Cottage cheese is a fresh cheese curd product with a mild flavor. Cottage cheese is drained, but not pressed, so some whey remains and the individual curds remain loose. The curd is usually washed to remove acidity, giving sweet-curd cheese. It is not aged or colored. Different styles of cottage cheese are made from milks with different fat levels and in small-curd or large-curd preparations. Pressed cottage cheese becomes hoop cheese, farmer cheese, pot cheese, or queso blanco. Cottage cheese can be eaten in a variety of different ways: by itself, with fruit and sugar, with salt and pepper, with fruit puree, on toast, with tomatoes, with granola and cinnamon, in salads, as a chip dip, as a replacement for mayonnaise in tuna salad or used as an ingredient in recipes such as jello salad and various desserts.
