My cottage cheese

[Jessica_H]

Cottage Cheese-1 Cheese-7

Date - 1/15/11
Recipe followed - Basic Cheese Recipies book from cheesemaking.com
Rennet and Mesophilic culture - From above website
Milk - From John S's farm. Used milk 6 days after getting it off the farm.

I was pretty disapointed with this cheese.  I did the "short" recipe that makes large curds.  I let the rennet sit the whole 8 hours (recipe calls for 4-8).  However, because there was so little milk I think my thermometer was wrong for my cooking temps.  It calls for 110 degrees and to hold it there for 20 min.  The thermometer would read 110 but then I'd stir and it would go all the way to 120.  The end result was something like cheese curds that were very good.

I washed the curd in the cheese cloth drain bag in cold water and then milled the curd with salt, a little half and half, and tarragon.  I used too much tarragon.

I really wanted something more like in the store and this much MUCH more like squeaky cheese curds.  I'm not sure how the store gets the squishy liquid around the curd?  Maybe I just overcooked?  It's a good cheese, just not what I was looking for.

I did NOT make ricotta from this whey but in hind-sight this would have been the BEST whey.  The curds were really squishy and I'm sure there was good stuff left behind after the cooking.  The whey was quite white compared to other whey.  But I was just too tired to do more.

1/18/11 - a few days after letting this sit in the fridge I was MUCH happier with it!  The taragon flavor mellowed and it was quite lovely.  It still didn't have any liquid around the curd but I wonder if I added more milk if it wouldn't do what I wanted?

[tnsven]

Hey Jessica,

I've never been pleased with this type of "cooked" cottage cheese. I much prefer the "No Cook" method found here:

https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1325.0.html

In my opinion, this makes a cottage cheese more akin to store bought. It is generally moister. Adding cream just before serving gives it that "liquid" look & feel that you mention.

I do not believe you can make ricotta from this type of cheese. I could be wrong though as I don't have the exact recipe you used in front of me. I know certainly that you cannot make ricotta from the whey of the No Cook variety as there is no rennet used.

Glad  you liked your cheese better after it sat a bit!

Kristin