Cottage Cheese Recipe Book Appetizers, Salads, Salad Dressings, Breads, Main Dishes, Desserts — Text and Context

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In Category - Historical Cookbooks

Authors: Milk Industry Foundation (U.S.) Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2021 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Cookbooks; Cooking (Dairy products); Cooking (Cottage cheese) Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 8,337

Reading time 37 min

Text sections 2

Cottage Cheese Recipe Book Appetizers, Salads, Salad Dressings, Breads, Main Dishes, Desserts — Text and Context can be approached with a clearer sense of reading commitment from its source measurements: 8,337 words, 37 min estimated reading time, and 2 detected text sections.

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Source: Project Gutenberg record #65327

This editorial note examines the authorial choices in a 1950s cottage cheese promotional cookbook, focusing on its precise recipe language, nutritional framing, and mid-century domestic economy context.

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_Cottage Cheese Recipe Book_

_Appetizers_ _Salads_ _Salad Dressings_ _Breads_ _Main Dishes_ _Desserts_

_Nutritive Value of Cottage Cheese_

Cottage cheese is a concentrated form of milk. One pound of cottage cheese contains most of the protein, calcium, phosphorous, iron, and vitamins found in three quarts of milk.

Three ounces of cottage cheese furnishes about 50% of an adult’s daily requirement for calcium.

Cottage cheese is a complete protein (builds, repairs, and maintains body tissue); therefore, it is particularly desirable for growing children and is an ideal food for adults.

Cottage cheese is easily digested and readily assimilated. It is an important food for the person desiring to lose weight because of its high nutritive value and low caloric content. One ounce of creamed cottage cheese supplies about 30 calories.

In addition to its concentrated food value, cottage cheese is also a very versatile food. It can be served in a variety of tempting ways because it combines nicely with almost any type of food.

SALARIES & WAGES .2080 Cost of Raw Milk delivered at the plant .5146[1] Other Material Costs—cream, skim milk, chocolate, etc. .1039 MATERIAL COSTS .6185 INSURANCE, DEPRECIATION & ALL OTHER EXPENSE .0304 CONTAINERS, BOTTLES, CANS, ETC. .0405 PLANT DELIVERY & OFFICE SUPPLIES .0525 TAXES & LICENSES .0217 ADVERTISING .0078 NET OPER. PROFIT .0206[2]

Chart shows operating results of 313 distributing companies in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Hawaii with combined sales of $1,014,915,023 in 1949. Averages are from figures submitted to the Indiana University School of Business for the Milk Industry Foundation.

[1](includes .0138 paid by 73 firms for transaction which was not deducted from the amount paid the producer)

[2]This is about ⅖ of a cent a quart.

Page Nutritive value of Cottage Cheese 1 Appetizers 5 Salads 7 Salad Dressings 13 Breads 14 Main Dishes 16 Desserts 25

_Cottage Cheese Rolls_

1 cup cottage cheese ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 2 tablespoons chili sauce Salt and pepper 12 slices dried beef

Mix cheese, sauces, and seasonings. Spread on beef, roll and fasten with toothpicks.

_Cottage Canape Spread_

2 cups sieved cottage cheese 1 tablespoon bouillon paste few drops onion juice

Drain excess moisture from cottage cheese and force through fine sieve. Combine with bouillon paste and onion juice and beat vigorously to blend. Chill until ready to use. Use as a spread on crisp wafers.

_Cheese and Jelly Tray_

1 pound cream-style cottage cheese Toasted crackers

Choice of one or more of the following:

Raspberry jam Strawberry preserves Currant jelly Orange marmalade

Drain off excess moisture from cheese and put through a fine sieve or whip until smooth. Pile in a serving dish. In a similar dish or dishes unmold the jelly or jam, and place on one side of a round or square tray. Arrange rows of over-lapping toasted crackers on the other side of tray and serve while crackers are still warm.

_Fluffy Cottage Cheese_

1 cup sieved cottage cheese ¼ cup sour cream Salt and pepper

Mix cheese and sour cream lightly together, just enough to blend. Season to taste. (More elaborate seasonings for cottage cheese are caraway and poppy seeds, garlic and onion salts, and herbs.) Serve as a dip for potato chips.

1 cup sieved cottage cheese Salt and pepper Pickle relish Horseradish 1 Avocado, mashed Grated onion Cream or mayonnaise

Blend cottage cheese well with mashed avocado and seasoning. Thin with cream or mayonnaise. Serve as a dip for potato chips.

_Cottage Cheese Spreads_

Combine cottage cheese, anchovies, paprika, and a dash of cayenne. Serve on tiny crackers.

Mix flaked salmon or tuna, lemon juice, olives and/or pickles, minced parsley and blue cheese; serve on rye bread.

Combine cottage cheese, chopped salted peanuts, and mayonnaise. Spread on crackers.

Combine ground dried beef, grated onion, and pickles with cottage cheese. Serve on crackers.

