High in protein, low in fat, the 70s ‘superfood’ is having another moment. Its fans say you can do almost anything with it. But should you?

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hen I heard that cottage cheese was experiencing some kind of renaissance, my first thought was: “This is what comes of complacency.” I’d thought of cottage cheese as being safely extinct, but per capita consumption statistics show that, while it fell slightly out of favour, it never really went away. And now it’s having a moment. Or the latest in a series of moments.

Cottage cheese allegedly owes its newfound fame to two things: a) claims that it’s a low-calorie superfood, packed with protein and calcium, and b) people on TikTok who have taken to making ice-cream with it.

When I was a child in the early 70s, cottage cheese was omnipresent, squatting in domed scoops on top of wet lettuce. Although it was mostly a dieter’s privation, adults were always trying to find ways to use it up on you – partly because it came in the most enormous containers. Back then, I wouldn’t go anywhere near it.