How to Make Homemade Cottage Cheese

If you don't know how to make cottage cheese or don't know where to start, you're in the right place.

Many people find the task daunting and just settle for the store-bought option. However, making cottage cheese at home is quite simple—and healthier, as it lets you avoid additives and focus on high-quality, natural ingredients.

It's believed that it got its name because it was often made in small, rural cottages—made from the milk leftover from making butter.

So, if you want to learn how to make cottage cheese at home, check out our step-by-step recipe. 

Let’s dive in! 

Originally published May 4th, 2020, this article was updated and republished on April 24th, 2025.

Homemade Cottage Cheese Recipe Overview

• Prep time: 10 mins

• Cook time: 1 hour 15 minutes 

• Total time: 1 hour 25 minutes 

• Yield: 2 cups 

• Difficulty level: Easy

• Key ingredients
• 1 gallon of milk
• 3/4 cup of white vinegar or lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of table or kosher salt
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream (optional)

One of the benefits of making your own cottage cheese at home is that you have full control over the amount of salt. Many store-bought options are very high in sodium, as manufacturers add salt for flavor and texture. When you make your own, you can add just enough to suit your taste preference!

Jump to Recipe

What Is Cottage Cheese Made of?

Homemade cottage cheese is made from three basic ingredients: milk, white vinegar, and salt.

The result is a soft, fresh cheese with a mild and slightly acidic flavor. It's low in calories and packed with protein from cow's milk curds. It’s a unique cheese because it has no rind and isn’t ripened or aged.

You can enjoy it solo or in a variety of recipes. Since it's such a mild cheese, it complements almost any flavor! 

Once you've made your homemade cottage cheese, you can put it in sweet and savory recipes for a boost of protein and mild tanginess. Mix it with berries or bananas, or savory ingredients such as tortilla chips and roasted peppers. Try stirring in chopped tomatoes and red onions, then season with black pepper.

You can even use it in pasta dishes. 

Homemade cottage cheese is extremely versatile and delicious!

Different Types of Cottage Cheese

If you're a savvy cheese shopper, you know that cottage cheese comes in plenty of different varieties. For example, it comes in different fat percentages (skim, 2%, 4%, etc.), moisture varieties (dry or wet), curd sizes (small and large), and other variations. 

Let's break it down into these three categories.

Milk Fat Percentage

Cottage cheese is made from different types of milk with varying fat content. Milk is typically packaged by its percent fat, most commonly whole milk (which we carry), or fat free, 1%, or 2% milk.

Although many people seek fat-free or low-fat milk varieties, high-fat milk is considered nutritious by most people's standards. It certainly meets ours. ;)

Wetness

The next category relates to the wetness of the cheese. If you're a cheese lover, you know that wetter cheeses (such as brie) are softer and creamier, while drier ones (such as Feta) are much drier.

Cottage cheese is like this. The dry type has no milk or cream added after the original milk has curdled (so it's more crumbly like Feta). The wet variety does have milk or cream added after the original milk has curdled.

The dry variety of cottage cheese is a great option for people with lactose intolerance or similar sensitivities. This is because the bacteria involved in the cheese-making process break down most of the lactose in the milk, making it easier to digest. 

If you have a sensitive stomach, it's best to skip adding cream or extra milk, as these can increase the lactose content.

Remember that a great alternative is to use our A2A2 grass-fed whole milk, which can be easier to digest.

Curd Size

Curd size is the third category, but the size of the curd doesn’t make a difference when it comes to flavor. Curd size is more of a preference.

Some people say that the larger curd results in a drier and more acidic cheese, while the smaller curd is more of a soupy texture. However, the liquidity of the cheese is often due to the amount of time it's allowed to drain and the fat percentage of the milk used. It's also based on whether you add cream or extra milk after draining the cheese.

It's up to you to decide what size curd you want. You can change things up and mix small and large curds, then decide which type you prefer.

Regardless of the type or variety, all have wonderful health benefits. All cottage cheese is high in protein (typically 25-30% of the recommended daily value) and about 10% of the daily recommended value for calcium.

