Cottage cheese
Template:Short description Template:Use Canadian English Template:Infobox Cheese
Cottage cheese is a type of fresh cheese with a mild flavor and a creamy, heterogeneous, soupy texture, made from skimmed milk. Cottage cheese differs from other fresh cheeses in the addition of a "dressing" to the curd grains, usually cream, which is mainly responsible for the taste of the product. Cottage cheese is not aged.<ref name="cfr">Template:Cite web</ref>
Full fat cottage cheese is low in calories and is a rich source of vitamin B12. It is used in combination with foods such as fruit, toast, granola, and salads.
History
Origin
Template:Main A fictional story on the origin of cheese was taken from Homer's Odyssey, in which the poet describes how the Cyclops, Polyphemus, made cheese by storing milk in animal stomachs.<ref name=Flavour>Template:Cite book</ref> The enzyme rennin from the stomachs of nursing animals induces a coagulation process separating the curds from the milk.<ref name=History>Template:Cite web</ref>
Cheese is thought to have occurred in the Middle East around 5,000 BC.<ref name=Flavour/> Evidence of cheese can be found in a band of carvings on the walls of an ancient Mesopotamian temple that dates back to 3,000 BC. The ancient carvings show how the civilization created a cheese-like substance, using salt and milk to create a salty, sour curd mixture believed to be somewhat similar to today's cottage cheese.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As Rome expanded its empire, it spread the knowledge of cheese, discovering many new forms.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
United States uses
The term cottage cheese first began to be used for simple homemade cheese in America in the mid-19th century.<ref name=CaliDairy>Template:Cite web</ref>
The first American cheese factory opened in 1868, beginning the wholesale cheese industry in the United States. The use of industrial cheese in the United States, in general, increased greatly at the end of the 19th century; by the turn of the 20th century, farm cheese production had become significant.<ref name=History/>
Cottage cheese was widely promoted in America during the First World War, along with other dairy products, to save meat for infantry rations. This promotion was shown in many war posters, including one which claimed that one pound of cottage cheese contains more protein than a pound of lamb, pork, beef, or chicken.
After the war, cottage cheese quickly became more commonly consumed. Template:Convert of cottage cheese were produced in 1919<ref name="CaliDairy" /> (out of Template:Convert of cheese in general in 1920),<ref name="History" /> and by 1928, Template:Convert were manufactured.<ref name="CaliDairy" /> Consumption peaked in the United States in the 1970s when dieting became common, and some $1.3 billion of it was sold per year, but in the 1980s, yogurt consumption increased, and cottage cheese sales dropped considerably further in the 2000s.<ref name="AmericaLove">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2016, a Wall Street Journal article speculated that cottage cheese might be ready for a resurgence following the increased use of Greek yogurt due to its high protein and low sugar levels.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Manufacture
Since the 1930s, industrial cottage cheese has been manufactured using pasteurized skim milk,<ref name=EncycloFood>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Iowa>Template:Cite journal</ref> or in more modern processes using concentrated nonfat milk or reconstituted nonfat dry milk.<ref name=EncycloFood/> A bacterial culture that produces lactic acid (Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis or L. lactis ssp. cremoris strains such as are usually used) and rennet, which allows the milk to curdle and parts to solidify, are added to skim milk and heated until it reaches Template:Convert, and maintained at that temperature for 8 hours or more. The solids, known as curd, form a gelatinous skin over the liquid (known as whey) in the vat, which is cut into cubes with wires, allowing more whey to drain from the curds. The curds are then reheated to Template:Convert for one or two hours. In Iowa in the early 1930s, hot water was poured into the vat, further forming the curds. Once the curds have been drained and are primarilyTemplate:Clarify dry, the mass is pressed to dry the curds further. The curds are then rinsed in water.<ref name=Flavour/><ref name=CaliDairy/><ref name=EncycloFood/><ref name=Iowa/> Finally, salt and a "dressing" of cream are added, and the final product is packaged and shipped for consumption.<ref name=Flavour/><ref name=AmericaLove/><ref name=Iowa/> Some smaller modern luxury creameries omit the first heating step but allow the milk to curdle much longer with bacteria to produce the curds or use crème fraîche as dressing.<ref name=AmericaLove/>
In the United States, cottage cheese made with a food-grade acid must be labeled as a "direct acid set" and contain not less than 4% milkfat and not more than 80% moisture.<ref name=cfr/>
Usually, a small amount of low Template:CO2-producing citrate-fermenting lactococci or leuconostoc bacterial strains are added to the starter mix for the production of diacetyl for added buttery or creamy flavours. Producers must be careful that the final product contains approximately 2 ppm diacetyl and that the ratio of diacetyl to acetaldehyde is 3–5 to 1 to achieve the typical cottage cheese flavor. If the ratio is too small, the product tastes grassy; if it is too much, the taste becomes harsh.<ref name=Flavour/>
Titanium dioxide is added to some brands of cottage cheese (Borden, Lucerne) to make it a brighter white.Template:Cn In the United States, the FDA allows the additive in many dairy products (not whole milk) up to 1% of total volume by weight.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It may also be used in Canada and the European Union. In the US, the FDA does not restrict nanoparticle technology used in food, but in Europe, it must be first submitted for approval as a food ingredient. According to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, it is found in hundreds of products, not always labeled as such, including many organic products;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Unreliable source?<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> however, several large US producers have denied using it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Cottage cheese may be marketed as a small-curd (<4 mm diameter) or large-curd (>8 mm diameter).<ref name=EncycloFood/> Template:Cookbook
Nutrition
Full fat cottage cheese is 78% water, 12% protein, 5% carbohydrates, and 4% fat (table). In a reference amount of Template:Cvt, full fat cottage cheese supplies 103 calories of food energy, and is a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of vitamin B12 (28% DV) and a moderate source of phosphorus and sodium (12-15% DV, table).
Cottage cheese is safe to eat during pregnancy, unlike some cheese products that are not recommended.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Other than supplying nutrients, there is little evidence that consuming cottage cheese provides any direct health effects.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Consumption
In the United States and Canada, cottage cheese is used in many culinary dishes. It can be combined with fruit and sugar, salt and pepper, fruit purée, tomatoes, or granola and cinnamon. It can be eaten on toast, in salads, as a chip dip, as a replacement for mayonnaise in tuna salad, and as an ingredient in recipes such as jello salad and various desserts. Cottage cheese is also consumed with fruit, such as pineapple, pears, peaches, or mandarin oranges.
The sour taste of the product is due to lactic acid, which is present at 124–452 mg/kg. Formic, acetic, propionic and butyric acids contribute to the aroma.<ref name=EncycloFood/>
Due to its incorporation of whey, cottage cheese is high in lactose relative to most other cheeses. However, lactose is partially decomposed by lactic acid fermentation.
See also
- Cottage cheese boycott, a consumer boycott in 2011 in Israel against the rise of food prices
- List of cheeses
- Ricotta, an Italian whey cheese
Coagulate skimmed milk with lactic bacteria and rennet
- Fromage blanc, a soft French cheese
- Tvorog, white cheese from Eastern Europe
- Quark, a soft German cheese
Coagulate with citric acid or acetic acids
- Paneer, Indian cottage cheese in Indian English made from whole buffalo milk. It is eaten boiled, baked, or fried.
References
External links
Template:Cheese Template:Jewish cuisine Template:Cuisine of Israel