Topic · Cheese
Cottage cheese
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Soft uncured curd mixed with a pasteurized cream dressing — U.S. identity floors milkfat at 4% and caps moisture at 80%, not a aged cheese and not ricotta.
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Cottage cheese is creamed fresh curd. 21 CFR 133.128: mix cottage cheese dry curd with a creaming mixture; milkfat not less than 4 percent by weight of the finished food; moisture not more than 80 percent 1. The cream dressing is pasteurized; heat-labile starters may go in after that heat. The label must state a minimum milkfat percent, and if the curd was set by direct acidification it must say “Directly set” or “Curd set by direct acidification” 1.
It is not Ricotta. Ricotta is often a heat-acid precipitation of whey proteins. Cottage is a casein curd that kept a lot of moisture and then got dressed with cream. Acid-set cheese is how some lots are set without waiting on culture acidity.
FAO’s generic fresh cheese (high moisture, eaten soon) is the family, not this identity’s numbers 2. Do not can cottage cheese at home. It is a moist dairy food.
What to notice #
Curds should be distinct, not a smear, sitting in a milky dressing that is not a whey lake (Whey). Taste mild lactic, slightly salty. Gassiness or a pink film is a keeping failure. See Curd and Cheese.
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Cited in this article
- 21 CFR § 133.128 — Cottage cheese — U.S. Food and Drug Administration (text via Cornell LII) — Soft uncured cheese: dry curd mixed with a pasteurized creaming mixture; finished milkfat not less than 4%; moisture not more than 80%.
- Small-Scale Dairy Farming Manual — Technology Unit 10.3 Small Scale Cheese Making — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — Technical notes on coagulation (acid vs enzyme), casein vs whey proteins, syneresis after cutting, salting, and ripening. Training-course material, not a U.S. safety regulation.
Updated 2026-08-26. gg:topic:cottage-cheese · CC BY 4.0
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