German “leather” cheese has buttermilk mixed with the plain.  The Danes make their Appetitost with sour buttermilk.  Ricotta Romano, for a novelty, is made of sheep buttermilk.

COTTAGE CHEESE

In America cottage cheese is also called pot, Dutch and smearcase.  It is the easiest and quickest to make of all cheeses, by simply letting milk sour, or adding buttermilk to curdle it, then stand a while on the back of the kitchen stove, since it is homemade as a rule.  It is drained in a bag of cheesecloth and may be eaten the same day, usually salted.

The Pilgrims brought along the following two tried and true recipes from olde England, and both are still in use and good repute: 

Cottage Cheese No. 1

Let milk sour until clotted.  Pour boiling water over and it will immediately curd.  Stir well and pour into a colander.  Pour a little cold water on the curd, salt it and break it up attractively for serving.

Cottage Cheese No. 2

A very rich and tasty variety is made of equal parts whole milk and buttermilk heated together to just under the boiling point.  Pour into a linen bag and let drain until next day.  Then remove, salt to taste and add a bit of butter or cream to make a smooth, creamy consistency, and pat into balls the size of a Seville orange.

CREAM CHEESE

In England there are three distinct manners of making cream cheese: 

1.  Fresh milk strained and lightly drained. 2.  Scalded cream dried and drained dry, like Devonshire. 3.  Rennet curd ripened, with thin, edible rind, or none, packaged in small blocks or miniature bricks by dairy companies, as in the U.S.  Philadelphia Cream cheese.

American cream cheeses follow the English pattern, being named from then:  region or established brands owned by Breakstone, Borden, Kraft, Shefford, etc.

Cream cheese such as the first listed above is easier to make than cottage cheese or any other.  Technically, in fact, it is not a cheese but the dried curd of milk and is often called virginal.  Fresh milk is simply strained through muslin in a perforated box through which the whey and extra moisture drains away for three or four days, leaving a residue as firm as fresh butter.

In America, where we mix cream cheese with everything, a popular assortment of twelve sold in New York bears these ingredients and names:  Chives, Cherry, Garden, Caviar, Lachs, Pimiento, Olive and Pimiento, Pineapple, Relish, Scallion, Strawberry, and Triple Decker of Relish, Pimiento and Cream in layers.

In Italy there is Stracchino Cream, in Sweden Chantilly.  Finally, to come to France, la Foncee or Fromage de Pau, a cream also known around the world as Creme d’Isigny, Double Creme, Fromage a la Creme de Gien, Pots de Creme St. Gervais, etc. etc.