EASY CULTURED COTTAGE CHEESE RECIPES - TWO DIY HACKS
Two Fast Tracks to Homemade Cultured Cottage Cheese
Have you joined the recent cottage cheese craze? It's a good one! This versatile cheese is not only high in protein, it is delicious and extremely useful in the kitchen, which is why buying it in a small tub gets old fast! Besides, the best brands always seem to be out these days. Our first handy hack, Method 1, will get you to fresh, delicious, homemade cottage cheese in about 30 minutes with the power of paneer and cultured buttermilk. Method 2 uses rennet and takes one hour.
Take your pick! Whether you're a cultured purist or a rennet rebel, these two recipes are about to change your life.
Method 1: The Paneer Hack – A Sneaky Shortcut to Cultured Flavor for Taste and Major Cost Savings
First thing's first, this recipe relies on a cheese called Paneer. You may have heard of it in Indian cuisine where it is a popular vegetarian protein used in delicious curries and other dishes including desserts. It looks like tofu and can actually be used a lot like it. It doesn't melt like other cheeses so if pressed well in can be fried, added to stews and even crumbled and scrambled like eggs. It soaks up flavors and is high in protein too!
Are you seeing where we're going here?

If you’ve got paneer (or milk, see paneer recipe below) and cultured buttermilk in your fridge, you’re halfway to tangy, probiotic-packed cottage cheese. This method cheats time while keeping that classic cultured taste.
Follow the recipe for homemade paneer below if you would like to really save money on cottage cheese. Our Deluxe Cheese Kit teaches you to make paneer (plus another 7 easy cheeses) and includes supplies you will need. This will also work perfectly with our super easy Farmers' Cheese recipe in every kit we carry, as well as the No Fail Cheese in the book, One Hour Cheese by Urban Cheesecraft founder, Claudia Lucero.
Cost: If you make the paneer yourself as well as culture your own kefir or buttermilk the price ends up being about a quarter of what you pay for store bought cultured cottage cheese. If you rely on cottage cheese regularly throughout your week, the savings will really rack up as you make large batches too.
Protein Content: 1 cup of paneer equals 28-30 grams protein while 1 cup store-bought Cottage Cheese equals 25-28 grams protein. You are not sacrificing a gram! This is why paneer and cheeses like it have nourished millions around the world for hundreds of years.
What You Need:
- 2 cups whole milk paneer, crumbled (it really is SO easy to make, recipe below)
- 1/2 cup cultured buttermilk (or plain kefir for extra probiotics)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste
- 2–4 tablespoons cream (optional, for a rich finish)
How to Make It:
- Crush & Crumble: Take your fresh paneer and crumble it into small, cottage cheese-like pieces. The goal? Little curds that’ll soak up all that tangy goodness.
- Marinate and Culture: Stir in the buttermilk and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Magic is happening—this soak tenderizes the curds with the power of lactic acid and gives them time to absorb that cultured flavor.
- Season & Serve: Sprinkle in the salt and fold in some cream if you’re feeling fancy. You will likely need more salt than you think but start slow. Store-bought cottage cheese is actually a well-salted cheese. Stir, taste, adjust, and enjoy!
Why It Works: Paneer naturally has a great cottage cheese-like texture without the tang. Adding a splash of a cultured dairy like buttermilk or kefir adds that characteristic flavor without advanced cheesemaking techniques and several hours. This trick doesn't sacrifice the gut health benefits of the probiotic bacteria and lets you skip straight to the fun part—eating or...fueling your body cause you're lifting and need protein to get swole (bro).
Adjustments: This recipe is easy to cut in half or double and adjust to your taste.
30 Minute Paneer (With a Buttermilk Twist!)
You can also use a 1/4 cup lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to make this paneer but in this case we might as well use buttermilk since we will likely purchase a quart in order to flavor the final cottage cheese recipe above. Besides, it gives this paneer a subtle, tangy depth that will not taste like vinegar or lemon —perfect for eating in a curry or crumbling into our Easy Cultured Cottage Cheese!
