This cottage cheese recipe is incredibly simple and rewarding to make from scratch.
If you’ve ever been curious about making cheese at home, this is the perfect starting point. It’s an ideal project for anyone interested in traditional food-making, reducing store-bought packaging, or just experimenting with real ingredients.
For this version, I used Puhoi’s dark blue top milk, a full-bodied milk that curdled beautifully and resulted in a texture similar to crumbled feta. It’s firmer and drier than the creamy cottage cheese you’ll find in stores. While you can (allegedly) add cream or milk to the finished homemade cottage cheese, I opted to enjoy it ‘as it is’. The texture and taste of this homemade batch has its own rustic charm, and works well in everything from crumbling over salads or spooned onto crackers with a drizzle of olive oil. There are endless usage ideas. I used crumbled some into a Salmon Roulade before rolling it up (instead of using cream cheese as I usually would) and it worked a treat.
To add a bit of zing, I opted for fresh lemon juice instead of vinegar. The citrusy flavour is just lovely! I honestly wouldn’t make it any other way. From 3 cups of milk, I ended up with about ¾ cup of fluffy, dry cottage cheese. It’s plenty for a few meals and such a satisfying quantity for just few minutes of hands-on effort.
I also used my favourite homemade flavoured salt, but standard salt will do if you don’t have anything fancy at hand. My salt was made with added herbs, garam masala, smoked paprika and onion powder…so you can imagine the extra oomph it added! In various batches, as well as my flavoured salt I’ve also added generous amounts of paprika to add extra colour and a stronger flavour boost.
The process itself is easy, but temperature is key. You’ll want to remove the milk from heat right as it reaches around 88°C. Too early and it may not curdle properly; too late and you may find a reduction in curds, or tougher curds. I highly recommend using a candy thermometer, as it takes out all the guesswork and makes the whole experience more reliable.
Is It Cottage Cheese or Ricotta? Let’s Clarify.
I’m really surprised by how many recipes describe this as ricotta, when it’s actually not! And here’s why that matters.
Cottage cheese is made from the curds, which are the milk solids that form when milk is gently heated and acidified. Ricotta, on the other hand, is traditionally made from whey, the liquid that remains after the curds have been removed. The word ricotta comes from the Latin recoctus, meaning “cooked again” or ‘recooked” because the whey is reheated to extract any remaining proteins and form a second, finer curd.
So while both are soft cheeses, their origins are quite different.
The cheese in my recipe is made from whole milk, which places it firmly in the cottage cheese category. I’ve made it as a dry version, meaning I haven’t added any milk or cream after draining. The result is a crumbly, slightly tangy soft cheese that’s much drier than what you’ll typically find at the store.
Homemade Cottage Cheese
Ingredients
- 3 cups whole milk (I used dark blue top milk)
- 2.5 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste (or flavoured salt, herbs and paprika)
Method
- Squeeze fresh lemon juice, measure and put aside.
- Pour milk into a large saucepan and heat to approx 88°C. Use a wooden spoon or whisk to stir regularly so it doesn’t ‘catch’ on the bottom and burn. Watch it closely as it can come up to temperature very quickly and over-spill! A candy thermometer is perfect to measure the temperature.
- Remove the milk from the heat when it reaches approx 88°C.
- Pour in the lemon juice and stir briefly. It will begin to curdle straight away. Cover and rest the lemon/milk for approx 30 minutes.
- Line a colander with cheese cloth (or alternatively a clean cotton tea-towel). Place a deep bowl beneath the colander to catch the whey that will seep out.
- Using a slotted spoon, spoon out the curd solids from your cooled curdle into the lined colander OR feel free to tip the whole contents from the saucepan into the colander (you’ll just need an extra deep bowl beneath however as there is a lot of whey to drain away).
- Once drained, hold the corners of the cheese cloth together like a money bag. Squeeze it gently to remove any excess whey. Then run the cheese (still wrapped in the cheese cloth) under a cold tap to cool it down further.
- Once cool, transfer contents of the cheese into a clean bowl. Break it up into small curds (or to your preferred texture), then stir in salt to taste. Add more if necessary.
- Chill in the fridge for around 1 hour before serving.
- Keep in the fridge in an air-tight container and use within 7 days.
