Is Cottage Cheese Making A Comeback?

Cottage cheese kicked off a heated debate not too long ago here at The Takeout, with associate editor Kate Bernot absolutely on the pro side ("It's creamy and rich like yogurt, but its curds add more substance") and editor Kevin Pang vehemently against ("It looks the bacterial growth on a petri dish"). Sorry, Kevin, but it looks like the tides may be turning, according to a new New York Times article today, entitled "Is America Ready to Love Cottage Cheese Again?" That answer may be yes.

After all, it seems like it would be easy for cottage cheese to go the glam yogurt route ("Chobani it," as one dairy exec put it): It's already high in protein and low in sugar. Adding creme fraiche to the mix, as the article mentions Cowgirl Creamery does, makes the curds' nondescript taste even more palatable. But the food is associated with diet drudgery, and also has a texture problem, according to our own Kevin Pang, who is quoted in the article (go Kevin!): "Us Chinese, we love the slippery and the slimy, like tendon and jelly fish. But cottage cheese, man. I just can't do it. And I've eaten horse."

Possibly a rebrand is in order: A cottage cheese snack pack with some high quality olives, say, and maybe some roasted red peppers and prosciutto, would go a long way. After all, yogurt didn't entirely take over the dairy aisle in the supermarket immediately either; perhaps the key to cottage cheese's future success lies in smaller artisan dairies like Cowgirl. Read more about the curd dish's uphill climb at The New York Times today.