Eating Our Curds & Whey

I was reading a book of nursery rhymes to my grandson the other day and he asked me the same question I remembering asking my grandmother when I was about his age, “what is curds and whey?” He was surprised to find out that he often eats curds and whey here at grandpa and grandma’s house, and what’s more is he likes it! Undoubtedly, lots of people eat curds and whey everyday without knowing it. Curds and whey are actually the lumps and liquid found in cottage cheese. Of course, the whey part of cottage cheese doesn’t necessarily taste very good, so modern cottage cheese makers tend to press or wash their product, leaving us the cottage cheese we know today that is mostly curds. The nutritional value of cottage cheese is really quite amazing, with only 165 calories per cup, no trans fat, a whopping twenty-eight grams of protein per serving, and is an excellent source of calcium, vitamins B12, B6, A,C,D, E, and K, not to mention the other vitamins and minerals found in cottage cheese. Little Miss Muffet was ahead of her day in the realms of eating healthy. My grandson had just one other question, “ what is a tuffet?” (Sigh)