Fill crisp stalks of celery with cottage cheese. Arrange them petal fashion on a round chop plate, and fill the center with olives.

_Cheese and Lettuce Roll-Up_

1 cup cottage cheese ¼ teaspoon salt ½ cup chopped stuffed olives ½ cup walnut meats Mayonnaise to moisten

Roll a spoonful of the mixture in a large, crisp lettuce leaf; slip a ring of green pepper around the center to hold it closed. Chill, then serve with garnish of tomato wedges and cucumber slices. Enough filling for 6 rolls.

2 packages lime-flavored gelatin 3 cups hot water 1½ pounds cottage cheese, well drained 1 tablespoon chopped onion 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice ¼ cup horseradish 2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Dissolve gelatine in hot water. Chill until partially set. Beat until light. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into 2½ quart mold which has been rinsed in cold water. Chill until set.

4 cups fresh-cooked (or canned) tomatoes ⅓ cup chopped onion ¼ cup chopped celery leaves 1 bay leaf 2 whole cloves 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoons (2 envelopes) unflavored gelatin ¼ cup cold water 3 tablespoons lemon juice 2 hard-cooked eggs, sliced

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The Cottage Cheese Recipe Book, issued by the Milk Industry Foundation and the Borden Company, is a promotional cookbook that treats cottage cheese not merely as an ingredient but as a solution to mid-century nutritional and economic concerns. Its opening pages present a chart of the milk distributor’s dollar, breaking down costs for raw milk, containers, and advertising, before any recipe appears. This juxtaposition of household economy with corporate accounting sets a distinctive tone: the cookbook is as much about thrift and efficiency as about taste.

Diction of Nutrition and Economy

The book’s prefatory matter frames cottage cheese through a series of declarative, almost clinical statements: “One pound of cottage cheese contains most of the protein, calcium, phosphorous, iron, and vitamins found in three quarts of milk.” The language is precise and quantitative, emphasizing percentages and caloric counts (“One ounce of creamed cottage cheese supplies about 30 calories”). This nutritional rhetoric is paired with an economic argument: the chart “What Becomes of the Milk Distributor’s Dollar” itemizes costs down to fractions of a cent, suggesting that the cookbook’s audience is expected to value both bodily and financial efficiency. The recipe instructions themselves adopt a brisk, imperative voice—“Mix, spread, roll, fasten”—that mirrors the no-nonsense tone of the nutritional claims.

Recipe Structure and Implied Skill

Each recipe follows a consistent template: a list of ingredients with precise measurements, then a short paragraph of instructions. The steps are terse and assume a baseline of kitchen competence. For instance, “Drain excess moisture from cottage cheese and force through fine sieve” appears without elaboration on how to drain or what constitutes a fine sieve. The cookbook rarely explains techniques like folding or creaming; it simply directs. This brevity suggests the intended reader is already familiar with basic cooking methods. At the same time, the recipes often include serving sizes (e.g., “Serves 6”), reinforcing a domestic setting of family meals rather than restaurant or single-serving preparations.

Recurring Ingredients and Flavor Pairings

Across the appetizer, salad, main dish, and dessert sections, certain ingredients recur with notable frequency: Worcestershire sauce, pimiento, chili sauce, and lemon. These items provide acidity, umami, or color to counterbalance cottage cheese’s mild, creamy base. The “Cottage Cheese Rolls” combine Worcestershire and chili sauce with dried beef; “Cottage Creamed Eggs” add pimiento and Worcestershire to a white sauce. In desserts, lemon juice and rind appear in the “Lemon-Cottage Cheese Custard,” alongside mace and almond extract. This pattern reveals a deliberate strategy to pair cottage cheese with bold, savory or bright flavors, perhaps to overcome its reputation as bland diet food.

The Cookbook as Industry Document

Beyond recipes, the book includes a full-page chart of the milk distributor’s dollar, a piece of industry advocacy that frames the cookbook as a promotional tool for the dairy business. The chart’s presence implies that the reader is not just a home cook but also a consumer whose choices affect the dairy economy. The final pages shift abruptly to Project Gutenberg’s legal and donation information, a reminder that this digital edition is a historical artifact. The original cookbook’s blend of nutritional science, corporate accounting, and practical recipes offers a window into how mid-century food industries marketed their products as both wholesome and economical.

Readers approaching this cookbook should note its dual identity: a collection of recipes and a piece of mid-century marketing. The terse instructions and recurring flavor pairings reward attention to detail, while the nutritional and economic framing invites reflection on how food choices were once tied to broader industrial narratives. The book is best used as a primary source for understanding domestic cookery and dairy promotion in the 1950s.

There’s something touching about how carefully that 1950s booklet measures every half-cup of cottage cheese, treating it as a promise of nourishment. It makes me think of the older, more confident voice in Miss Leslie's Complete Cookery Directions for Cookery, in Its Various Branches — Themes and Context, where the directions assume you’ll simply manage. Both feel like quiet conversations with a patient friend, not instructions, really—just someone sharing what they know.