Dehydrating and Rehydrating Cottage Cheese

I use cottage cheese a lot when cooking in, lasagna, baked spaghetti, raviolis and other things like that. It makes it nice to have some dried cottage cheese on hand for when I don't have fresh.
I try to buy a bunch when it is on sale. I like to make it, but not having my own milk supply it is cheaper to buy it when on sale. 

 

As you can see there is a lot of whey in it. The more whey you can get out the faster it will dehydrate.

 

 

 

I like to use a salad spinner, it gets it out fast.  You don't have to wait for it to drain like you do if you use a strainer or cheese cloth.

Just spin it real good for a few minutes. Till it is good and dry.

 

Spread on your dryer trays.

 

 

 

 

This is the whey I got out of all the cottage cheese. Save this and use in your cooking. I always make pancakes on the day I do cottage cheese, I use the whey in place of the oil and some of the milk. It is real good in biscuits also. If you can't use it right away you can put in the freezer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dry at 120 for about 10 to 12 hours ( this will depend on the size of your dehydrator and how much you have in it.)

It will turn a yellow color when dry ( the sour cream will do the same thing). It will dry down to about half of what it was.

 

To rehydrate. You will need to plan ahead because it does take a while to rehydrate. Start with the amount you want to rehydrate I have one cup here.

 

 

 

 

Put in a bowl and add double the amount of warm water. I have two cups of warm water for the one cup of dried cottage cheese.

 

It looks like a lot of water but it is OK.

 

This is after about 3 hours The curds are still pretty hard but as you can see it is soaking up the water.

 

This is about 7 hours latter looks good, it isn't as soft as fresh but good. I drain off most of the water at this point. You can eat it now.  I just add a little salt to make it taste better, if I am going to just eat it. It will taste a little different then fresh and won't be as soft but still good

 

I go ahead and use a hand blender ( you can put in the blender or food processer) to blend it so it is smoother since I am cooking with it.

 

I have thought about rehydrating it with milk but I don't like milk (don't judge even as a kid I didn't like it lol) so haven't done that . I know I like cottage cheese but not milk I am weird like that . But if you are just going to eat it, the milk might give it a better flavor. If anyone try's it with the milk let me know how it is.  

 

After dry I put in quart jars,, then put in the freezer. It would probably be ok on the shelf in an airtight container. I just like to keep it in the freezer  to make sure it stays ok.