Ingredients You Need to Make the Perfect Homemade Cottage Cheese Recipe

Many people are under the impression that you need several different ingredients for a homemade cottage cheese recipe. The store-bought varieties have ingredient lists a mile long.

They include guar gum, xanthan gum, and mono- and diglycerides. Several have ingredients you may not even be able to pronounce! The truth is, most of these extra ingredients are preservatives in the form of emulsifiers or thickeners.

Preservatives are needed for these store-bought brands because they often travel a long way from the farm (or factory) to the store. Emulsifiers help oil from separating from water and act as a preservative to extend shelf life.

Ingredients like xanthan gum thicken the mixture and prevent ingredients from separating, effectively extending shelf life. Although these ingredients are great for store-bought options, you don't need them when making homemade cottage cheese.

As you’ve come to know with Seven Sons, we go “weird ingredient free” in all of our products, which is why you’ll find NONE of those chemicals in our recipe.

Since you're making your cheese right where you'll be eating it at home, you need far fewer ingredients than you would if you needed to extend the shelf life from days to weeks.

These are as follows:

• 1 gallon of milk
• 3/4 cup of white vinegar or lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of table or kosher salt
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream (optional)

Heavy cream is optional because you can add it to your recipe to make it extra creamy.

In addition to the ingredients, you'll need a list of equipment to make your homemade cottage cheese. This list is a bit longer than the ingredient list, but you should be able to easily find all of it in your kitchen:

• A large, heavy-bottomed pot
• Food thermometer
• Whisk or wooden spoon
• Colander
• Cheesecloth or tea towel
• Two extra bowls
• Slotted spoon
• Storage container, such as a Tupperware

Note: Many people also think you need to use raw milk, but this isn’t true. You can use any kind of milk when making homemade cottage cheese.

How to Make Cottage Cheese From Scratch: Step-by-Step

The science is simple: You heat milk on a stove, and the natural bacteria make enough acid for the cheese to curdle. To accelerate the process, you can use vinegar (acid) to curdle it faster. These curds are cooked, cut, then washed. Whey, naturally produced by cheese making, is sour. So when you wash the cheese, it makes it sweet.

As you can see, making homemade cottage cheese is a straightforward process that requires little effort but produces very satisfying results. 

Here's our recipe for the perfect homemade cottage cheese.

Step 1: Heat the Milk

Pour one gallon of milk of your choice into a large and heavy pot. Heat the pot to about 190°F. Use a wooden spoon or a whisk to gently stir from time to time so the milk doesn't burn. If it does start to get too hot, remove it from the burner and let it cool. Replace the milk if necessary.

Step 2: Remove from Heat

Once the milk reaches 190°F, remove it from the stove. If you do this too soon, the cheese may not curdle. If you remove it too late, you’ll get very small curds, a low yield, and your cheese will be tough and chewy.

If your milk doesn’t form curds, it’s likely because it didn’t reach the right temperature of 190°F before removing it from the heat. Use a thermometer to ensure the correct temperature.

Step 3: Mix in Acid, then Rest

Pour in the 3/4 cup of vinegar or lemon juice and stir using the wooden spoon or whisk. You'll start to see the milk curdle at this point. Then, cover the entire pot and let it rest for thirty minutes.

You can use 3/4 cup of vinegar or lemon juice as the acid to curdle the milk. Both options work equally well, so feel free to use whichever you prefer.

Step 4: Prepare the Colander

In the meantime, use the cheese cloth or a clean, cotton towel to line a colander. Place the colander over one of the extra bowls so that when you place the cheese in it to drain, the extra bowl catches anything that drips out.

Step 5: Remove Solids and Drain

Use the slotted spoon to move the solids from the pot into the lined colander. Then, let it drain into the bowl for thirty minutes or until the dripping has slowed. You can use a normal spoon if you don't have a slotted spoon, but the draining process may take a bit longer.

