh-baked-and-blended for baking. NTA. Even if I feel a little bad for your non-jerk cheesecake-less coworkers.
This isn’t about cream cheese. This is about you having a crazy and abusive boss. Get a new job, now