Mamta's Kitchen - A Family Cookbook
Cottage Cheese ?
This may sound odd, but what is cottage cheese ?
I haven't had what we know as cottage cheese for years (since being a child) but what I remember was a sort of thicky milky liquid with lots of crumbly bits of cheese in there. It had a slightly tart/tangy taste to it (only very slightly though).
I ask because I've just seen someone using a hard block of Paneer and saying its like cottage cheese but harder. I've also seen mention of paneer being like cottage cheese before.
This is made me think, what process/make/use/type/area is it that class something as "cottage cheese" ? Is it how its made ? Is it the style ? Is it just a name given to any loose cheese ?
Steve
So does that make "cottage cheese" any cheese made by splitting boiled cows milk with lemon ?
Steve
Cottage cheese is basically same as paneer but unlike cottage cheese, paneer is not at all sour, because all the liquid is squeezed out of it. If you wash the cottage cheese, it tastes just like paneer.
Sometimes, I make paneer from low fat milk and then grind it into a paste. It then taste just like ricotta cheese.
I recently went on a one day cheese making course (at the local city farm.) Very interesting.
From my recollections Mamta (as usual) has hit the nail on the head about this question.
Perhaps a cheese/paneer course should be on the cards for Mamta's Kitchen?
cottage cheese is any milk curd which has been coagulated with a coagulting agent.
Ricotta is not strictly a cheese, as it is made from whey, not casein curds.
You are right of course Lapis, but what I was saying is that the ground skimmed milk paneer tastes like ricotta. As I understand, mostly from the web LOL, sometimes they add skimmed milk to whey before making the ricotta. Because of this, in America, a lot of Indians make paneer based Indian sweets from ricotta.
With different curdling agents, I guess. I am not familiar with the details of different methods applied to different cheeses, just like to eat them ;-)!