Step 6: Wring Out Cheese and Rinse

After draining the cheese, remove everything from the colander by tightly gathering the ends of the cloth and wrapping the cheese into a ball. Hold it in one hand and run cold water over it while squeezing it gently with your other hand. Running it under cold water will ensure that the ball of cheese cools down adequately.

Step 7: Break Up Curds and Salt

Place the cheese in the extra, empty bowl when it is cooled down. Use the whisk or wooden spoon to break the cheese into smaller curds (or you can keep the larger curds if you prefer!). Then, stir in the teaspoon of salt to taste.

Step 8 (Optional): Add Heavy Cream

Optional: If you want a creamier result, this is the time to use the heavy cream. Stir it in two tablespoons at a time until the cottage cheese reaches the consistency you prefer. Check the taste occasionally, and add salt as needed to taste.

Step 9: Chill and Serve

Chill for at least an hour before serving. Make sure to use it within 5-7 days, sooner if you used milk that's about to spoil.

Note: Make sure not to dispose of the drippings in your first bowl; this is whey. You might have heard of whey, sold by fitness gurus and bodybuilders. It's also the yellowish liquid that pools on store-bought cottage cheese or yogurt – and it’s packed with protein! 

You can save the whey drippings in your fridge or freeze them to use in soups and smoothies.

How to Store Cottage Cheese

Like sour cream or cream cheese, cottage cheese has a short shelf life after it is made (about seven to ten days). Storing it in the refrigerator may seem obvious to prolong its shelf life.

However, some who follow this rule find that it goes sour quickly. This is because there’s a specific way to store cottage cheese so it doesn't go bad so quickly. It may surprise you, but the best way to store it is upside down in the refrigerator.

When you store the package upside down in the fridge, it creates a vacuum at the container's bottom (new "top"). This reduces any excessive growth of bacteria within the container and prolongs its shelf life.

Always have a tight lid on the container and replace it carefully so nothing falls out – the last thing you want is to have fresh, wet goop all over your kitchen floor!

You'll need a container with a tight-fitting lid, such as a Tupperware or Mason jar. Then you'll need to carefully put the cottage cheese in the container and close the lid tightly. After you're sure the lid is on correctly, invert the container and store on a shelf in your fridge.

The lid must be closed completely to prevent the contents from spilling out and ensure that your cheese doesn't pick up any odors.

You may be wondering if you can make a large batch and then freeze it. Although this does prolong the shelf life, just as it does with other dairy products, it comes at a cost.

Cottage cheese tends to separate and become watery after thawing, so freezing isn’t recommended. However, if you need to freeze it, make sure to portion it into small batches so you can thaw it out as needed.

You may think you can just take out the portion and thaw it until it reaches room temperature, but the safest way to thaw it is to put it in the fridge.

Finally, like any dairy product, your cottage cheese will go bad if you don't eat it in time. Fortunately, it's easy to tell the quality of the cheese by the sniff test. If it smells sour or foul, it's definitely past its prime and time to toss it.

A sour smell doesn't always mean it's gone bad, but it won't taste as good as it will when it's fresh. You can also check the texture: if the milk solids are separate from the liquids and the cheese has gone watery, it's probably time to toss it.

However, some separation is natural, and you can fix that by simply stirring the solids and liquids together.

Homemade cottage cheese lasts for about 5-7 days in the refrigerator. For maximum freshness, ensure it's stored properly, as discussed above.

Why Homemade Cottage Cheese Is Worth It

Making cottage cheese from scratch is not only simple but also incredibly rewarding. By following the steps carefully and using wholesome ingredients, you can create a fresh, delicious cheese that’s free from unnecessary additives and full of natural goodness.

The effort is well worth it, especially if you’re looking to enjoy clean, wholesome food that aligns with the quality and purity we stand for at Seven Sons. Plus, the versatility of cottage cheese makes it a perfect addition to meals—whether you pair it with berries for breakfast, mix it into savory dishes, or use it as a ricotta substitute in your favorite recipes.

We hope you’re inspired to make your own wholesome, homemade cottage cheese with no additives. Enjoy the process and the results!

We hope you enjoy your delicious homemade cottage cheese!