اللَّهُمَّ إنِّي أسألُكَ بِنعْمَتكَ السَّابِقَةِ علىَّ وبَلائِكَ الحَسَنِ الذي ابتَلَيْتَني بهِ وفَضْلِكَ الذي فَضَّلْتَ علىَّ أن تُدْخِلَني الجَنَّةَ بِمَنِّكَ وفَضْلِكَ ورَحْمَتِكَ

Halal Cottage Cheese

Cheese on the commercial scale is made with Animal Grade Rennet, & even if they write vegetable rennet, it is doubtful. Vegetable Grade Rennet is produced by fermentation, & who knows if some Alcohol was generated while fermenting the ingredients. Ibn Al Qayyam wrote that un-salted cheese is good for the stomach, easy on the body organs, produces flesh and relaxes the stomach. Salted cheese, on the other hand, is less nutritious and is bad for the intestines. Salted cheese makes the body weak and causes stones in the liver & urinary bladder / prostate. It is also bad for the stomach, and mixing it with some other soothing ingredients (which some people think will probably make it milder) is even worse, because these substances allow the cheese an easy access to the stomach, making its job easier to spoil the digestion power.

Because it creates stones in the gall-bladder & kidneys, & weakens the stomach / intestines, you should try to avoid all brands of salted cheese. The only option left is to make your own Cottage Cheese at the kitchen, it is easy, neat /clean & the process is a fun for your children to watch.
Boil full fat milk & add some vinegar OR lemon juice (I used my ruby red Pomegranate vinegar), the milk will start to coagulate, stir for a while & when you observe that the curd lumps are dense, put in a thin cloth (over a sieve) so that all the water (Whey Protein) is drained out. You may wash it again with cold water. Squeeze the Cheese more & let it dry for a while, it is ready. The fluffy texture of un-salted cottage cheese, the ultimate softness, the humble taste, the bright colors, the overflowing cure & the feeling of freshness will please your body Insha'allah You can eat it directly & it can be added to many diversified recipes like Kalaqand, Burfi, Khoya, ice-cream, Paneer Palak, Sandesah (a Bengali sweet), etc.

How to soften Cottage Cheese ?

Always make your Cottage Cheese with fresh milk, a friend tried it with Long-Life milk & he had to add a lot of Lemon juice for coagulation, which can make the taste of cheese sour, more than you need it. Cottage Cheese has a Danedaar (grainy) texture, & you can't whip it on the bread, but there is a way to make it creamy. Soon after you drain out the whey, pour some cold water over the cheese to remove acidity of vinegar / lemon, squeeze out the water properly & put in the food processor immediately, add some olive oil & blend, the coagulated Cheese will homogenize & you will get a creamy spread, it will totally resemble the Double cream cheese sold in markets, like the Brand KIRI.