December 5, 2009

Cottage Cheese and Other Amenities



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Yes, it’s turquoise. Christmas tree, 2009.



The Ruthie Gold Star for writing every day in the month of November!


Himself: Checked in with the Cancer Society to see if anyone donated a laptop, then went to a job fair that turned out to be a job forum. Ah well.

Herself: Had fun working. Slow dribble of donations.

Reading: Garbage. Videos: Watched HP 4….Goblet of Fire.

Balance: Having fun researching things.

Food history is fascinating stuff. Looking for the time line on a cottage cheese salad, I found lots of memorable stuff including this on ”The Food Timeline,” but nothing on cottage cheese.

I found another site where members discussed their mother’s cottage cheese salads or how they ate it on the farm. In a 1920’s Fanny Merritt Farmer’s Boston Cooking School Cookbook, I found a version of the salad of cottage cheese mixed with vegetables and something to make it softer, such as sour cream or cream.

I noted that my store bought cottage cheese had cream in it already.

Once long ago, the Fanatical Feasters group ate at a Russian restaurant. While most of the other’s had borscht, I leapt on the cottage cheese. Yes, it’s often found on buffet’s and sideboards, but rarely is it listed as a salad in its own right on a menu. What I got was a medium sized bowl filled with a giant mound of cottage cheese. I enjoyed every bite, but I was left thinking of cottage cheese salads as middle European delicacies.

Thought we now know that the ancient Romans prepared a cold cabbage salad, the more modern slaw is of Medieval origins from the Roman. There should be just this information available about cottage cheese, but I cannot find it. Wikipedia tells us, ”The term "cottage cheese" is believed to have originated because the simple cheese was usually made in cottages from any milk left over after making butter. The term was first used in 1848.”

Even today the web is filled with salad histories: cottage cheese with fruit recipes, cottage cheese and Jello out of the forties and fifties, and how to “make” cottage cheese recipes. (The best of those is in a 1941, FMFBCSCB). So far I have found two cottage cheese and veggie salads….none with onions. I cannot trace the history of cottage cheese back further than 1848, yet this simple to make cheese must also have been a part of everyday life everywhere there were milk products from any source.

Since I can find little historical information, I will stick to my guns and say it’s of middle European origin. It’s certainly a favorite of mine with avocado, with mayonnaise, with anything even veggies thank you….no wonder I am Mrs. Roundy.

4 comments:

  1. Lovely tree! It's nice that you are using a small tree this year.

    A quirky post about cottage tree. It was fun to read.

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  2. Oddly enough, when I was in the fourth grade, we made cottage cheese in the classroom! I remember ithanging in a cheesecloth for days near the blackboard. I grew up in a farming community...what can I saw. I was bitter as lemons...but I will never forget the project!

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  3. I never thought about cottage cheese before. It's one of our favorite lunches with fruit of various kinds. Hubby eats it plain. You do make me think of the oddest things. Hummm.

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  4. Wow! The tree is beautiful!!

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