Learn how to make raw cottage cheese using clabber culture that is rich in probiotics and beneficial bacteria. This old fashioned raw cottage cheese is one of the easiest cheeses you can ever learn to make. It’s a very hands off cheese, that only takes a few minutes of active time to make. This is a good cheese to make if you are new to cheese making and wanting to learn how to make cheese. This cottage cheese recipe will give you a good yield of creamy and delicious cottage cheese that can be eaten plain or used in many different recipes.

This recipe calls for a clabber culture to culture the milk. If you’re unfamiliar with a clabber culture, check out How To Start & Maintain A Clabber Culture For Cheesemaking. Clabber culture is the same for cheesemaking as a sourdough starter is for bread making. It’s also made in a very similar way to a sourdough starter, and you can easily make your own clabber culture using raw milk. You can also make this recipe without making a clabber culture, although the flavor will be better if you use a clabber culture.

What Is Raw Cottage Cheese?

Raw cottage cheese is an old fashioned way of making cottage cheese where you start it with clabber or allow the milk to clabber naturally. Then after the milk is warmed, it is hung up in a cheesecloth until the whey drips out of the curds. It can then be salted and stored in the refrigerator.

Old Fashioned Cheese Making

Cheese making is an old-fashioned skill that has been past down through many generations. My husbands Grandpa tells the story of how his Mom used to make this cottage cheese recipe, and hang it out on the clothesline to let the whey drip out during the summertime.

You may remember your Grandma keeping a jar of sour milk on her counter that she would use for different things in her kitchen. That was a clabber culture!

If you’ve ever read The Little House On The Prairie Books, you know that in the summertime when there was lots of milk, was when Ma made cheese. She didn’t have access to freeze-dried cultures, or boughten rennet (used to coagulate the cheese). She also didn’t have a clabber culture in her refrigerator or freezer because she had neither. If they hadn’t had fresh milk in awhile, she wouldn’t have had a clabber culture on her counter either. So how did she make cheese for her family? Simple. As soon as their cow freshened (had her calf), she would take some milk and put it into a jar on her counter. Allow it to thicken and then discard and feed it every day. In a few days, she would have the culture she needed to be able to make cheese. She probably made rennet from wild plants like nettles or vegetables, more on that another time.

This is how she made cheese for her family using nothing but the fresh raw milk right from the cow. You can do the same thing by learning how to start and maintain your own clabber culture.

Benefits Of Raw Milk

To make raw cottage cheese, you have to make it with raw milk. If you don’t have access to raw milk, you can make this homemade cottage cheese recipe with pasteurized milk using a clabber culture. But it won’t be raw cottage cheese because the milk will already have been heated.

Raw milk is a nutrient dense food and shouldn’t be pasteurized if at all possible. Pasteurization is the process of heating the milk which kills any bad bacteria present in the milk. It also kills all the good bacteria, live enzymes, and probiotics that help you digest the milk and boosts your immune system. Many people that are “lactose” intolerant can digest raw milk just fine, and those that still experience some sensitivity can usually eat cultured dairy without any issues. You can also look for milk from cows that have the A2/A2 gene, meaning they do not produce lactose in their milk. I’ll write more on that another time.

My Experience

I’ve been milking dairy cows for the last fifteen years and in that time I’ve learned a lot about dairy cattle. I’ve learned how to make all of our dairy products including all of our hard cheeses. This has made a big difference in our grocery bill and has kept our family healthy and thriving. Having a family dairy cow is a lot of responsibility, but the rewards are so worth it! When learning about dairy cows, or any new homesteading skill, I suggest that you take it slow and learn one or two things at a time so it’s not so overwhelming. There’s lots to learn, but I’m here to help you and make it easier for you!

I have drank raw milk for over 15 years now, fed it to all of my children, and drank it through all five of my pregnancies. We are rarely ever sick, and I know part of the reason for that is that our digestive systems are healthy because of consuming raw dairy. The risk of getting e coli or listeria from raw milk is extremely low compared to all of the benefits of leaving milk raw. Also, if you source your milk from a small farm or better yet, have your own family milk cow, you know exactly where your milk comes from.

