Cottage cheese tradition at Smith’s Dairy

BY Saimi Rote Bergmann REPOSITORY FOOD WRITER

ORRVILLE - Cottage cheese at Smith Dairy is made by hand, by eye, and by feel.

“It’s a craft,” said plant manager Karl Kelbly.

Smith’s in Orrville has been owned by the same family since it was founded in 1909. It still makes cottage cheese the old-fashioned way, with no premium placed on speed.

“A lot of people don’t make their own cultures like we do. Then we do a longer set, longer cook — just a slower process,” Kelbly said.

Cheesemaker Randy Hicks closely monitors the process, baby-sitting the 36-foot-long vats as the yeastlike cultures grow and the milk slowly separates into whey on top and a gelatinous block of curd on the bottom. Then he cuts the curd with “knives” that look like giant screens, creating the small pieces of curd you see in cottage cheese.

“Then they are cooked for two hours. It gets up to about 140 degrees,” Kelbly said. “Randy watches it closely. If it gets too firm it’s like eating BBs, if it-s too soft, they’ll fall apart, be pasty.”

How does Smith’s cottage cheese compare to brands that use chemicals to quick-set? Well, Kelbly may be partial, but he believes Smith’s has more flavor.

“Others can be too sharp, too acid, or musty,” he said. “Ours is creamy, with buttery notes.”

STEADY SALES

What’s the best way to enjoy cottage cheese? Purists like it plain. President Nixon liked it covered with ketchup and black pepper. Dieters in the ’60s and ’70s ate it on top of a canned peach half.

Try it on a slice of tomato, drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette. Stir a tablespoon of your favorite jam into 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, then spread on a toasted bagel. Mix cottage cheese with chopped herbs and use as a topper for baked potatoes.

Other than a brief surge during the low-carb craze, cottage cheese sales have been steady for decades, according to Penny Baker, Smith’s director of marketing.

“Sour cream goes up and down, like for the holidays, because they see it as an ingredient,” Baker said. “With cottage cheese, they see it more as a stand-alone item, and we’re trying to show them they can cook with it.”

Baker recommends substituting cottage cheese for applesauce when baking low-fat muffins, cookies and cakes. Her recipe for “Guilt-Free Brownies” calls for cottage cheese instead of butter or oil.

MAYO SUBSTITUTE

Cottage cheese also can serve as a substitute for mayonnaise as in a recipe for “Humpty Dumpty” egg salad from “The Cottage Cheese Cookbook” by G&R Publishing. ($4.50). Chopped egg is combined with chopped celery, cottage cheese, shredded cheddar and mustard.

To cut calories, replace some of the cream cheese in cheesecake recipes with cottage cheese, as in the recipe for a crustless cheesecake with sour cream topping from “The Cottage Cheese Cookbook.”

Of course, not all recipes made with cottage cheese are low-calorie. The indulgent Dairy Potatoes recipe found at www.smithdairy.com is creamy and cheesy. Better yet, it’s simple to make. Just combine diced potatoes, onion, garlic, cottage cheese, sour cream and cheddar cheese in a casserole dish and bake until bubbly.

Cottage cheese can substitute for ricotta in Italian dishes such as lasagna and manicotti. The low-carb crowd will like the pasta-free manicotti recipe from Smith’s Web site. Instead of pasta, chicken breasts pounded thin are rolled around a cottage cheese filling, then baked in tomato juice and topped with mozzarella cheese.