Cottage cheese derived its name from ‘cottages’ where the cheeses are made, literally. It is prepared atop stoves homes found in the rural areas. People who originally manufactured the ‘real thing’ let nature take its course by leaving the milk to coagulate and turn sour.

It is a product of cheese curd but unlike most cheese, which is dehydrated and has color, this type retains its whey content because it is only drained, not pressed dry. Unlike its relatives, it does not undergo aging (maturation process) and it is also washed to give it its different taste – sweet and mildly flavored.

When it is hard pressed, the end products are farmer cheese, hoop cheese, pot cheese or Queso blanco (blanco meaning ‘white’). In Sweden, cottage cheese is commonly called ‘Keso’.

A naturally manufactured cottage cheese is made from fresh milk, rennet and mesophilic starter culture (this would help grow ‘good bacteria’ which is needed in giving it its flavor and aids in coagulation). It is very rare to find natural cottage cheese nowadays. Commercialization of this product has made it easier to make at a shorter period of time.

The commercially prepared version, however, are made from curds that were prepared using skim milk or other milk products that are low in fat. This usually alters the original flavor. So if one were used to the commercial types that flood the supermarkets, then they would be astonished to find out that these products have deviated from the original ‘tanginess’ of the natural version.

If one is curious in tasting the genuine cottage cheese, the closest one could get to the flavor is the manufactured product, which is low in fat, cultured and named Nancy’s. The Springfield Creamery over at Eugene, Ore, prepares this.

What nutrients can one get from eating cottage cheese? Again, as compared to all other cheeses, it has low fat (5 grams where 3 grams are saturated fat), low carbohydrates (3 grams) and is high in protein content (14 grams).

If you are aiming for a sculpted body that is full of muscles and well toned, then cottage cheese is the right food for you. Most people overlook the low carbohydrate content of it. But looking at it, this low-carb food, which is high in protein, feeds the body of its needed nutrients during a strict diet.

It also has sodium (500 milligrams), 120 calories and 20 milligrams of cholesterol. These values are computed against a 113-gram serving.

Some very interesting trivia about cottage cheese:

1. President Nixon loved to eat it together with catsup or black pepper (or both).
2. To make 15 pounds of it, one needs to use 100 pounds of milk.

If one is bored with eating it alone, there are several ways that it can be served. One good way is to follow President Nixon’s recipe, which is to put a dash of pepper before plopping it into your mouth. It can be eaten like a ‘tapioca pudding’ (just add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla flavor and a packet of artificial sweetener for every 1/2 cup of cottage cheese).

Cottage cheese is best eaten with fruits such as blueberry, strawberry, peaches, banana or pineapple. If one is concerned with the fructose content, however, a flavored drink mix could be used as a substitute for the fruits.

Speaking of ‘yumminess’, here are a few more of those recipes that use cottage cheese. You could research these recipes online:

1. Chocolate Mousse
2. Lemon Cherry Cheesecake Pie
3. Broccoli bread with Onion and Cottage Cheese
4. Cheesy Mashed Potatoes
5. All Day Macaroni and Cheese (Crockpot)

Cottage cheese is all good. When you’re aiming for good health, then this should be a part of your diet. It’s tasty and nutritious, so what is there to lose?

Lee Dobbins writes for http://cheese.topicgiant.com where you can learn more about making cheese, cheese recipes and different types of cheese like cottage cheese.

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When searching for names of cheese, you are usually faced with French names, as many cheeses come from France. Munster, for example, is a cheese that comes from the Alsace Region of France. It is made from cows milk and is often used in cooking.

Some Unique Names

Pave dAuge is also a French cheese that comes from Normandy and is also a cows milk cheese.

Livarot cheese also comes from Normandy and is one of the oldest French cheeses, previously called meat of the poor.

Camembert cheese has been called the national cheese of France.

Tomme Crayeuse is a French cheese from the Savoy Alps and it is a delicate cheese made from cows milk.

That is just to name a few of the names of cheese, and just ones that come from France. There are so many others, from other countries and parts of the world, that it would be impossible to name them all here. To learn more about cheese, you can pick up any book on the subject or visit the cheese section in your local grocery store. If you are looking for a more exotic form of cheese, you may have to use the internet to order it. Some names of cheese are not seen except in specialty stores, as they cost a little more than your everyday cheese.

It is fun to learn about the various names of cheese and it is even more fun to taste them all. You can learn all sorts of things when you research the names of cheese, such as the fact that Valencay cheese, a goats milk cheese, gets its truncated pyramid shape from none other than Napoleon himself. So go on a tour of the world with all the different names of cheese and it is likely that you will never look at cheese the same way again.

Christopher Jay has much more information available at Cheese Varieites .com Discover the Names of Cheeses and find some answers today.

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2. Meet the King of All Cheeses – The Brie Cheese
3. Learning The Art of French Cooking