Cottage cheese is a curdled milk product with a mild flavor and a creamy, non-homogeneous, cream cheese stuffed apples texture. It is made from skimmed milk, by draining curds — retaining some of the whey and keeping the curds loose. Cottage cheese can be low in calories compared to other types of cheese, making it popular among dieters and some health devotees, similar to yogurt. It can be used with a wide variety of foods such as yogurt, fruit, toast, granola, in salads, as a dip, and as a replacement for mayonnaise.

It is also known as curds and whey. A popular story on the origin of cheese was taken from Homer’s Odyssey, in which the poet describes how the Cyclops Polyphemus made cheese by storing milk in animal stomachs. The enzymes from the stomach would have induced a coagulation process separating the curds from the milk. Cheese is thought to have occurred in the Middle East around 5,000 BC, but archaeological remains believed to be of cheese-making date to before that in parts of Europe. Evidence of cheese can be found in a band of carvings on the walls of an ancient Mesopotamian temple that date back to 3,000 BC.

In late 19th century Minnesota, when milk went sour, farmers sometimes made something they called “Dutch cheese”, which is said to have been similar to modern industrial cottage cheese, in order not to waste the bad milk. The first American cheese factory opened in 1868, beginning the wholesale cheese industry in the United States. World War I poster encouraging U. Cottage cheese was widely promoted in America during the First World War, along with other dairy products, to save meat for infantry rations.

This promotion was shown in many war posters, including one which claimed that one pound of cottage cheese contains more protein than a pound of lamb, pork, beef, or chicken. After the war, cottage cheese quickly became more popular. In 2016, a Wall Street Journal article theorized that cottage cheese might be ready for a resurgence following the popularity of Greek yogurt due to its high levels of protein and low levels of sugar. Since the 1930s, industrial cottage cheese has been manufactured using pasteurized skim milk, or in more modern processes using concentrated nonfat milk or reconstituted nonfat dry milk. Cottage cheese made with a food-grade acid must be labelled as “Direct Acid set”. Usually, a small amount of low CO2-producing citrate-fermenting lactococci or leuconostoc bacterial strains are added to the starter mix for the production of diacetyl for added buttery or creamy flavors. Cottage cheese is naturally a yellow colour due to the cream dressing, but to increase consumer acceptance and appeal of the final product titanium dioxide is usually added to the dressing to make it a brilliant white colour and enhance marketability of the finished product.

Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults. Cottage cheese is popular among dieters and some health food devotees. Formic, acetic, propionic and butyric acid contribute to the aroma. In the United States and Canada, cottage cheese is popular in many culinary dishes. Paneer, Indian cottage cheese in Indian English made from whole buffalo milk. It is eaten boiled, baked, or fried.

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