My youtube recommendations have been drowning in cottage cheese recently. And it took me some time to realize that cottage cheese is something I know as ‘tvorog’. English really doesn’t have its shit together when it comes to naming dairy products. This realization hit me like a truck. It’s not often when you can be culturally appropriated as an eastern european. But this cottage cheese craze is what did it for me. The concept of superfood is weird enough on its own. But then all these people go out of their way to invent cool new recipes with said superfood instead of googling how people have been eating it throughout human history. They really behave like Americans invented cottage cheese a year ago and it’s still an ongoing public debate on what to use it for. Because you have other creators like Liam The Plant Slant (whom I otherwise enjoy) and he doesn't hate cottage cheese but he confidently claims that it’s not suited for desserts. He seems to believe that putting cottage cheese in everything is this modern fad that will inevitably fade and everyone will realize what a ridiculous idea it was to make cottage cheese sweet. And when I realized he was talking about fucking tvorog I lost my shit. What the fuck do you mean, man? Tvorog is a dessert. Its primary use is in desserts.
It’s one of the most popular fillings in all types of pastry, from bliny (big thin pancakes) to pirogi to vatrushki – where sweetened cottage cheese is put on top of a bun, it’s one of the tastiest things ever.
It’s commonly mixed with nuts and dried fruit to create something called ‘cottage cheese mass’ (unappetizing name, I know). It’s very popular and can be bought in every store along with ‘cottage cheese sticks’ that are eaten like candy. One of the most popular traditional easter dishes is pas-ha – which is basically cottage cheese mass shaped as a pyramid.
It’s a completely ordinary thing to just eat cottage cheese for breakfast with some berries, fruit and nuts. We also just eat it out of a small cup, the same as yogurt. It’s really nothing special.
And finally, throw your ‘high protein pancake’ into the trash. Put some respect on syrnik’s name! Stop inventing circular shaped food and learn from the masters. Generations upon generations of babushkas who were spoiling us with this decadent dessert for breakfast.