What You Need:
- ½ gallon whole milk (not ultra-pasteurized! Leave it out at room temp. for 1-2 hours if possible, this will save you heating time)
- 2 cups cultured buttermilk
- ¼ teaspoon salt (optional)
How to Make It:
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Heat the Milk:
Pour the milk into a pot and warm it to 195°F (90°C) over medium heat. Stir now and then to prevent scorching at the bottom of the pot. No thermometer? That's ok, just stay close and turn off the heat as soon as the milk shows the first signs of boiling. -
Add the Buttermilk:
Stir in the buttermilk slowly using about 10 strokes, then stop stirring! Watch as the curds (white cheesy bits) magically separate from the whey (yellowish lemonade-looking liquid). Lower the heat and let the curds cook gently for another 2 minutes. They are releasing liquid in this process. Pick up a spoonful of curd, it should feel bouncy as you pinch some, not thin and yogurt like. If the separation is obvious and the curds are already looking like floating cottage cheese, turn off the heat and skip to Step 4. If you're not sure, see Step 3. -
Check the Curd Formation:
If the whey is milky rather than lemonade-like, add another ¼ cup of buttermilk and stir gently. Give it another few minutes to work its magic. If the milk got too cool with all this buttermilk, you can heat it up again. The separation between the solids and liquid should be clear and dramatic. -
Drain & Set:
Line a colander with cheesecloth and pour in the curds. Let them drain for 5–10 minutes for soft paneer, or press them with a plate for 15–20 minutes for firmer cheese. Draining and pressing releases whey, the liquid remember? To make cottage cheese you want the curds to be thoroughly drained but you do not have to press the cheese until firm. Just drain and pat them down a bit. -
Salt & Store:
Stir the salt in right in the colander (it's ok to skip it if you pressed the cheese). This will release a bit more whey. You can move on to make cottage cheese as soon as the curds cool completely. We do recommend you try some fried in ghee or olive oil with a little garlic powder, chili power and salt. This snack is a very nice bonus of making your own paneer.
Once it cools, you can make cottage cheese.
Wrap and refrigerate your paneer for up to 5 days.
To Use for Cottage Cheese:
- Soft, un-pressed paneer? Crumble it and stir in buttermilk for an instant cottage cheese hack.
- Firm paneer? Crumble, soak in buttermilk for 15 minutes, and mix in salt and cream for that creamy, curdy texture!
- See more detailed instructions above in Method 1.
Method 2: The One With Rennet – One-Hour Cultured Cottage Cheese

This version still skips a long fermentation time and simply uses rennet for quick curd formation. It is slightly more advanced cheesemaking than we see with paneer, but it is still very much for beginners and it still does not take as long as making cultured cottage cheese. It’s speedy, satisfying, and totally customizable! You can find this tablet rennet in our shop and in our cheesemaking kits.
What You Need:
- 1 gallon whole milk (not ultra-pasteurized)
- 1/4 rennet tablet (or 3 drops liquid rennet)
- 1/4 cup cool, non-chlorinated water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup cultured buttermilk (optional)
How to Make It:
- Heat It Up: Pour your milk into a pot and warm it to 90°F (32°C) over low heat. Stir occasionally so it doesn’t stick.
- Rennet Time! Dissolve the rennet in 1/4 cup cool water, stir it into the milk, then STOP stirring and let it rest for 15-30 minutes. (Take a snack break—this is the hands-off part!)
- Cut & Cook the Curds: Once you see a solid curd, cut it into ½-inch cubes. Heat gently to 115°F (46°C) over 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to firm them up. If they mat together, cut them up again.
- Drain & Rinse: Pour the cooked curds into a cheesecloth-lined colander, rinse under cool water, and drain for a few minutes.
- Season & Customize: Stir in salt and after transferring to a bowl mix with cultured buttermilk, plain kefir or cream. That's it! You made cottage cheese.
Variations:
- For a Cultured Twist: Replace buttermilk with plain cultured kefir for more probiotic strains.
- For Creamier Curds: Add cream or full fat yogurt and drain less.
- For Firmer, Chewier Curds: Heat to 120°F (49°C) and drain fully while stirring gently.
Uses for Cottage Cheese:
- Breakfast or snack bowls with fruit or veggies - both with seeds and nuts.
- Instead of ricotta in most recipes. May need to blend.
- Stir into eggs scrambles to increase protein.
- Pancakes or waffles - find lots of recipes online.
- Veggie dip - just add lots of herbs dry or fresh.
- Apple dip - mix with peanut butter and dunk. So good!
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The classic from the 80s with chunks of pineapple. Don't knock it if you haven't tried it.
What are your favorite uses? We'd LOVE to know. Also, please let us know if you try one or all of these cheese recipes. Did you add a hack, share with us!