It felt like a pop quiz that I should ace. “What’s the difference between cottage cheese and ricotta?” a reader asked recently. Anyone can tell them apart in a tasting (right?), but what makes them different is harder to say. The method for cottage cheese is largely, but not entirely, standardized; big producers often take shortcuts. Creameries make ricotta in multiple ways, too. Let’s take a deeper dive into these two fresh cheeses so you know whether they’re interchangeable in recipes and what you can expect when you open that tub.
Read moreNext-Level Chopped Salad
I did not know that chopped salad had a celebrity pedigree, but AI just informed me. I went searching for some history on the dish, which I associate with red-sauce restaurants, and learned that it likely originated in Beverly Hills in the 1950s. Chopped salads with chickpeas, salame and mozzarella were a favorite with tony Angelenos, fancied by starlets like Natalie Wood and ladies-who-lunch like Nancy Reagan. Seven decades later, they’re still popular. They’re colorful, crunchy and amenable to improv. Include what you like; omit what you don’t.
Read moreNext-Level Chopped Salad
I did not know that chopped salad had a celebrity pedigree, but AI just informed me. I went searching for some history on the dish, which I associate with red-sauce restaurants, and learned that it likely originated in Beverly Hills in the 1950s. Chopped salads with chickpeas, salame and mozzarella were a favorite with tony Angelenos, fancied by starlets like Natalie Wood and ladies-who-lunch like Nancy Reagan. Seven decades later, they’re still popular. They’re colorful, crunchy and amenable to improv. Include what you like; omit what you don’t.
Read moreRaising the Bar on Buttery
I was shopping for cheeses recently for a sparkling wine tasting and hoping to find a few selections my guests wouldn’t know. This bloomy-rind beauty caught my eye because even I didn’t know it. A gentle probe of the exterior told me it was ripe. But was it tasty?
Read moreCanadian Cheddar Welcome Here
If you want to show Canada some love right now, seek out this award-winning Canadian Cheddar. I was surprised to find it at a local shop recently; we get so few cheeses of any type from our northern neighbor.
Read moreSo Long to Another American Cheese
America wouldn’t have a dairy industry without immigrants. Italians, Dutch, Germans, French, Mexicans, Swiss…they came here with their recipes and expertise, started dairy farms and made the cheeses they knew. Next week, one of these immigrant families—cheesemakers for five generations—is calling it quits, and I’m not the only one grieving.
Read moreNew Year, New Artisan Cheese
Getting the year off to a promising start, this new cheese makes me hopeful that America’s small dairy farms can find a way forward. We are losing these enterprises at an alarming rate—down 95 percent since the 1970s. Is that trend line irreversible, or are there viable models for young people who want to milk cows and make cheese?
Read moreCottage Cheese is Having a Moment
Because my mom was on a diet her entire life, I grew up with cottage cheese. I didn’t dislike it, but I definitely associated it with deprivation. That was then. Today, cottage cheese is a TikTok phenom, with hundreds of millions of views and counting.
Read moreNew Blue for the Holidaze
A debut from Jasper Hill Farm is always newsworthy on Planet Cheese, but this recently launched blue could be a supernova. The Whole Foods monger who alerted me to it called it “lovely to say the least” and cradled the package in her arms like a baby. Even my husband enjoyed it, which, when it comes to blue cheese, is not a bet I ever make. It’s fruity, winey and moist, with an offbeat shape and novel packaging. Everything about this Vermont newcomer screams “holiday cheese boards.”
Read moreSwiss With a Twist
I don’t quite get it, but not everyone loves the same cheeses I do. Those beefy, concentrated alpine cheeses I adore can strike some folks as over the top. “Too much flavor” is one critique I’ve heard but could never imagine saying myself. If you tend to like cheeses that show a bit more restraint, this Swiss beauty may be for you. It’s a little younger than many comparable mountain cheeses, and while I don’t find it remotely lacking in aroma or flavor, it’s not as in-your-face as some.
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