Among all the perfectly delicious foodstuffs that have been made bland and boring by industrial production, cottage cheese seems to have taken a particularly heavy hit. Most commercial cottage cheeses are either bland or sour; the milk dressing for the curds is frequently thickened by cornstarch, guar gum, or carrageenan instead of cream; and the list of offenses goes on. Fortunately, there are a number of artisans making delicious versions in the style of generations past, and best of all, you can try this at home.

After you make a batch or two, you might vary the size of the curd or see what that slightly lower milk temperature yields. Or you might get curious about how your cottage cheese would perform in a recipe that calls for store-bought. The curds do not disintegrate or soften much, so working it into a savory pie dough or kugel is not advised. But they do hold up nicely as filling for baked pastries. And what they do for a simple pancake recipe is impressive.

Read More Here

Photo by Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post