If you’ve ever searched for a cottage cheese recipe, you’ve likely been told to add vinegar or lemon juice. But long before shortcuts, people knew how to make cottage cheese by simply letting the milk do the work.
Almost 150-year-old book:
“Doctor, What Shall I Eat?
A Handbook of Diet in Disease
For The Profession and The People”
By
C H Gatchell, M. D.,
Formerly Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.
MILWAUKEE, 1880
reminds us of a powerful idea: we are what we eat. Food was not just fuel—it was medicine. And clabber milk was at the center of it.
A Handbook of Diet in Disease
For The Profession and The People”
By
C H Gatchell, M. D.,
Formerly Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.
MILWAUKEE, 1880
Naturally fermented milk, or clabber, transforms into something more digestible, nourishing, and alive. From this, a traditional recipe for homemade cottage cheese emerges—no additives, no rush, just time.
This is clabber cheese in its purest form. Here is the recipe exactly as written:
RECIPE 12.
SCHMIER-KASE.
This is made by tying clabbered-milk in a cloth
to let the whey drain out. Hang it in a cool
place over night. It may be eaten like the bonny-
clabber. It is an excellent food for the dyspeptic,
and may be taken in almost any quantity. It is
light, nutritious, and easy of digestion. It is
called by some cottage-cheese.
By observing the rules already laid down and
adopting this dietary, many cases of dyspepsia
may be cured. The greatest obstacle to a com-
plete recovery seems to be that as improvement
takes place and the appetite returns the patient is
tempted to over-eat, and this being yielded to al-
most invariably causes a relapse. The word to
the wise” is not always sufficient, and each one
must learn by sad experience. It is better to eat
moderately until the stomach fully recovers its
powers, than to transgress these rules and suffer a
relapse.
The dietary already given should be adopted
and strictly followed by all who suffer from dys-
pepsia in its worst forms. Those who suffer from
the milder forms of this disease should live on
simple food. Dishes prepared according to the
following recipes will be found to be well adapted
to the wants of the dyspeptic, and also to afford
ample variety.
SCHMIER-KASE.
This is made by tying clabbered-milk in a cloth
to let the whey drain out. Hang it in a cool
place over night. It may be eaten like the bonny-
clabber. It is an excellent food for the dyspeptic,
and may be taken in almost any quantity. It is
light, nutritious, and easy of digestion. It is
called by some cottage-cheese.
By observing the rules already laid down and
adopting this dietary, many cases of dyspepsia
may be cured. The greatest obstacle to a com-
plete recovery seems to be that as improvement
takes place and the appetite returns the patient is
tempted to over-eat, and this being yielded to al-
most invariably causes a relapse. The word to
the wise” is not always sufficient, and each one
must learn by sad experience. It is better to eat
moderately until the stomach fully recovers its
powers, than to transgress these rules and suffer a
relapse.
The dietary already given should be adopted
and strictly followed by all who suffer from dys-
pepsia in its worst forms. Those who suffer from
the milder forms of this disease should live on
simple food. Dishes prepared according to the
following recipes will be found to be well adapted
to the wants of the dyspeptic, and also to afford
ample variety.
In my book: "The Art of Clabber. Applying nose-to-tail philosophy to dairy", I share three additional methods for making cottage cheese the traditional way.
Learn more about my book here: The Art of Clabber
Because once you understand clabber, you don’t just follow recipes—you regain a lost skill.
