How to Make Cottage Cheese
When I began the stockpile challenge, one of the first things I noticed I was running low on was cheese. A reader, Mary, passed on instructions for farmer’s cheese. I combined Mary’s instructions with some instructions off the net and made a delicious light and fluffy cottage cheese.
The thing that shocked me the most was that I made this creamy deliciousness with only 3 simple ingredients:
organic milk
white vinegar
salt
To compare, I looked up the ingredients of a common brand of cottage cheese sold at the grocery store:
Cultured Fat Free Milk, Buttermilk, Nonfat Dry Milk, Cream, Salt, Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Phosphoric Acid, Natural Flavoring, Guar Gum, Mono and Diglycerides, Xanthan Gum, Carob Bean Gum, Titanium, Dioxide(artificial color), Maltodextrin, Cultured dextrose, Postassium Sorbate, Calcium Chloride, Enzymes
This is the easiest thing that I’ve ever made!
Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups of 2% milk
1/4 cup of white vinegar
dash of salt (optional – it’s just for flavor)
Directions:
1.) In a large saucepan bring the milk almost to a boil. As soon as bubbles begin to rise to the top, remove the saucepan from the heat.
2.) Immediately stir in the white vinegar and the salt (if using). You will see the milk begin to curdle immediately.
3.) Allow the mixture to cool completely – about 1 hour at room temperature.
4.) Using a mesh strainer, separate the curds and the whey (hints of Little Miss Muffit!). Keep the whey for other uses (discussed below).
The result will be a delicious, light and fluffy cottage cheese. I ended up with just short of 1 cup of cottage cheese and just over a cup and a half of whey. I think if I’d left it to cool longer or placed it in the fridge overnight before draining that I might have ended up with more curds and less whey.
Some uses for whey:
Substitute for water or milk in baking
Use in place of part or all of the water when cooking rice or pasta
Use it for smoothies
Use it in oatmeal or other porridge
Seriously – this was so incredibly easy that I was shocked. I will never buy cottage cheese again!
NOTE: A reader mentioned that her cottage cheese had a very sour taste. She discovered that you can rinse the curds under running water to get rid of this taste. Thank you, Anna! :)
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Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca
Great job! I wanted to add that you can add seasonings like fresh cracked pepper, rosemary or basil to the cheese during the mixing process. The seasonings make the cheese irresistibly good.
Tess
That’s great! Different from our cottage cheese recipe ,but great for sure
Try making this recipe with “goats milk”. You see, goats will stop making milk when they have cancer whereas a milk cow will continue to produce milk and will put those cancerous cells into it. Thank goodness for “milk pooling”!
USE RAW MILK
My mom used to make this it was delicious- but she would combine the vinegar and the whole milk together – stir continuously – it will begin to curdle remove from the heat drain using a cheese cloth – it tastes delis warm
Marie – so, she heated it all together instead of combining it after the milk was heated? Hmm….good to know – I will try that next time and see if there’s a difference in texture!
Daisy
Wouldn’t whole milk be better?
Sheila – I suspect it would have better results because of the higher fat content. I only had 2% on hand and am in the midst of a Stockpile Challenge. In the future I definitely plan to try it with whole milk.
Daisy
I suspect this would usually have been made with milk that had the cream skimmed off to make butter with. My MIL was just talking about doing this, I will give her this recipe to try.
As you referenced the Stockpile Challenge, is there any way that this could be made with powdered milk? I’m concerned that my original city-girl roots are showing here, but perhaps there is another ingredient that could be added to allow me to make this cottage cheese with my stored goods. Although I am considering acquiring a goat or cow to join our family, I am resisting the idea until I also have a way to grow and harvest the food necessary to feed them.
Thank you for any suggestions.
I’m doing some food prep this afternoon – I’ll give it a shot with reconstituted powdered milk and see what happens!
Check back later for results!
~ Daisy
I appreciate that. Thank you very much!
Barb – so sorry! I didn’t get a chance to do the cottage cheese today! I will do so tomorrow!
Daisy
Good morning Daisy,
Not meaning to be a pest, but I was wondering if you had the opportunity to try out the powdered milk in your cottage cheese recipe. I’m willing to try it myself, but don’t really have a clue what I would be doing. Would you suggest simply mixing up the powder to make the exact quantity of milk and then proceeding as usual?
If you don’t have time to try it, I completely understand, but maybe you could just offer that opinion.
Thanks,
Barb
Hi Barb! Not a pest at all! I apologize for taking so long to get to this experiment.
I tried the same recipe today with some reconstituted dry milk powder. It worked, but resulted in a bit less cottage cheese and a bit more whey than with fresh milk. This time I only got about 3/4 cup of cottage cheese and the rest was whey liquid. I suspect it is related to the fat level in the powdered milk. Mine is skim milk powder. If you had a full fat milk powder I think you might have better results.
Daisy
Thanks Daisy, I look forward to giving that a try. I’m so pleased to find out that cottage cheese will no longer need to be on my grocery list. Fabulous!
Wow! I just started buying lots of cottage cheese because I love baking a salsa egg bake for breakfast, but it’s costly and I am not always able to afford the organic kind. I will definitely try this recipe. Thanks, Daisy!
Just discovered your blog and I love it. What vinegar (%) did you use? I used 10% as this was the only flavourless thing I had but the cottage cheese turned out terribly sour
Lovely texture though. Any ideas what I can do with it not to throw it away? A bake maybe?
Hi Anna. Welcome
My white vinegar is 5%. Two thoughts: Maybe try using half the recommended amount of vinegar, or try lemon juice in place of vinegar next time. I would suggest that you make a pasta dish with the cottage cheese that you have – use it like you would ricotta.
Daisy
Hey Daisy, I googled a bit and found out some recipes recommending that you rinse the curd under cold water which I have just done and the sour taste is gone
Although the texture isn’t perfect npw (too tiny lumps)…well definitely I’m going to keep experimenting on a daily basis because we eat lots of cottage cheese but we have to cut both the costs and salt consumption
Hi, Anna – thank you for letting me know that!
I’m going to edit the article to add this information!
Daisy
Hi Daisy! I love this recipe, but I am lactose intolerant. Can I make this with almond or soy milk? Thanks!!
Hi, Bella! I’m not sure if you can or not. I have only tried it with cow’s milk. If I were you, I’d try it with a smaller amount than recommended in the recipe, maybe half it? That way if it doesn’t work you haven’t wasted as much.
Best of luck, and please share the results here! I think it will help other in your situation.
Thank you for reading!
Daisy
I tried the cheese it was really great – any idea how I can 1.make the curds bigger? 2. make smooth cheese
Thanks so much
Jacqui
Jacqui ~ I’m still working on making the curds bigger – I have no idea!
Perhaps a longer time before you drain it? ANd I never thought about making it smooth – you might be able to just zip it in your food processor, then drain it. I’m glad that your cottage cheese turned out well!
Daisy
Hi Daisy,
I don’t have access to raw milk, so can I use regular 2% milk instead? Also, after you rinse it with cold water, should you add a bit of fresh cream to make it moist, or will it be moist anyway?
Gini ~
I don’t have access to raw milk either and just used organic milk from the grocery store. I did not need to rinse my cottage cheese, so I’m not sure whether or not you would need to moisten it or not.
Daisy
I’m trying this with raw goat’s milk and using rennet instead of vinegar. So, I’ll post the results.