Kochkäse, German Cooked Cheese

This cheese is common in the German state of Hessen, where I have relatives, but also in other parts of the German language area. It is not at all sophisticated, as it came from rural areas and farms, where dairy products were readily available in times gone by, before refrigeration. It was a great way to use an abundance of dairy product, and to preserve it for an extra bit of time. It is a great cheese spread or a topping for boiled potatoes. While once made exclusively at home, now it is also made commercially. This is not a low calorie, low fat dish, but if you treat yourself to it occasionally, like every 3 or 4 days.... sorry doctors and nutritionists, just joking here a little; a couple times or so a year, hey, you've got to live life. A little philosophy here, and I'm sure it will not please everyone, but anyway, moderation is a key, in my opinion, something I'm not claiming to have done all the time, but if you live to diet and exercise, you are going to lie on that death bed and say, "Well after all of my dieting, deprivation and exercising, I'm about to kick the bucket. Why didn't I eat that delicious looking piece of chocolate cream pie in 2016? Hey, that was just last year?" There are so many variables that go into our lives and our health, some of them "baked in," to use a food expression, in that our genetics have much to do with our health and life span. If you enjoy a few "vices" once and awhile, that makes life worth living. If you spend your life worrying that "this dish has ten more calories than my allotment, and this one has 20 calories more, damn, I'm going to die from these 30 extra calories," you likely won't die from the calories, but the stress on your mental health may just edge you closer to the grave. Having self discipline is fine, but like anything else, it can go too far on some things. (Hey! What's the matter? What are you doing on the floor? .... Damn! He did die from those 30 calories. So much for that theory. Well at least he didn't eat any chocolate cream pie, so extra for me. What a way to go!) 

Ingredients:

24 ounce container 4% milk fat small curd cottage cheese,* pushed through a sieve (not a real fine sieve)
1 tablespoon baking soda
3 egg egg yolks
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup or less of milk or cream (I use canned evaporated milk, but I have used heavy cream on occasion)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 or 2 teaspoons caraway seeds (your preference on amount)

Put the cottage cheese into a flat-type dish, add the baking soda, mix and then spread the mixture out, cover with a clean dry towel, or paper towels, and leave the dish sit in a warm area to "ripen." The cheese will look .... ah, unappetizing, to be quite honest, but a bit shiny or glassy. Put the cheese into a heavy bottom sauce pan, over medium low heat. Then add the butter and gradually add the milk or cream, stirring to keep the cheese from sticking or browning on the bottom. Bring barely to a boil, reduce heat to very low, and don't be afraid to lift the pan off of the burner for a few seconds, as dairy products can stick/burn pretty easily. You may not need all of the milk/cream, which is fine, as less is great. Add the pepper and the caraways seeds stirring well.** Remove from heat and allow to cool down somewhat. Lightly beat the egg yolks in a bowl or cup, add one tablespoon of the cheese mixture to the eggs stirring constantly, so as not to cook the eggs and to blend together. Add a second tablespoon of the cheese to the egg yolks with the same process. Gradually stir the egg yolks into the cheese mixture. Allow to cool a bit, then refrigerate, and the cheese should be thickened after an hour or two. This should not be runny, but it is not likely to be anywhere near solid, rather more like commercial processed cheese in a jar. There will also likely be a yellowish color to it.  

* I've tried low fat cottage cheese and it just didn't work as well, but give it a try, if you'd like; maybe you'll have better success than I have had, especially if you let much of the cottage cheese liquid drain off. Secondly, if you have a regular brand of cottage cheese that is drier; that is, not all runny, use it, as the runny type also doesn't work as well, or you can put the cottage cheese into a large sieve or cheesecloth, if you have it, and let it drain.

** You don't have to add the caraway seed to the heated cheese, but rather you can just sprinkle some caraway seeds on the cheese when served, as I did in the photo below. Of course if you add the seeds when the cheese is warm, they will soften, if that is important to you. 

I put this on some real German pumpernickel bread, with a few caraway seeds sprinkled on top

WORD HISTORY:
Yellow-This word, related to "gold," goes back to Indo European "ghelwos," a suffixed form of "ghel," (shine, be bright). This gave its Old Germanic offspring "gelwaz," meaning "yellow." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "geolu" and "geolewe," depending upon dialect. Like its close cousin Low German Saxon, the English "ge" combination was pronounced more like a "ye," and thus, later the word became "yeolwe," then "yeolou," before the modern spelling. The verb form in Old English, meaning "to become yellow," was "geolwian, seemingly taken from the adjective (which was also used as a noun). While not proper, at all, the pronunciations "yeller" and "yellah" are not uncommon in every day speech in the United States. Why "yellow" became associated with cowardly behavior is something I have not been able to find out, although "apparently," that usage dates from the mid 1800s. Related forms in the other Germanic languages: German "gelb" (originally "gelo"), Low German Saxon "geel," West Frisian "giel," Dutch "geel," Danish, Norwegian and Swedish "gul," Icelandic "gulur." All mean "yellow." Notice, that in most cases, the other Germanic languages no longer have an ending, but rather use the basic root word, where English has "ow," rather than just "yel."