I completely understand why many people do not like cottage cheese. It can be grainy and pasty, and generally the texture is a bit…off.
I actually haven’t eaten much of it, until recently. I couldn’t find a brand I liked. I tried the kind made by a local dairy. I tried all the fancy ones at the organic grocery stores. None were very good at all. Then, for some reason, I tried the Fred Meyer (now owned by Kroeger) brand. I was always too snobby to try a store brand, but it turns out it is FANTASTIC! I have no idea who actually makes it, but I guess it doesn’t matter.
The curds are large and completely separate from each other. It’s liquidy and not pasty, and definitely isn’t grainy.
And then there’s the black pepper. I have absolutely no idea where I learned this, but I think my mom used to put pepper on cottage cheese when I was a kid. My mom is so funny, and not particularly in a humorous way. She’d take a piece of ice berg lettuce, lay a canned pear half on it, then top it with cottage cheese.
I remember applying huge amounts of black pepper to cottage cheese when I was college. Once on my own and after discovering the sensational joy of freshly ground pepper, I started adding almost an entire teaspoon or two to a small bowl of the stuff. I love the flavor, but I also love the crunch.
Some of the best eating I can remember involved a fresh tomato cut into eighths and filled with cottage cheese and then topped with several banana peppers and some ground black pepper. It was best when the tomatoes and banana peppers came from the back yard!
My husband’s go-to side dish is cottage cheese with liberal applications of freshly ground pepper, sometimes so much that our dogs start to sneeze. Back when I could afford the calories I used cottage cheese as dip for rippled potato chips.
My husband likes it with canned tropical fruit and almond butter.
Once several years ago I bought a container of it that was inedible. Very, very watery and disgusting. I vowed to return it to the store. Several days passed before I made it back, but I peeped in the container to assure myself it was still vile. It wasn’t! It had firmed up! It was FINE. So if this ever happens to you, try waiting a few days.
I like cottage cheese with vanilla, sweetener and cinnamon for breakfast. I also like sliced peaches in it for b-fast. Other times of the day I like just salt and pepper. But no matter what time of day I eat it, it must be at room temperature. Breakstone’s (2%, sometimes 4% if I’m feeling particularly carefree) is the only brand I’ll eat.
A little pepper makes cottage cheese juust right for me.
Many moons ago I read about Richard Nixon liking cottage cheese with ketchup. Curiosity made me try it, and I was surprised by how good it was. But once was enough.
Keep your maple syrup away from your cottage cheese (Grade B dark amber, of course) - that combo is addictive. For a lark, sometimes I splash some green Tabasco on top for a sweet/spicy kick.
I love a good sour cottage cheese. My favorite is called Johnsons, I think, although the Kroger brand suits me as well. Plain or with pepper, preferably straight out of the container.
I like to stir it into plain pasta, too, with lots of pepper, peas, and maybe a beaten egg. It that a dish?
