Influencers create demand for cottage cheese

While I was reading a recent article in The Guardian about how UK cottage cheese sales were booming, I recalled that I had written about this topic before. It was back in September of 2019, when experts predicted that the dairy product was poised to make a comeback. It may have taken a little longer than those experts predicted, but it has definitely come to fruition, as sales of cottage cheese in the UK are up 40% from the same time last year. Producers are scrambling to meet the demand, with some planning to expand or build new production facilities.

The big reason for the uptick in interest for this mild-mannered product with humble origins has to do with influencers on TikTok and Instagram creating viral recipes like Jake Cohen’s cottage cheese cookie dough and cottage cheese cheesecake, along with many fitness buffs touting its high-protein, low carbohydrate qualities. The latter use was what drove its popularity as a diet food in the 1970s and 80s, after which it fell out of fashion.

Cottage cheese was born in the 1800s as a way for frugal farmers to make something out of the milk leftover after skimming the cream. Commercial production began as early as the mid-1800s, and soon a brisk trade flourished. The product remained popular throughout the 20th century, although it lost its luster when yogurt began its meteoric rise in the 1990s. Cottage cheese now seems to be entering a renaissance because of its nutritional properties and its affinity for pairing with many other foods.

As I noted in 2019, you can use cottage cheese in much the same way as you would use supermarket ricotta and it is a wonderful neutral foil for spicy foods as well. Inventive cooks have created many new uses for cottage cheese, and since the first article was published, the number of recipes for cottage cheese in the EYB Library has nearly doubled, with 900+ recipes available online, like the Cottage cheese pasta with tomatoes, scallions and currants from A Good Appetite at The New York Times by Melissa Clark pictured above.