Cottage Cheese
Cottage Cheese
This is also known as Farmers Cheese, Ricotta Cheese, and if more dry and pressed, then it is called Paneer. Regardless of the name, this is a easy to make shortcut. Cottage Cheese and Ricotta Cheese can be used interchangeably in most recipes. True Ricotta Cheese is made from just from the whey and just a finer, drier curd than Cottage Cheese. The rule of thumb here is 1 cup of Cottage Cheese from 1 liter (quart) of milk.
Ingredients
- 3 liters whole milk, do not use UHT milk, (3 quarts)
- ½ cup white vinegar, or lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon salt, optional
Instructions
- Heat the milk in a large pot, if you have a thermometer, you are looking for 88° C (190° F), if no thermometer, heat the milk until you see bubbles on the sides and remove from heat.
- After removing from the heat, gently stir the milk and slowly add the vinegar, once the vinegar is added, stop stirring and allow the milk to cool, about 30 minutes.
- When cooled, pour the mixture, which is now curds and whey into a fine mesh colander and drain off the whey into another pot, allow to drain for about an hour. You can also line the colander with a clean cloth, cheesecloth, or a paper towel. I used a metal strainer with tiny holes, not a mesh strainer, use a spoon and move around in the curd, along the bottom of the strainer and the whey will drain, let it sit in the strainer for an hour or so, use the spoon every 5-10 minutes.
- Pour the curds, this is the cheese part into a bowl, add salt and mix or enjoy or use as is in a recipe that calls for Cottage Cheese or Ricotta Cheese or as a side dish. Can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days. In this photo you can see the cheese has thickened up as the whey is draining, and you can see the holes in the strainer.
- For the firmer 'Farmer's Cheese' used in recipes, once you have the cottage cheese strained, line a large bowl with 2 or 3 layers of cheese cloth and pour in the strained cottage cheese, gather up the corners and tie that into a bag shape. Place a cutting board in your sink, place the tied up bag of cottage cheese on the cutting board, place another cutting board or large place on top of the bag, place some heavy canned goods on the top cutting board or plate to force out the remaining whey. After a few hours, Farmer's Cheese.
- If using this as an ingredient, say for lasagna or another dish, use as is. If using as a side dish, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and mix that in.
Notes
The yield from 3 liters of whole milk is about 3 cups of cheese. Cost for this is 55 Baht for a 946 ml carton of Meiji brand milk (just call it a liter and go with that) 3 cartons is 165 Baht, or about $4.85 for 3 cups of Cottage cheese. You can use the whey to make stock, use in place of milk or water in soup recipes and baking recipes, feed it to animals, and even water plants with it. If you refrigerate this, it will become quite stiff, add some milk and stir, you will have perfect Cottage cheese.
Used in Recipes Listed on this Site:
- Cheese Cannelloni, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Ricotta Gnocchi, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Crock Pot Lasagna.
- Cottage Cheese Meatloaf.
- Cottage Cheese Chicken Enchiladas, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Cottage Cheese Pierogies.
- Paneer Cheese from Milk.
- Lasagna Pot Pie.
- Skillet Lemon Chicken Pasta I.
- Baked Ziti Casserole.
- Amish Breakfast Casserole.
- Basic Lasagna, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Homemade Manicotti Shells.
- Skillet Ziti.
- Seafood Stuffed Shells.
- Tart Cherry Cottage Cheese Salad, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Meatball Mostaccioli, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Mandarin Orange Cottage Cheese Salad, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Cottage Cheese Jello Salad II, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Cottage Cheese Jello Salad I, made it.
- Noodles Romanoff, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Stuffed Shells with Italian Sausage.
- Sausage Stuffed Shells, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Fruited Salad Mold.
A while back I needed ricotta for a lasagna I was making and did a very similar recipe, not knowing it was that close to the same for cottage cheese. Now I know. Thanks for the recipe.
Thanks for the good words, Brian. I have made this many times, when I have guests visit and they see how easy this is, they are like wow!
I made this on 30 Nov 2015 and I must say, this is easy! I used 3 one liter cartons of milk, vinegar was 1/2 cup. Using med low heat, just heat the milk until you see the bubbles on the edge of the pot start to form, also, you will see tiny droplets of milk fat on the surface of the milk. I also used a meat thermometer, just stick it in the milk and check the temp once in a while, then the bubbles formed on the edge and the milk fat droplets appeared, the temp was just below 90 C. I removed the pot to another burner and slowly stirred in the vinegar, it will curdle right before your eyes! once all the vinegar is in, just stop stirring and let it set for about 1 hour.
I used a metal strainer, the kind with small holes in it and not a mesh colander. From 3 liters of milk, I made 3 cups of Cottage cheese, I did not use any salt, not a fan of salt here.
Recipe modified to reflect my findings and photos are mine as well of the process.
I am definitely going to give this a try. I get so annoyed when a recipe calls for cottage / ricotta cheese and I need to make a special trip to the shops. I wonder if it works with long-life milk. I will give it a try and return with results….
Denise, do not use any milk that was high temp pasteurized such as UHT, the proteins in the fat will not work the right way as they are changed from the high temp pasteurization. Also do not use skim or nonfat milk, the fat is what is needed to make it curdle. Whole milk and even 2% will work, but whole milk is preferred.
Don’t try, do, it is that easy 😉