Cottage Cheese: From Farmhouse Leftover to Protein Icon

In 1972, the US supply of cottage cheese worked out to about 5.3 pounds for every American. By 2023 it was 2.1 pounds. Then the number started climbing again, and grocery sales grew by double digits three years in a row. The same food rose, faded, and came back, and each time for a different reason.

This is the story in three turns. It is built from public sources only; no interviews were conducted. Figures we could confirm directly are cited; claims we could only find second-hand are labeled that way.

1. Made in the Cottage

Cottage cheese is a fresh cheese: milk is soured with acid or set with rennet, the curd is cut, cooked gently, drained, and usually finished with a little cream. There is no aging. That simplicity is where the name comes from. It was the kind of cheese a farm household could make from milk left after butter-making, in a home kitchen rather than a dairy.

It was never unique. Fresh, unaged curd cheeses exist in many food cultures, from German quark to Indian paneer. What made cottage cheese distinct in the US was scale: in the twentieth century it became a supermarket staple sold in tubs.

2. The Diet Plate

Cottage cheese peaked in the early 1970s. USDA data, as reported by Cheese Reporter in January 2026, show US per capita availability at or above 5.0 pounds every year from 1970 to 1973, with the high of 5.3 pounds in 1972. (These are supply figures, which is not the same as what people actually ate.)

This was the era of the diet plate: a scoop of cottage cheese with canned peaches or a slice of pineapple on lettuce. Richard Nixon’s fondness for cottage cheese, sometimes with ketchup, is widely reported. Then yogurt took over the low-calorie dairy slot, and cottage cheese spent decades in decline, down to 2.1 pounds per person by 2023.

3. The Blender Comeback

The recovery started before the social media videos. According to Circana data reported by CNN in July 2025, US cottage cheese retail sales grew 11% in 2022, then 17% in 2023, 17% in 2024, and 20% in the 52 weeks to mid-June 2025. Dairy Foods reported the category at about $1.33 billion, with Good Culture up 87%. Per capita supply rose to 2.4 pounds in 2024. Producers told CNN they were struggling to keep up with demand.

What changed is how people use it. The 1970s sold cottage cheese as diet food. The 2020s rediscovered it as an ingredient: high in protein for the price, and able to turn into something like cream when blended. That second use is the one this week’s recipes are built on.

The Science of It

Most of the protein in cottage cheese is casein, the milk protein that forms curds. A cup (225 g) of 4% cottage cheese has about 26 g of protein, according to USDA FoodData Central. Because the curds are just protein held in a loose network, a blender can break them into a smooth paste, which is why a spoonful of cottage cheese can stand in for cream in a sauce. Its sodium is worth knowing too: about 315 mg per 100 g.

At Our Table Today

I never ate cottage cheese growing up in Korea. In the US, I kept running into it in all kinds of salads. Today there is a tub of Costco cottage cheese in our fridge, and I cook with it about once a week. I honestly never thought of it as diet food; I only learned about the diet-plate era while researching this piece.

This week: a cottage cheese pasta sauce, four-ingredient oat pancakes, and a savory cucumber bowl with gim. Then we ask whether you really need 30 g of protein at every meal. All of it lives on our cottage cheese hub.

Sources

• Cheese Reporter, “Per Capita Cheese Consumption Declined in 2024” (January 13, 2026), citing USDA data: cottage cheese per capita 1970–73, 1972, 2023, and 2024.
• CNN Business, “TikTok made cottage cheese so popular, producers are struggling to keep up” (July 27, 2025): Circana sales growth 2022–2025 and producer comments.
• Dairy Foods, “TikTok drives astronomical sales for cottage cheese” (May 3, 2024): category sales and brand growth.
• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy: Cheese, cottage, creamed.