Looking for a recipe for a cottage/farm cheese that my great grandmother made

I am hoping someone can assist me in finding a recipe or methodology to make a specific type of farm cheese that my great grandmother made. I am trying to find it so I can make it for my dad. He remembers eating it as a child....and with the recent passing of my grandmother, the recipe has been lost...as it sadly was never passed along.

My great grandparents immigrated to Minnesota, USA, from Poland and brought the recipe with them...so maybe someone out there know what this cheese is....and has a recipe.

According to my dad & aunt, the cheese was made from fresh milk....some sort of culture or acid was added to it....and they would let it sit at room temperature for a couple days or so...and then caraway seeds would be stirred into it.

It was yellow... in color.....and very runny...the process they describe is similar to make tvorog or quark....but no curd....it's got the consistency of melted process cheese like "cheese-whiz"....

Does anyone have an idea what the name of this cheese is, or how to make it? Or something similar?

Any ideas or direction would be appreciated....I want to give my dad & his sister a jar of this cheese for christmas.....

It wasn't the orangeish colour of Cheese Whiz, was it? You said yellow: but did you mean lemon-yellow, white with a yellowish tinge or what? By runny, did you mean it was pourable? How was it served? Did you ever sample it yourself?

@Polonius2...

Thanks for your reply...let me clarify with further details & answer your question:

I never tried it, as it was my father's grandma who died when I was a baby.

They had a farm, so it was fresh milk...not sure if the cream had been separated out, or if it was the whole milk.

She would put the milk in a large bowl & add some acid or culture...whatever it was, it would have been a common ingredient available to the average farm wife...so I don't think it was rennet or anything like that.

She would cover it with cheese cloth to keep it clean, and left it out at room temperature to culture....she would stir & mix it daily....at some point she would stir in caraway seeds.

Those who did eat it described it as a runny cheese....almost like a fondue consistency but at room temperature. Not quite pourable, but "runnier" than jarred products like cheese whiz....however...they would smear it on bread like you would use cheese whiz.

The color is described as a pale, almost butter color....

Please know that they are trying to remember something they ate 40-50 years ago, and so when I pressed them for similar details as your questions asked, they were a bit fuzzy on the details....maybe it was a darker yellow or maybe she added something to give it an orangish tint....

I've found some recipes online for "pot cheese" which seems similar...

Based on my own cheesemaking experiences, it seems like a standard farm or cottage cheese....but one where a curd never forms...it simply thickens to a point where it is no longer a "pure liquid" like milk...possibly the daily stirring breaks down the curd???

Any thoughts or direction for futher research would be appreciated.

Thanks!

This sounds an awful lot like homemade yogurt cheese, with caraway seeds added to flavor it. No cooking, no rennet, and you strain it with cheesecloth (or paper coffee filters).

I have seen people using it unflavored, as a spread for bread & bagels.

Basically, you use a starter from the old batch of yogurt, to make the new one.

This recipe, using purchased plain, unflavored yogurt with live cultures in it, makes the yogurt cheese I know. But you could make your own live culture yogurt by adding fermented milk to fresh whole milk and heating it first, then using that mixture to later start the yogurt cheese. Does that make sense?

Good pics of the process/explanation:

cleanerplateclub.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/eating-my-curds-and-whey-making-yogurt-cheese/

Is this the type of cheese you mean? Perhaps the "milk with acid or culture added to it" that they remember is the making of the yogurt, or the fermenting of the milk using other fermented milk? I do know some people use vinegar to start the fermenting process. Would that fit with their understanding of the process?

Good luck finding this recipe, if this is not it!

normally in cheese making you do not dump the cream.

i've actually have never heard of this cheese.. could it be that it's just regular twarog that was melted on a pan?

Yogurt cheese sounds really close....

Thank You....I am going to check out the link....

Some additional info:

The cheese was runny/spreadable at room temperature...it was not melted.

Also...it is possible it was made with the skimmed milk, as the cream would be needed to either sell or make butter...but being frugal, they would utilize what was left behind.

I'll update the thread when I know more...as I am going to try and subtly ask about more specific aspects of the process they remember....but everyone's input has been helpful

Thanks