The newest viral TikTok trend? Cottage cheese
Over the years, TikTok has brought in a lot of dollars for foods — or even individual ingredients — that go viral seemingly overnight. A couple years ago, a recipe for baked feta pasta even sparked a widespread shortage of the cheese.
But one trend that sellers might have found more surprising is the resurgence of cottage cheese. The milky, chunky dairy product once heralded in the 1960s and ’70s as a high-protein diet food is back, and trendier than ever.
Dairy executives were excited to see their sales of cottage cheese up over 15% in the year ending May 21. So what’s bringing these curds back into style?
“They’re really crediting it to social media and the innovation that we’re seeing in the recipes that are spreading there,” says Julia Munslow, a senior platform editor at the Wall Street Journal, who wrote about cottage cheese’s comeback.
On TikTok, videos of people creating new recipes for cottage cheese ice cream, cookie dough, and bread have garnered millions of views. But it’s yet to be seen whether #cottagecheese is enough to drive long-term growth for this product, or if it’s just another craze.
Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal talked to Julia Munslow about her article on cottage cheese’s new virality. Read an edited transcript of their conversation below.
Ryssdal: I have to say first of all, and I know writers don’t usually choose their own headlines, but the headline on this one, way cool, spelled W-H-E-Y, is simply brilliant.
Munslow: Shout out to the headline writers, right?
Ryssdal: That’s right, there you go. So cottage cheese: not typically something one would associate with younger consumers of foodstuffs. My mom’s gonna yell at me when she hears this, but it’s like my mom’s generation, right? The 60s and 70s, and weight loss. But now all of a sudden, as you’re saying in this piece, it’s cool. How did that happen?
Munslow: So, dairy executives are really excited about the resurgence of cottage cheese, and they’re really crediting that to social media and the innovation that we’re seeing in the recipes that are spreading there. The #cottagecheese [hashtag] has more than 300 million views on TikTok alone. And a lot of those videos are young consumers discovering it for the very first time.
Ryssdal: I have to point out that a lot of the consumption of cottage cheese is not actually of cottage cheese, like it used to be. It’s cottage cheese in ice cream, cottage cheese in breads, and cakes, and all kinds of different stuff. So there’s a little camouflaging going on here, if I might.
Munslow: Absolutely. Again, it’s that innovation; people are blending it into pasta sauce, pancakes, cookies, or even using it to make bread. And you know, part of that is the texture of cottage cheese. Those curds can be a bit polarizing. And so for those people who are not big fans of those lumpy curds, blending it allows them to enjoy cottage cheese as well.
Ryssdal: I did love the fact that you spoke truth to power in this piece and you called them lumpy white curds.
Munslow: I mean, it is what it is right?
Ryssdal: We should be clear here that even before the recent social media craze on cottage cheese, it was very nearly a billion-dollar industry. I mean, people were eating it.
Munslow: Yes, definitely. Especially in the 1960s and 70s, it was hugely popular and really seen as a diet food. So it would be common to eat a scoop of cottage cheese, maybe with a hamburger patty.
Ryssdal: Like on the hamburger patty?
Munslow: I think maybe on the side, but you know, maybe there are people who put it on the patty, you never know.
Ryssdal: I don’t know, maybe. So look, here’s the actual nuts and bolts question of this thing. Can it last? Or is cottage cheese just having a moment, and will soon fade? Because we’ve seen that before, right? There was that whole feta thing a couple of years ago with baked feta.
Munslow: Definitely. I mean, I think the one of the differences here is that this cottage cheese surge is coming just as Americans are prioritizing protein in their diet. Cottage cheese has a little bit more protein than about a cup of Greek yogurt, and so it makes sense as a segue if you’re a little bit tired of the Greek yogurt trend, you’re moving over to cottage cheese. I think time will tell. But you know these days we’re seeing both young consumers discovering it for the very first time — cottage cheese sales are up 15.9% over the 52 weeks that ended May 21 — and that older consumer who was eating it in the 1960s and 1970s, they’re still big fans of cottage cheese as well.
Ryssdal: Alright, so here’s the put up or shut up question: Do you eat cottage cheese? Like, not in breads or cakes, but the actual product.
Munslow: I do eat cottage cheese. I enjoy it on toast — you’ll have to tell me if that counts — with a little bit of honey, maybe some red pepper flakes.
Ryssdal: I mean, that’s almost avocado toast for crying out loud.
Munslow: It’s really good, you should try it.
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