How to Make Curd (Cottage) Cheese

Posted on by Scott

Remember the old nursery rhyme “Little Miss Muffet” (she sat on a tuffet, eating her curds and whey)?  Well when I was younger I didn’t even know what curds or whey were. Come to think of it, I always thought that “curdled” referred to milk that had somehow gone bad (kind of right).  How messed up is that?

Curd Cheese

Curd Cheese

Lets start with the basics, shall we?  To be honest the basics of cheese making are all I know, although I have more than a passing interest in trying my hand at some more complicated home-made cheeses, if I ever find the time…

In progress Curd Cheese

In progress Curd Cheese

To make cheese, you need milk. Milk is basically made up of water, protein, fat and lactose, and what we need to do is make the proteins stick together by adding an acid (forming curds), then sieve away the liquid (the whey).  A little bit of extra draining through a muslin lined sieve and we’re done; a really basic cottage cheese.

A side point of interest; if you take the whey and heat it to near boiling before re-sieving it, you get even more curds, in this case known as ricotta, which means re-cooked.  Ricotta, as you probably know, is a soft and slightly grainy cheese, great for use in deserts such as cheesecake.

Home-made Curd Cheese Recipe – Ingredients & Method

  • 1.5 Litres (3.2 US Pints) full fat milk
  • Juice of 1.5 lemons
  • Salt & pepper

Start by heating the milk in a pan until its almost (but not) boiling.  Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice slowly until the curds are visually separating from the milk.  At this point pour it out into your muslin lined sieve (with a bowl underneath to catch the whey) and leave it for anywhere between a couple of hours (in which case give it a bit of a squeeze in the cloth to remove excess moisture) to overnight.

It’s great spread onto fresh bread and sprinkled with a little salt & pepper.  Well worth a try!

Now, has anyone else out there tried making their own cheese, and if so what tips do you have for my next adventure?

curdcheese3

All mashed up

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  • http://www.he-eats.com Edd

    Curd Cheese is the only cheese ive ever made, I use it to make curd tart which is the best use I can think for the cheese

    • http://www.realepicurean.com scott

      Off to Google “curd tart”. Thanks!

  • http://www.tangoinhereyes.blogspot.com Joli

    Thanks for the curd lesson. When you mean heat to almost boiling, are the tiny little bubbles forming, or is it pre-tiny bubbles?

    • http://www.realepicurean.com scott

      Hi Joli,
      I go for tiny bubbles. Keep stirring it though else it might stick to the pan a little.

  • http://www.gocha.co.uk Margot

    My mom used to make curd cheese like this :) I tried also once but it was before I started the blog ;)

    • http://www.realepicurean.com scott

      Ah, it’s a great and simple thing. I’ll be teaching Mia all of this once she’s old enough :D

  • http://www.tasteofbeirut.com tasteofbeirut

    This is the same method used in Lebanon for curd cheese (called ‘areesh). There’s another cheese that people make and that is “labneh”, my favorite. GReat post

    • http://www.realepicurean.com scott

      Great how different milks produce totally different flavours, too. Thanks for the comment!

  • Mierna Maddonni

    I’m Lebanese and all my life my mom’s made yoghurt the same as your recipe, but instead of adding the lemon to the milk, we add a cup of plain unflavoured yoghurt. if left in pot over night it becomes yoghurt and if you want the cheese or “labneh” you take of the yoghurt and put it into a cheese cloth bag and let it drain over night…. IT”S DIVINE on toast!

    • http://www.realepicurean.com scott

      Thanks for this. Never tried, but I’ll give it a go soon!

  • http://sumthinzcooking.blogspot.com/ Reema

    Hey,

    What you have here is called cottage cheese in English and in India, we call it paneer (in Hindi language). It is a principle vegetarian food and if you only hunt for paneer recipes on Google, you will find a wealth of stuff you can do with cottage cheese. btw, cottage cheese is among the least fattening of cheeses and very high in protein content. have fun!

    • http://www.realepicurean.com scott

      Ah, well I’m English so know all about cottage cheese. I don’t know why I didn’t name this recipe “How to make cottage cheese”, now you mention it. (perhaps a rename is in order).

  • cathy

    Any alternative ingredient to lemon as we’re allergic to citrus.

    • http://www.realepicurean.com scott

      Hi Cathy,
      You can use vinegar, it works just as well (only use a bit less else it’ll taste quite odd!).

      Professional cheese makers use rennet which is an enzyme extracted from animal stomachs (but I don’t suggest you kill Kitty!).

  • Marilyn

    Any person who grew up in upstate New York (land of dairy, wine, and lakes) can tell you that cottage cheese and curd cheese are not the same thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_curds

  • Jamison

    Look for “Junket” rennet tablets in lieu of the real stuff. I once found it at Central Market (like a fancy Whole Foods store) in Houston and I’m sure it can be found elsewhere. Or online, of course, as a last resort. The Junket box has some additional recipes for cheese that are pretty easy.

  • Jassatgend

    My son is cows milk intollerant so I thought I would make some using goats milk which he’s fine with. I have a recipe which calls for 750g of cottage cheese. You haven’t said how much cheese this will produce. Can you give me some kind of indication please?