Why it works: Lemon and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cottage Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
Make the curds
Juice the lemons and set aside.
In an enamelled pan or fireproof casserole, combine the milk and strained lemon juice.
Warm the mixture over low heat, ensuring it does not boil.
Once the milk has curdled, the curds will form an 'island' in the clear whey.
Drain and press
Line a colander with cheesecloth and pour the curds and whey into it.
Gather the edges of the cloth and hang the curds to drain for at least 30 minutes.
Return the curds to the colander (still in the cloth) and place a small plate with a weight on top.
Leave under pressure for at least 1 hour.
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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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Forms the body of the cheese; its proteins coagulate into curds when acidified.
- Lemons
- Their juice supplies acid that curdles the milk proteins and gives the cheese a mild tang.
The step that matters
Warming the milk without boiling. Heating gently over low heat lets the acid curdle the milk into soft, tender curds. Boiling can toughen the curds and make them grainy or rubbery.
“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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