{"id":2058,"date":"2025-08-09T04:25:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T04:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/2-milwaukee-chefs-are-determined-to-blow-your-mind-with-cottage-cheese\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T04:25:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T04:25:25","slug":"2-milwaukee-chefs-are-determined-to-blow-your-mind-with-cottage-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/2-milwaukee-chefs-are-determined-to-blow-your-mind-with-cottage-cheese\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Milwaukee Chefs Are Determined to Blow Your Mind with Cottage Cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When the New York Times asked, \u201cIs America Ready to Love Cottage Cheese Again?<\/a>\u201d in 2018, it\u2019s possible they were a few years ahead of their time. While brands have continued to innovate with retail packaging of cottage cheese in the intervening years, it hasn\u2019t exactly set the world on fire. But one sign that might be on the verge of changing is the house-made cottage cheese at EsterEv<\/strong><\/a> in Milwaukee where it\u2019s a staple on the multi-course tasting menu. We spoke to chef and co-owner Dan Jacobs to learn more. <\/p>\n

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\"Dan<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Tell me about your restaurant EsterEv, it\u2019s a restaurant inside a restaurant?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We opened DanDan<\/strong><\/a> restaurant (named for the partners and chefs Dan Van Rite and Dan Jacobs) in 2016 and EsterEv just a few months later. EsterEv is a room inside DanDan with a separate kitchen. Initially there were 2 communal tables, and we offered a single sitting Friday and Saturday nights. It was modeled off my table growing up, there were 6-10 people eating dinner each night\u2014a mishmash of friends with food that inspired us at the moment. It\u2019s named after our great grandmothers. I never met my great grandmother, but she is where my cooking gene came from. <\/p>\n

With COVID we\u2019ve had to reimagine it\u2014we\u2019ve reinvented it a couple of times, first by serving outdoors with 5 courses, and since end of June in a separate part of the restaurant. We broke up the big table to have smaller tables and staggered seating times. We are still cooking stuff that relates to our childhood. <\/p>\n

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How did cottage cheese end up on the menu?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a restaurant like ours, we are trying to surprise people. Cottage cheese on a tasting menu surprises people! There was experimentation, we\u2019re lucky enough to live in Wisconsin with a bounty of seasonal vegetables, and we\u2019re always looking for something to transition throughout the seasons. We\u2019ve always made our own cheeses, basic stuff like ricotta and creme fraiche. Cottage cheese is a great way to showcase great dairy, a blank canvas to add on to. It\u2019s fun and different. <\/p>\n

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What do you like best about cottage cheese? <\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s particularly comforting, I think it is the texture that I like, the curd is bigger than in ricotta, with a sour flavor. It made sense to embrace that.<\/p>\n

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Have you always been a fan of cottage cheese? <\/strong><\/p>\n

So, both me and Dan have relationship to it going back to when we were kids. We\u2019ve been friends for 10 years and he\u2019s always eaten it by dipping Doritos into it, and it\u2019s so good! For me and my brother it was always a snack our grandmother gave us. We ate it with Russian dressing and black pepper or with canned peaches. It reminds me of 3-5th grade and that happy good feeling after school, when you\u2019re anticipating summer vacation. <\/p>\n

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How and why do you make cottage cheese in house?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about showcasing great dairy. We start with the best dairy we can find; we gravitate towards Organic Valley<\/strong><\/a> milk and cream. Making it is a 2-day process. I made it for the first 2-3 months and now the sous chef makes it. Getting it to the right temperature is a little finicky, and you can\u2019t have it too hot. We did some research and the recipe in the Bar Tartine cookbook was a starting point. What sets ours apart is the use of creme fraiche. <\/p>\n

We start with milk, we use calcium chloride and animal-based liquid rennet both combined with water, heat it to 80 degrees, and whisk for 30 seconds, and use an up and down chopping movement for 45 seconds. We wrap it up and let it rest, then gently increase the heat to 130 degrees. When the curds are springy, it\u2019s done. We line a colander with cheesecloth and let it drain overnight, then combine it with our house-made creme fraiche, that adds flavor and fat. The leftover whey we use it as a starter for broths. <\/p>\n

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Why do you think cottage cheese isn\u2019t as popular as other fresh dairy products like yogurt or cream cheese?<\/strong><\/p>\n

People look at it as something served with ketchup or canned peaches or pineapple. It\u2019s awesome, but\u2019s gotten this bad rap, like it\u2019s ricotta\u2019s country cousin. It can be a cheap alternative to fillings for blintzes or lasagna but growing up I also saw my parents order it in diners, as you would a salad.<\/p>\n

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\"Cottage<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Tell me about the ways you\u2019ve served it<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve done two different iterations so far and we\u2019re working on the third. We served it with pickled ramp greens, grilled snap peas, freeze dried and dressed peas with lemon vinaigrette, pea blossoms and tendrils all dusted with ramp powder and dotted with pea puree. <\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s served with eggplant and peppers\u2014kind of a Sicilian style sweet and sour caponata with cocoa. We grill and marinate fairytale eggplant in acorn oil with savory and some marinated sweet peppers and charred onion powder. It\u2019s served with crunchy socca (chickpea crepes) that are dehydrated and bush basil.<\/p>\n

The version we\u2019re working on now is with charred onions, fried and raw Brussels sprouts in a vinaigrette with smoked shredded beef tongue and rye crumble. So far, we\u2019ve always had some onion element to it and something with crunch.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the New York Times asked, \u201cIs America Ready to Love Cottage Cheese Again?\u201d in 2018, it\u2019s possible they were a few years ahead of their time. While brands have continued to innovate with retail packaging of cottage cheese in the intervening years, it hasn\u2019t exactly set the world on fire. But one sign that … Okumaya devam et “2 Milwaukee Chefs Are Determined to Blow Your Mind with Cottage Cheese”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}