I grew up eating Knudsen. Small curds, rather dry. It’s apparently a (Southern?) California brand; and I’ve only seen it once up here, at a Wal-Mart about 70 or 80 miles south of here. (It’s on my commute back from Seattle, should I ever feel the need for it.) There’s a Safeway on the way home (about 40 miles south) and one 10 miles East, that carries their Lucerne brand. It’s almost as good as Knudsen. Almost.
The local brands (e.g., Darigold) are much too liquid. And (unrelated to the runniness) I don’t care for large curd cottage cheese.
It’s less the brand or size than what goes on top. If you haven’t had cottage cheese and apple butter, do it now! That was a traditional snack in our house. Recently with trying to follow a more nutritious diet, I’ve been topping cottage cheese with nuts; walnuts and cc are two great tastes that taste great together.
I eat Knudsen and I like small curds. It saddens me that I have to choose 4% fat over 2% fat because of the curds. I enjoy it on baked potatoes, and with tuna.
Our Meijer has superb store-brand dairy products, and their cottage cheese is my favorite. I buy the 1% fat version.
Can’t stand anything sweet with it. It’s best with lots of black pepper, but usually I eat it straight out of the container. Yes, I am the only person in the house who eats it.
Funny thing about cottage cheese. There is a locally made kind that is utter heaven, straight out of the container. I don’t dare buy it too often because I just can’t stop stuffing it in my face. There is one other national brand that’s also delicious, but I never remember the name of it!..other than these two, all other kinds of cottage cheese, especially store brands, might as well be wallpaper paste. Five stars or zero stars, no in between.
I switched to a store brand (Giant Eagle) no salt added version. The first bite was kind of bland but I seem to eat mostly by texture anyhow and was able to get past that. I like it much more than I ever did the fully salted version. And now that my taste expectations have changed, regular cottage cheese is almost inedible to me now.
When I was a kid, I liked it with sugar. Sometimes I’d have it with catsup instead. I’ve had it with salt and pepper.
I’ll eat it with pineapple chunks nowadays, but only if it’s at a buffet or something – someplace where they have cottage cheese and pineapple chunks. I almost never buy pineapple chunks, so it’s a rare occasion when I have any in the house.
I like the just-moist (Knudsen!) small curds with nothing on them. I don’t dare eat it right out of the container, or the container would be empty in one sitting. Better to just portion a little out in a custard cup
I like cottage cheese mixed with chopped cucumber and black pepper. Cottage cheese is surprisingly good over a hot baked potato, with salt, pepper, hot sauce, chives, etc. to taste.
I have no use for cottage cheese, ever. When I was young I had the rug pulled out from under me, several times, when I cut into a piece of homemade lasagna, and watched it ooze apart and fall flat. And then I’d notice suspiciously white bits, obviously cottage cheese, desecrating what should have been a lovely plate of lasagna. I’d look at my mom with no good will, an think at her: What the HELL?? Is ricotta cheese that friggin expensive, that you would rather ruin tonight’s dinner with cottage cheese, and destroy the positive outlook upon humanity that your son used to have?
Oh yes. She wanted me to be disgruntled, and her lasagna defamation paved the way.
(In short, my failings are her fault, not mine. Fuck you cottage cheese!)
My mother always served it with canned pineapple, or just with salt and pepper. Or both. We always had either Darigold (been around a very long time) or a local Alaska brand called Matanuska Maid (maid-made, get it?), whose logo was a figure skater in a fur trimmed parka. I prefer small curd.
That was a traditional snack in our house. Recently with trying to follow a more nutritious diet, I’ve been topping cottage cheese with nuts; walnuts and cc are two great tastes that taste great together.