Cottage cheese Cottage cheese Cottage cheese is a fresh cheese curd product with a mild flavor. The first known use of the term "cottage cheese" dates back to 1831. It is believed to have originated because the simple cheese was usually made in cottages from any milk left over after making butter. The ancient Mesopotamians made a type of salty, sour cheese very similar to cottage cheese that dates back to at least 3000 B.C. A common legend is that it was invented when a desert traveler filled his sheep stomach saddle bags with milk prior to beginning his journey. Cottage cheese
Egyptian cheese or close to it; there was an old dry cheese; and there was a medium one in between." The first would have been unripened cheese made locally from sour milk, which may or may not have been salted. The old dry cheeses would have often been imported, and were cheeses ripened by rennet enzymes or bacteria. The nature of the "medium" cheese is less certain, and may have referred to preserved fresh cheeses, evaporated milk or cheese similar to Indian paneer, where the addition of vegetable juices makes the milk coagulate. Medieval Egyptian cheese mostly used buffalo or cows' milk,