PLAN No. 291. MAKING COTTAGE CHEESE
Few foods are more palatable, more healthful or more economical than cottage cheese, when properly made.
A California farmer’s wife makes hers from milk that is not too old, and often sours sweet milk by adding a little buttermilk to it. She cooks it in 5-gallon “shotgun” cans. As soon as the milk sets into a firm clabber she puts the cans into a 30-gallon tank of boiling water, connected with the kitchen stove by pipes and the usual waterback in the firebox, stirring the milk a little, and cutting the curd with a long-bladed knife. When the curd readily separates from the whey, lift the can out and let it stand from ten to twenty minutes. The contents of the can are then poured into a large bag made of cheese-cloth, which is hung up to drain. The whey is fed to the pigs as it contains milk-sugar which is a fattening ration. In a few hours the cheese will be drained enough. It is then thoroughly mashed and mixed in a proper vessel, salted, and it is ready for the trip to town. It should be sold at once as it does not keep long.
If cream is plentiful and cheap, a little mixed with the cheese places it at the top notch of quality. One can decide for himself whether he can afford to sell cream in this way, by the price he obtains for the cheese.
Cottage cheese is now sold at retail to the consumer for 10 to 15 cents a pound. This means nearly 30 cents a quart, a pint weighing slightly over a pound. It ought to bring at least 10 cents a pound to the maker, which is no mean profit for skim-milk usually fed to hogs and calves.