Richard Nixon ate it with pineapple. Seventies slimmers plumped for a grapefruit accompaniment. Many were thankful when its lumpy, faintly sticky texture fell from favour, replaced in the main by yogurt. Now, however, it is back. On TikTok, social media influencers are pairing it with avocado on toast, baking it into "viral flatbreads" and adding it to cookies - or even fudge. Why, oh why, is cottage cheese making a comeback - and is it really the healthiest cheese out there?
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"Cottage cheese is essentially curds," explains Eve Kalinik, a nutritional therapist and the author of Happy Gut, Happy Mind. An acid is added to milk, like lemon juice, vinegar or a bacterial culture that produces lactic acid. This separates the curds from whey. Once the curds solidify, the whey is drained off. What remains is cut into smaller pieces and voilà - cottage cheese.
Nutritionally, it really can be, explains Kalinik, even though texturally, what's produced might be considered less than desirable. That's because these curds contain casein, a protein that occurs naturally in milk, but which coagulates into clumps when acid is introduced.
"Casein protein is a complete protein, meaning it provides all nine essential amino acids," she explains. While retro diets championed cottage cheese as a slimming aid, today's influencers talk incessantly about this protein punch.
Which makes sense. To a degree. One hundred grams of cottage cheese contains around 17g of protein - around two and half times the amount found in one egg and three times that contained in full-fat yogurt. Your body needs protein to build muscle, repair tissues and cells, make and regulate hormones, keep your digestion in check, oxygenate your blood...
So yes. Protein is pretty important and complete ones are even more so. Proteins are built from 20 different amino acids, 11 of which our bodies can make, but nine of which we can only get through ingesting them. So-called complete proteins - such as casein - contain all nine of these.
Mind you, whey is also a complete protein, your body just handles it slightly differently. More on which to follow...
Potentially. For a start, it's low in calories for a cheese. One hundred grams of Sainsbury's cottage cheese contains 111kcal, while the same amount of its own-brand mature cheddar contains 416kcal.
There are also benefits to weeding out the whey in its production. Because while whey is also a complete protein, casein is considered a "time release" protein, digested more slowly and thus keeping you feeling full for longer. One 2012 study asked participants to follow a high protein diet for a year and found that their body weight decreased by an average of 2.8kg (6lb) for women and 1.4kg (3lb) for men. According to another, cottage cheese has a similar "satiating power" to eggs.
However, "no single food can help you lose weight," says Dr Federica Amati, the author of Every Body Should Know This and head nutritionist at the health science company Zoe. "Reaching a healthy weight is about your whole dietary pattern over months - there are no quick fixes."
All cheese values based on 30g
Cottage cheese packs a decent health punch next to its rivals, as one of the lowest in calories, on a par with its cousin ricotta. They both have 31 calories per 30g serving, next to cheddar's more portly 125. It is also the lowest in saturated fat, with just shy of 1g per serving; whereas the Christmas Stilton weighs in at 6.9g of saturated fat.
Cottage cheese still beats ricotta on the protein-front, with 3.75g of protein per 30g serving, next to a skimpy 2.1g. However, cheddar-lovers rejoice, cheddar wins the prize for protein with 7.6g (if you ignore the salt content, which is five times more than cottage cheese). Still, small wins.
"Yes, cottage cheese is rich in protein, but it also contains calcium, vitamin B12, and other micronutrients," says Dr Amati.
Vitamin B12 is important for brain function. Calcium, of course, is vital for bone and teeth health, but cottage cheese is a good source of phosphorus, a mineral that also helps in that department, and also of the micronutrient riboflavin, which is good for your skin and eyes.
"Cottage cheese also contains a fair dose of selenium, which is an essential nutrient and an antioxidant," says Amati. This is good news for everyone, since antioxidants prevent and slow cell damage caused by free radicals (waste substances produced as your body reacts to pressures such as inflammation or pollution).
One cup (225g) is likely to contain around 36 per cent of your daily recommended intake of selenium, important for reproduction, thyroid gland function, DNA production and more.
"Some brands of cottage cheese contain live cultures," says Dr Emily Leeming, a microbiome scientist, dietician and author of Genus Gut. "These live cultures can introduce new 'good' bacteria and yeasts into your gut, helping to maintain a healthy microbiome, which plays a crucial role in digestion and overall well-being." Not all brands do contain this important ingredient, however: "so it's important to check the label for 'live or active cultures'", she says.
Yes, if you believe the bright young things touting "easy cottage snacks that got me stacked". But does the science stack up? Sort of. Protein, of course, is crucial for muscle growth because it helps repair and maintain tissue. Since casein is a slow-release form, some bodybuilders eat cottage cheese before bed, aiming for a steady release of amino acids overnight, limiting muscle breakdown. That said, a 2017 study looked at the impact on muscle mass and strength of eating slow or fast proteins after exercise and found no difference.
Overall, "to build muscle, you need to do resistance exercises and eat adequate protein," says Amati. "Cottage cheese is a good source of protein, but it won't help you build muscle unless you put in the hard work, sadly."
"As with other dairy products, cottage cheese contains calcium, which is important to support bone health," says Amati. That said, hard cheeses contain far more. One hundred grams of cottage cheese, for example, will contain around 90 milligrams of calcium, while the same amount of parmesan can contain more than 900 milligrams.
On the flipside, fresh cheeses contain significantly more lactose than hard cheeses do. One hundred grams of cottage cheese contains around 3.5g of lactose, less than mascarpone (4.5g) but a lot more than cheddar (0.1g). So, "people who are lactose intolerant or have an allergy to dairy should avoid cottage cheese," says Amati.
Unfortunately, it's probably not as fudge, as some social media influencers have been touting. "As cottage cheese doesn't contain fibre, which is key to supporting a healthy gut microbiome, it's a good idea to pair it with fibre-rich foods such as berries, wholegrain crackers or seeds for a balanced gut-health boost," says Leeming.
Amati points to Zoe's viral recipe (see recipe section below) for cottage cheese protein pancakes, which mix fibre, protein and fat in the form of oats, cottage cheese and Greek yogurt, thus slowing the rate at which any sugar is absorbed, leading to smaller blood sugar spikes and longer satiation.
In essence, cottage cheese is one of the most healthy cheeses around, but obsessive food fads of any kind are not, all three experts agree. Take the "mustard and cottage cheese" diet that took hold on Tiktok, influencing people to eat raw vegetables and sausages dipped in cottage cheese and mustard (no, really). Influencers claimed it led to weight loss, while nutritionists criticised it. Cottage cheese, they pointed out, is high in sodium so needs to be eaten as part of a varied diet.
"Cottage cheese can form part of a healthy diet, although I would lean more towards the aged harder cheese like cheddar or parmesan if you want more substantial probiotic benefits," says Kalinik.
Your best bet, suggests Amati, is not to follow fads but to focus on eating a diverse diet, packed with plants, while staying active. So if you like cottage cheese, eat it. But if you don't, then don't panic. Greek yogurt may have less protein, but it also has more calcium, lower sodium levels and is a more reliable source of live probiotic bacteria. Fewer lumps too.
Even if you're not a fan of cottage cheese, these recipes are full of flavour, so you won't even notice it.