So I’m reading my 1924 ladies finishing school book (see my bibliography page for more info) and I learn that in 10 easy minutes I can turn buttermilk into cottage cheese with no other added ingredients! Whoa! I gotta try this! But then … what am I going to do with the cottage cheese? Right? Well it so happens I have a pot luck kind of thing that I do with the local weaving guild every week… so why not use the cottage cheese for a dessert to share? Raspberry jelly filled cottage cheese cookies!!!! Yum!
So today is cottage cheese making day (I will make the cookies tomorrow so they will be fresh for the pot luck).
I couldn’t find anything that said plain buttermilk on the carton at our local grocery store, so I decided to go ahead and try what was labeled “cultured” buttermilk … not sure what the difference is but that’s what I used. Unlike the 1924 book… I decided to use my instant pot! Yay! I’m a modern pioneer (but if I had a wood burning stove you better bet I would be using it! Lol)
Now everyone knows I’m a big fan of vintage corningware. But my second favorite vintage cookware (which is very similar to corningware in function and design but round instead of square) is the “princess house” collection. Some photos below. But they are handy Danny if you can find some and they come in all different sizes! But all of them are round.
Thrift store finds 🙂
I put the buttermilk in my princess house pot (not putting on the attachable blue handle) placed the lid on. Placed that pot on the rack inside my instant pot with water in the bottom (enough to cover the wire rack). Then set the instant pot to steam for 10 minutes using the instant pot glass lid so I could keep an eye on its progress 🙂
Basically I just turned my instant pot into a double boiler! Cool, right?
Once it finished steaming for 10 minutes, the curds separated from the whey and they were all floating on top, so I used a scoop to scoop out the curds and placed those in a sieve lined with a coffee filter to let it drain (capturing the whey in a pot under the sieve). Save that whey! It’s excellent to use instead of water in bread making (hmmmmm I may use some whey in those cookies tomorrow!)
Once this completely finishes draining and cools a bit, I will place it in a corning wear container and refrigerate overnight 🙂 ready for cookies tomorrow!
I tasted some and it really is delightfully yummy! I can’t wait to make the cookies tomorrow and try those! Seriously… this was easy to make and tastes yummy! So give it a try 🙂 according to my dad you can do the same process with cream and make farmers cheese.
Oh!!! I forgot to say: you can add salt, pepper and some extra cream after it has finished draining to make it taste however you wish 🙂 so experiment with flavor after it has finished draining too!
Conestoga Chuck 