We handle the milk carefully, being sure to chill it as soon as possible after milking, and straining it to remove any impurities. This takes away almost all of the risk from any bad bacteria that may be present in the milk. It’s also important to note that a normal healthy digestive system (from consuming raw dairy and other probiotic rich foods) will not fall prey to bad bacteria nearly as easily as an unhealthy digestive system. People consumed raw milk products without any problem for thousands of years.

Benefits Of Cultured Raw Dairy

Cultured dairy products are made from raw milk that has been coagulated either by letting it set out at room temperature until it gets thick, or by adding some kind of a culture, which just speeds up the process, making it thicken more quickly. Pastuerized milk can also be used to make cultured dairy products, but you must add a culture to it (like clabber or yogurt) to get it to culture or thicken. This is because the natural good bacteria is killed during the pasteurization process. Cultured dairy products made with pasteurized milk also do not contain all of the raw probiotics and enzymes that products made with raw dairy will contain. Examples of cultured dairy include cottage cheese, yogurt, milk kefir, sour cream, buttermilk, and other cheeses made with a culture, like clabber, kefir grains or yogurt. The probiotics, vitamins, minerals and beneficial bacteria naturally present in raw milk greatly increase when the milk is cultured. You’re probably familiar with how much eating yogurt will help your digestion, and that is because it is a cultured dairy product.

When dairy is cultured, the bacteria that we add to the milk (i.e. clabber or yogurt culture) breaks down the lactose in the milk. It also produces lactic acid which lowers the PH of the milk, and increases the available health benefits. Culturing raw dairy also prolongs its shelf life, for example yogurt will last longer in the refrigerator than milk. Adding cultured dairy to your baked goods in place of milk or water, gives the yeasts (either regular yeast or sourdough) something extra to feed on, and will give you a very beautiful bread.

Basics Of Making Raw Milk Cottage Cheese

Raw cottage cheese is made by either allowing raw milk to set out on the counter and “clabber” naturally. This usually happens over the period of a couple of days, or by adding some clabber culture to raw milk which turns it into clabbered milk. After the milk has been clabbered, it is slowly heated on the stove, but kept at a very low temperature so that it stays a raw cottage cheese. If you heat the milk to much, it will kill the beneficial microorganisms in the raw milk. After the clabbered milk has reached a certain temperature, it is strained out through a cheesecloth and hung up for a couple of hours to allow the whey to drip out. It can then be stored in the refrigerator for up to two or three weeks.

Find my simple recipe for how to make your own clabber culture here.

Why You’ll Enjoy Making Your Own Cottage Cheese

This is the perfect “hands off” recipe you can make when you have extra milk and don’t have time to make cheese.
Cottage cheese can be eaten in so many ways, the options are endless.
Full of lots of gut health benefits from raw cultured dairy.

Ways We Enjoy This Raw Cottage Cheese

In lasagna or baked spaghetti.
With fresh herbs and some sourdough crackers as a delicious snack.
As a side to almost any meal.
On top of a salad.
With canned or fresh fruit for a nutritious snack.
In baked goods like cookies.
Add it to macaroni and cheese.
Blended into a pudding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is There Such A Thing As Raw Cottage Cheese?

Yes, raw cottage cheese is made from raw milk. It is not heated during the cheesemaking process so all of the beneficial microorganisms and bacteria stay intact.

How Does Raw Cottage Cheese Taste?

Raw cottage cheese made with a clabber culture has a mild and delicious taste. It’s excellent eaten plain with a little bit of fresh raw cream.

Is It Safe To Eat Cheese Made With Unpasteurized Raw Milk?

Yes, it is safe to eat cheese made with raw milk. Raw milk is cultured before it’s made into cheese, which lengthens it’s shelf life and strengthens the natural probiotics present in the raw milk. Our ancestors preserved milk by culturing it and making cheese for thousands of years, and we can safely do the same thing.

