2 Milwaukee Chefs Are Determined to Blow Your Mind with Cottage Cheese

When the New York Times asked, “Is America Ready to Love Cottage Cheese Again?” in 2018, it’s 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’t 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 in Milwaukee where it’s a staple on the multi-course tasting menu. We spoke to chef and co-owner Dan Jacobs to learn more.

Tell me about your restaurant EsterEv, it’s a restaurant inside a restaurant?

We opened DanDan 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—a mishmash of friends with food that inspired us at the moment. It’s named after our great grandmothers. I never met my great grandmother, but she is where my cooking gene came from.

With COVID we’ve had to reimagine it—we’ve 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.

How did cottage cheese end up on the menu?

In a restaurant like ours, we are trying to surprise people. Cottage cheese on a tasting menu surprises people! There was experimentation, we’re lucky enough to live in Wisconsin with a bounty of seasonal vegetables, and we’re always looking for something to transition throughout the seasons. We’ve 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’s fun and different.

What do you like best about cottage cheese?

It’s 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.

Have you always been a fan of cottage cheese?

So, both me and Dan have relationship to it going back to when we were kids. We’ve been friends for 10 years and he’s always eaten it by dipping Doritos into it, and it’s 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’re anticipating summer vacation.

How and why do you make cottage cheese in house?

It’s all about showcasing great dairy. We start with the best dairy we can find; we gravitate towards Organic Valley 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’t 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.

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’s 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.

Why do you think cottage cheese isn’t as popular as other fresh dairy products like yogurt or cream cheese?

People look at it as something served with ketchup or canned peaches or pineapple. It’s awesome, but’s gotten this bad rap, like it’s ricotta’s 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.

Tell me about the ways you’ve served it

We’ve done two different iterations so far and we’re 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.

Now it’s served with eggplant and peppers—kind 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’s served with crunchy socca (chickpea crepes) that are dehydrated and bush basil.

The version we’re 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’ve always had some onion element to it and something with crunch.