Cottage Cheese

I’m not sure about the origin of — nor have I bothered to look it up — but “cottage cheese” certainly sounds nicer than some of the possible alternatives: cabin cheese, cabana cheese, halfway house cheese, shanty cheese…

Ok. Maybe I did look. Maybe you shouldn’t.

From Wikipedia

Origin
A popular story on the origin of cheese was taken from Homer's Odyssey, in which the poet describes how the Cyclops Polyphemus made cheese by storing milk in animal stomachs. The enzymes from the stomach would have induced a coagulation process separating the curds from the milk.

Cheese is thought to have originated in the Middle East around 5,000 BC. Evidence of cheese can be found in a band of carvings on the walls of an ancient Mesopotamian temple that date back to 3,000 BC. The ancient carvings show the process in which the civilization created a cheese-like substance, using salt and milk to create a salty sour curd mixture believed to be somewhat similar to today's cottage cheese. As Rome expanded its empire, they spread the knowledge of cheese, discovering many new forms of it.

Popularization

In late 19th century Minnesota, when milk went sour, farmers sometimes made something they called "Dutch cheese", which is said to have been similar to modern industrial cottage cheese, in order not to waste the bad milk. In the early 20th century farmers in northeastern British Columbia made something they called "homesteader's cheese", which is said to have been similar to modern industrial cottage cheese (a "Dutch cheese" also existed there at the time, but this was something else). The term cottage cheese first began to be used for such simple home-made cheese in America in the mid-19th century.