‘There's a corrosive, throat-burning sourness' – the best and worst supermarket cottage cheese
Cottage cheese has had a glow-up. For years, it's been indelibly associated with the grim dinner destiny of the 1980s dieter, along with Special K 'can you pinch an inch?' advertisements and cabbage soup. But a new generation has nosed it out of the forgotten reaches of the chiller cabinet and spotted that it's a great source of protein, the holy grail of the modern diet.
Over on TikTok it's the ingredient du jour, turning up in frittatas (not a bad idea) as well as chocolate mousse and ice cream. A food editor recently raved to me about a sweet potato, 'nduja and cottage cheese combination, while another swore by high-protein pancakes, made by blending cottage cheese into the batter.
I've had a lot of cottage cheese left over after this week's test. Most was snapped up via the food sharing app Olio, but I reserved some for experimenting and I can tell you that it does purée down to a pleasing creamy texture with just a hint of graininess, like a soft ricotta, but around 20 per cent less expensive. It's important to note how salty and sour the cottage cheese is to start with – too much of either can ruin a dish so it's not a straight swap. I find cottage cheese with a mellow cheesy flavour more versatile.
What matters to protein fiends though is the ratio of protein to calories, or how much protein bang you're getting for your calorie buck. While ricotta packs about five grams of protein per 100 calories, ordinary cottage cheese has around 10 grams per 100 calories and fat-free has almost 18 grams.
With an eye for the trend, manufacturers have come up with high-protein versions of cottage cheese, with added milk proteins. These can up the protein level to 20 grams per 100 calories, but I can't recommend these concoctions: the ones I tried were weird tasting, slightly chemical. Go wild: eat a bit more of the regular stuff.
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‘This affordable hair mask revived my dry bleached hair after one treatment'
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