Posted on 10/27/2022 6:33:35 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Lumpy. Slimy. Yogurt but worse. These were all words I used to describe cottage cheese at one point in my life. If you asked me how I felt about the ingredient, I would have delivered a scathing condemnation, a brutal takedown of a food I saw as a curse to all things creamy—that is, if I even thought of it at all. Until recently, I had nearly completely forgot cottage cheese even existed. It seemed like a food lost to the ‘90s, like SlimFast and Bagel Bites. But unlike all those packaged diet foods of the era, cottage cheese was not a highly packaged monstrosity packed full of fake sugar to make up for its obvious lack of fat. Rather, it’s real cheese, a curdled milk product, that provides a blank canvas for anything else you choose to eat with it. As a child, the nothingness of the flavor of cream cheese was made more offensive by the noticeable texture—the little cheese curds floating in the watery bath of their own creation felt like spoiled milk. But there were a lot of foods I was sensitive to as a kid. Olives, asparagus, beans of any variety: They became bearable, even enjoyable, as I grew older. Why did I leave cottage cheese behind?
For me, the hatred of cottage cheese stems from diet culture and my association with the ingredient as nothing more than a diet food. I remember the women in my life with their Weight Watchers cards during my childhood, carefully tallying their allotted calories for the day. Cottage cheese was a favorite due to its low calorie content. Though I never participated in these diets myself (I did not have an “almond mom,” thank god), I can imagine that after restricting yourself so much over the course of the day, being able to indulge in something, anything—even cottage cheese—must have been a relief. It was one of the few foods you could eat in bulk without worrying about the “consequences.” That being said, I don’t think I ever saw someone eat cottage cheese for the pleasure of the experience. In my mind, it was always framed as a food you should eat, not one that anyone should be excited about. It was meant to be tolerated, not savored. So, in my own rejection of diet culture, I saw no need to ever stock my fridge with the stuff.
I felt the same way about salads for a while, lamenting the undressed kale concoctions peddled by raw vegan YouTubers in the mid-2010s. But then I learned that salads, when prepared with care and consideration, can come in all forms, some cooked and crispy with plenty of fried components, others salty and umami and bursting with acidity. I stopped seeing salad as a sad albeit healthy choice. It ceased to be about health at all—salad returned to its neutral status, finally free to be itself without contending with the confines of diet culture.
But for many of us, cottage cheese has not yet recovered from its diet culture-induced reputation. About a year ago, I decided to try it again on a whim, turned off though I was by its lumpy texture as soon as I opened its plastic container. You can imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that cottage cheese actually isn’t bad. In fact, quite the opposite: I loved it. Combined with some chopped cucumber, fresh dill, olive oil and black pepper, it came together as a delightful breakfast salad. Upon more experimentation, I discovered that this neutral ingredient pairs well with a long list of other food items: smoked salmon, onions, canned fruit, fresh berries… the list is never-ending.
There’s nothing wrong with attempting to be healthier, to feed ourselves better food so we can feel our best. If that’s what you’re going for, cottage cheese, with its surprisingly high protein content, is undoubtedly a decent choice for many. But an obsession with thinness is not about health—it’s about maintaining a beauty standard that upholds racist and sexist ideologies, that functions to exert control over bodies that do not fit the prescribed mold. It’s no wonder that the low-fat fad foods of the ‘90s are so unappealing now: Some of them tasted bad, sure, but all of them were tinged with this toxic body hierarchy that very few of us have materially benefitted from. But hear me out: Cottage cheese is a victim of this mindset just as much as we were. It does not deserve to be relegated to the annals of culinary history, preserved in the Jell-O molds of our grandmothers’ heydays. It’s time for cottage cheese to come into the light and for us to accept it with open arms, embracing its weird lumps just as we try to embrace our own.
and thats one of it better uses!
Not in Lasagna, it can’t. That’s just a dirty lie.
“College cheese” is what my dad called it. It’s OK, if you can avoid the 2% or unleaded varieties. “Healthy” eaters (I get it, I really do, but) have ruined many foods.
Here in Iowa we can get the good stuff. A&E (Anderson Erickson) have outstanding dairy products like Sour Cream and their large curd Cottage cheese is tasty. Has “full fat”. I like to put a lot of white pepper on it. Good for filling those odd corners of the stomach when wanting a better snack.
fruit is good
but i like mine with green olives
Can you eat cottage cheese with grits?
Just fyi, I didn’t say anything about lasagna.
I also prefaced my comments extensively with the word, “sometimes”.
I live in the dairy state and know my way around cheese. Personally I don’t substitute cottage cheese for either, but I do know people who do because of gut irritation issues with sour cream, and some because they don’t like the texture of ricotta.
Well just for further information, I never said you did.
But we have to get that out there. It seems like every online recipe website has a certain contingent of people who believe inferior or ersatz ingredients can substitute for what’s called for. “I used fat free mayo instead of butter, and apple sauce instead of sour cream, and it tasted just fine!”
No it didn’t!
I cut tomato in slices, top it with cottage cheese with a dollop of mayonnaise.
It’s a staple at my house. I large large curd, hubby likes small. I like fruit, he likes pepper.
Cottage cheese with a dollop of mayonnaise is delicious - probably a taste I acquired as a kid when eating it in a small salad in Texas cafeterias.
I laughed when I first read that, thinking, "I don't want to have to think!"
Could actually be uncomplicated though, and I might be missing out on an obvious solution. Thanks much.
Agreed.
Is that a plus or a minus?”
Guess it’s a plus - more for me to eat!
Actually, 2 goes along with 3, the comment about one of us losing weight and becoming more healthy. The one who regularly has something else for lunch is on a continuous upward trajectory and frets about her gains.
We typically give our grandkids a breakfast snack of plain yogurt and a fruit cup. When we are out of yogurt, we use cottage cheese - they love both!
I eat cottage cheese with fresh fruit for a quick breakfast.
I live near a Cabot farm, so....Cabot. Breakfast usually consists of eggs and bacon or sausage, but twice a week or so it's cottage cheese and wild blueberries. (the little, natural ones with flavor, not the big frankenberries that taste like water)
The little ones make for better, firmer pies as well.
Cottage cheese scooped on Martins BBQ Waffle Chips… I always liked cottage cheese, but I really dig it with big old red BBQ Waffles.
Hubby eats a concoction of yogurt and cottage cheese every day. I have to leave the room because the smell gags me.
(He feels the same way when I have liver, bacon, and onions. LOL!)
Yeah, i think certain things are more palatable/feasible substitutes than others. Even then, not everyone enjoys them.
Closest for me is full-fat cottage cheese with full-fat sour cream. Amend as desired. I actually like it plain.
The diet stuff is loathsome to me, though.
I have also chopped cheese curd, mixed with heavy cream, let it sit in the fridge 1-2 days to mellow (I think it slightly ferments, too) and added seasoning. It is indulgent.
My mother would use the thicker, full fat variety with sour cream added to top a summer salad. She called it Farmers Chop Suey.
Breakstone always, if you can find it.
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