Cottage Cheese

The back porch of my home in the tiny town in which I was born served as the setting for one of the glories of the past—cottage cheese freshly made from the milk of a herd of family cows. The milk would be put into a churn, stoneware utensil, or urn with a loose-fitting stoneware lid, covered, and let stand overnight. The milk would curdle because of natural bacteria and have a coating of thick yellow cream on top. We would skim off the cream and add the snow-white curds to cheesecloth that