Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cottage Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Make the curd
Place a pan of thick sour milk over a stewpan of hot water and heat almost to boiling.
After about 6 minutes, gently turn the thick milk with a large spoon.
When the whey is too hot to touch, pour the mixture into a strainer to drain off the whey.
Season and shape
Once the curd is free from whey, season with salt and butter.
Optionally, stir in thick sweet cream.
Press the cheese into a bowl or shape it into balls.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Thick sour milk
- Its acidity causes the milk proteins to coagulate into curds, forming the cheese.
- Butter
- Adds fat, giving the finished cheese a richer flavour and softer texture.
- Thick sweet cream
- Adds fat and richness, making the cheese smoother and milder.
The step that matters
Heating and turning the milk gently. Heating the milk almost to boiling and turning it gently helps the curds form firm, tender clumps. Stirring too vigorously or overheating can break the curds up and make the cheese grainy or tough.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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