Cottage cheese can be made of skim milk, buttermilk or whole milk, but not very easily of pasteurized milk because it is made from soured milk and the natural souring process is one key to good cottage cheese.
One quart of milk will make about one cup of cottage cheese. You can work with any convenient amount as there are no other ingredients except salt to taste in the final stages. The best container is which to set the milk is a wide, coverable one. Sour the milk in the same container in which you will make the cottage cheese. A covered roaster would be fine. The more milk you work with the easier it is to control the temperature. 75 degrees is the temperature to strive for through the clabbering process. Leave the milk on the warming shelf of your wood stove. Temperatures too low allow the proliferation of less desirable bacteria. Temperatures too high will kill your bacteria and stop the creation of the lactic acid that you need to clabber the milk.
The clabbering might take a few hours, or a few days depending on the temperature. When the milk is set it will have the sonsistency of something like jell. The solids will have formed one large curd which floats on the whey on the bottom. When the milk is sour and clabbered you are ready to cut the curd and heat it to get just the right firmness.
Cut the curd with a sterilized clean butcher knife, with a blade long enough to reach from the surface to the bottom on the pan. Make parallel cuts across the curd one way and then perpendicular parallel cuts across the other way. You are creating squares about 1/2 inch. Families sometimes used galvanized wire mesh which they pushed through to cut these squares. Now slowly stir the curd slowly and gently endeavoring not to break up the curd but to keep it from clumping. The clumping will be most pronounced at first, and then later, less so.
THE TEST
To test the curd, pinch a little between your thumb and forefinger. If a tiny bit remains on the ball of your thumb it is about ready. If you are satisfied the curd has passed the pinch test, you are ready to drain the whey.
Dump the curd and whey onto a cheesecloth covered colander with coarse holes. Sprinkle it with salt, work it in throughly and let the cottage cheese continue to drain for at least an hour. Some tied the cloth corners together, and let it hang in the cloth until all the whey had drained off.
You now have dry cottage cheese. It will keep about a week in your refrigerator, covered. To cream your cheese, add milk before serving. The creamed type doesn't hold as well, so usually only the portion to be used was creamed.
1 cup of cottage cheese, 1 cup of bread crumbs, 1 cup of rolled oats, 1 onion, chopped finely. 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, 2-3 eggs, salt and pepper to taste. 1 can tomato soup.
Combine all ingredients except the tomato soup. Form into patties and fry. Place browned patties in baking dish and cover with tomato soup mixed with 1/2 can of water. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until gravy bubbles. The recipe will serve 4-5 people.
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