Repost: Cottage cheese

anjuschka

Dukan Ancestor!!
Here's a useful recipe posted by Atropos on a different thread and I thought it might be easier to find here!

You can always make your own fat free cottage cheese at home (confession - it's been years since I tried this, but my gran did it all the way through the war years!)

This is how she did it:
Put 2 pts of skimmed (fat free) milk into an enamel or steel pan, and heat gently, stiring from time to time, until it is too hot to dip a finger in, but not at boiling point.
  1. Take it off the heat and let it sit for a few minutes.
  2. Add two tablespoons of lemon juice , and stir – it will start to spilt into curds and whey (just like Miss Muffet!)
  3. When it is a bit cooler, pour into a large coffee filter in a colander to drain (my gran used cheese cloth, but an Italian friend clued me into the coffee filter idea when I watched her make ricotta).
  4. When the cheese is as dry as you like it, add salt, and whatever other flavourings you fancy.
Not only should this be fat-free, but much of the sugar in the milk will be discarded with the whey (which in the wartime went to feed a pig!)
 
Oh thanks Anja - I know I can rely on you to be more organised than me!! Cottage is cheesing as we speak :)
 
Right, I tried this and the results were *interesting*, pictures to be added later! The original instructions in blue, with my comments added in:

Put 2 pts of skimmed (fat free) milk into an enamel or steel pan, and heat gently, stiring from time to time, until it is too hot to dip a finger in, but not at boiling point.
Used a normal stainless steel pan, 2PT fresh (not UHT) 0.1% skimmed milk. Was not sure about the temp, it started gently frothing around the edges but I was still able to dip my finger... Took it off the heat anyway.

  1. Take it off the heat and let it sit for a few minutes.
    Maybe I did not wait long enough here either. Few minutes yes, but it was still steaming. Pan has a thick base which may slow down cooling....
  2. Add two tablespoons of lemon juice , and stir – it will start to spilt into curds and whey (just like Miss Muffet!)
    It didn't split with 2TB so I thought it was still too hot an waited a while longer, added a third TB and it quickly curdled - pic coming up. Used bottled lemon juice so that maybe an issue with the curdling.
  3. When it is a bit cooler, pour into a large coffee filter in a colander to drain.
    I used a muslin cloth in a colander, and again maybe did not wait for it too cool enough before straining. It drained quickly and I was able to press it a bit, so it formed a ball that was quite cohesive and I put that in the fridge - there is a pic of the ball, I tore it in half to see the texture inside.
  4. When the cheese is as dry as you like it, add salt, and whatever other flavourings you fancy.
    It was nothing like the cottage cheese you can stir, and because of the 3 TB of lemon
    , it reminds me more of Mozzarella, with a slight lemony tang (probably also because I didn't use freshly squeezed lemon)!
Put it in the fridge (covered) and sliced it up the next day. 2PT only made one mozzarella-sized-ball but it is so worth it!
I wonder about adding the salt into the 'whey' mixture just after curdling, as the cheese is completely neutral now (obviously) and I'd prefer not having to grind salt over it afterwards.

I'm having a 'Tomato and Dukan Mozzarella' sandwich made with Dukan bread at the moment. It's absolutely gorgeous :D:D:D thanks for sharing the recipe even if my result was a 'failure'!!
 

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My attempt was a little more disastrous Anja! I only had lime juice, which may have been a contributory factor!! I didn't try adding extra juice (wish I had) and I didn't get very many lumpy bits, but what I did have looked like cottage cheese. I strained through a coffee filter and I had so much liquid it all kind of disintegrated! I may try again with lemon and more of it as I like the look of your cheese ball.
 
When I made mine, it didn't have 'cottage cheese' lumps either. I added salt (not too much) and mixed before straining too. I think I left more liquid as mine wouldn't have stood up to being torn. I just gave it a good stir with lots of cracked pepper once it had drained.

Will try the 'mozzarella ball' method next (for tomorrow!).:)
 
Ooh - I like the photos...

I'm glad this is working - I was sure if I remembered all the steps right,; it's been many years since my gran passed away, and I haven't tried to make cheese since (although my sister in Australia tells me she has started cheese-making as a hobby, so the skills seem to have been passed on successfully!)

From memory Anja's photo looks about right.

By the way - the enamel / steel pan is used because the acid in the lemon juice will attack aluminium, and aluminium in not a nice thing to have in your cheese.
 
Just spotted this discussion from before I joined. It sounds good. No need to chuck the whey, it is higher protein than the cheese, and zero fat, so use in pancakes to thin if you've used quark. Adds a nice taste too.
I used to make cheese regularly when I had no fridge as milk used to 'turn' without the help of lemon! Once at a music summer school we had two churns of milk soured, so we hung a double bed sheet from the rafters in a cool outhouse and put the curds through! The resulting 6-8 lbs of milk cheese made sauces and spreads for the rest of the week for 160 people!
 
Anja, I have to tell you that what you made is Paneer. Indian cheese. It's made exactly like this and forms a ball when homemade. My dad used to make paneer all the time when I was a kiddie! If you've seen the ones in restaurants or Indian supermarkets in blocks or chunks. They compress it with a machine so its really dry and then cut up in cubes! So instead of your slices, ill try cubes! Im making this recipe today and i'm going to make curry with it! Lets see how it turns out!!

To add: although before its put in curries, the cubes are deep fried. I;m going to try it without and some dry fried!
 
Anja, I have to tell you that what you made is Paneer. Indian cheese. It's made exactly like this and forms a ball when homemade. My dad used to make paneer all the time when I was a kiddie! If you've seen the ones in restaurants or Indian supermarkets in blocks or chunks. They compress it with a machine so its really dry and then cut up in cubes! So instead of your slices, ill try cubes! Im making this recipe today and i'm going to make curry with it! Lets see how it turns out!!

To add: although before its put in curries, the cubes are deep fried. I;m going to try it without and some dry fried!

You are almost certainly right - we always called it Gran's cottage cheese - but Gran was Anglo-Indian, so probably brought the recipe with her, when she got stuck over here in 1939.

My mum remembers Gran making yogurt and chappatis to feed her during the war - and I can remember sunday tea parties punctuated by the sharp heat of green chillis, which she sneaked into egg sandwiches when no one was looking!
 
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