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Can You Make Cottage Cheese With Pasteurized Milk?

Yes, you can make cottage cheese with pasteurized milk, but you will have to add a clabber culture to it because it won’t coagulate on it’s own. It will not be raw cottage cheese, but will still make a good cottage cheese.

Tips For Making The Best Cottage Cheese

If you don’t have a clabber culture, but still want to make raw cottage cheese, you can set raw milk out on the counter for a couple of days until it turns to clabber, and then make the cottage cheese. It will taste better if you add clabber culture because it will coagulate sooner.
If your cottage cheese is too dry, just add some cream to it right before you eat it. The reason you don’t want to add the cream sooner is because it won’t have as long of a shelf life as the cultured cottage cheese. You don’t want the cream to sour and ruin the cottage cheese, so it’s best to add it right before eating.
Use this cottage cheese in any recipe where you would use regular cottage cheese.
Use the leftover whey in baking, to water plants, feed animals or put it on your compost pile. You can also just dump it down your drain if you have way to much and don’t need it.
If you don’t skim the heavy cream from the top of the milk before adding the clabber culture, it will turn the cream on top into some delicious raw sour cream. Just skim it off the milk once it’s clabbered, put it into the refrigerator and you have sour cream!
You can make as big of a batch of cottage cheese all at the same time as you’d like. Feel free to double, triple or even quadruple the recipe.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here

Simple Ingredients

Milk
Clabber Culture
Salt

Tools You May Need

Large Pot – this one is larger than you’ll need, but it’s what I use for all my cheesemaking. I suggest investing in it if you plan to make a lot of cheese.
Whisk
Fine Cheesecloth or tea towel
Colander
Hook or cupboard door knob to hang your cheese from

How To Make Raw Cottage Cheese Using Clabber Culture

Without A Clabber Culture

If you do not have an established clabber culture, you can take raw milk and let it set out at room temperature until it is coagulated into a solid mass. This usually takes 24 to 48 hours or longer. Then proceed with step 3.

With A Clabber Culture

If you do have a clabber culture, add clabber culture to the milk. Let it set out at room temperature until it is coagulated. This can happen as quickly as 24 hours, depending on the temperature of your milk and your clabber culture. Warm milk will always ferment more quickly than cold milk.

Put the clabbered milk into a large heavy bottom stockpot over medium-low heat.

adding clabbered milk to couch for cottage cheese

Stir gently with a whisk to break up the curds into smaller curds, making sure that the cheese doesn’t get too hot on the bottom. You will see the curds separating from the whey.

Slowly heat the curds until they are 110 degrees. This will firm them up so they aren’t so soft.

checking temperature of raw cottage cheese

Put your cheesecloth in a colander over a bucket to catch the whey (assuming you plan to save it).

cheese cloth in colander for raw cottage cheese

Pour the curds and whey from the pot into the colander.

Hang The Cheese

Tie the opposite corners of the cheesecloth together and hang on a hook or a cupboard door with the pot underneath to catch the whey that will continue to drip out. Let it hang for 2 hours. You can gently massage the curd mass a couple of times during that couple of hours to make sure it’s releasing most of it’s whey. If you forget about your cheese and leave it hanging longer, it will still be fine, but will just have drier curds. It is okay if there is still a bit of whey left in your cottage cheese curds, they’re better if they aren’t too dry.

tying cheese cloth for raw cottage cheese

Untie the cheesecloth and carefully put the cottage cheese into a bowl. Add salt to the finished cheese fFif desired (probably 1 teaspoon per pound of cheese or to taste).

Refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Stir in some cream just before serving to make it creamy like regular grocery store cottage cheese. Enjoy!

raw cottage cheese made with clabber culture

How To Make Raw Cottage Cheese Using A Clabber Culture

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 10

Additional Time 2

Total Time 1 2 10

Serving Size cups