Cottage Cheese

I have hesitated to post the recipe for cottage cheese because it’s not a very exact thing. You just have to give it a try. If you have some milk that’s going a bit “off” - not fresh enough to use for drinking - this is a great way to use that milk rather than throwing it out. Or, if you just need cottage cheese for a recipe, you can make it from fresh milk. The “tri-pack” milk works great.

Cottage Cheese
Put milk in a bowl or plastic container and cover with a cloth. Then place milk either on the counter top in the kitchen or in a warm place (like a hot water closet) and leave it until it “clabbers” - it will be the consistency of egg whites or before jello gets solid.

Place the bowl of “clabbered” or “jellied” milk in the microwave. Cook at high heat for four minutes. The goal is to cook it to the stage that it is solid enough to hold together between your finger tips. If it is still like jelly, then put it back in for four more minutes and check again. Then again for two minutes and two more minutes UNTIL it gets to that stage where you can hold it between your finger tips.

Each time you check it, cut it into large squares with the spoon, stirring it slightly just to evenly expose the milk solids to heat.

Once it is “done”, it must be drained and washed. The original instructions call for cheese cloth, but living in Africa, I decided to use “mosquito netting” . I cut it in large squares and it works nicely. I drape the netting over a colander and pour the cottage cheese and whey (separated water like liquid that come out of the cottage cheese) through the netting and colander. Then I rinse it with clean water. After rinsing well, I draw up the corners of the netting and tie it on the sink faucet to drain. I usually leave it for an hour or so (or until I remember to take it off). I have found that it drains better tied to the faucet rather than leaving it in the colander.

Once it has drained well, I put it in a bag and store it in the freezer until I’m ready to cook. For a recipe that calls for cottage cheese, I mix it with fresh milk to make it creamy - so that it looks like what you would buy in the US.

Note - the time needed to “cook” the cottage cheese depends on many factors -especially the amount of milk and the power of your microwave. The original instructions I had were for four tri-packs of milk and it said to cook it for four minutes twice and then two minutes twice. You have to test it each time though, because once it’s ready, you don’t want to continue to cook it.

I make cottage cheese from fresh milk, milk that’s stayed too long in the fridge, and also from the milk that’s left when I make butter from cream. All work fine and make an excellent ingredient for many recipes.