The Questionable '80s Food Trend That Saw New Life In The 2020s

The 1980s came with many distinct food fads, ranging from parsley-garnished meals to the rise of pasta salads. Many culinary creations from the neon-colored decade didn't stick around, and instead are forever lost to ever-evolving trends. And then there's cottage cheese, which aligned with the diet culture of the era, dropped off, and reappeared once more.

Many might have thought that the tangy and creamy cheese curds would remain an obscure option, eclipsed by smoother ricotta and high-protein yogurts. Yet then came an unanticipated social media craze, with the dairy accumulating hundreds of thousands of posts across TikTok and Instagram circa 2023. Praised for its nutrition, the cheese received a new spotlight right alongside protein-maxxing trends, seen as a dynamic dairy-based protein source.

In the 1980s, cottage cheese was usually consumed standalone or in simple recipes. It functioned as a satiating side alongside both sweet and savory meals. However, during its 2020s rebirth, the food is more intensely blended and reworked, thereby shaking away its large curd size. Whether simply whipping it for better texture or blending the cheese into everything from ice cream to pasta sauces, it's a food item that has taken on an unexpected new life.

Whether it's the viral cottage cheese scrambled eggs or even a loaf of impossibly fluffy cottage cheese bread, the dairy product seemingly has no limits today. Flash back to the 1980s, though, and the food's consumption looked drastically different. Cottage cheese traces its roots as a practical meat-alternative way back to WW1. Such a utilitarian nature lingered throughout the 20th century, and into the 1980s.

Seen as a health item, the dairy showed up in everyday recipes like omelets (a precursor to today's egg recipes), as well as cottage cheese pies, and even a savory layered salad, a 1980s recipe that really should not exist. Always sold plain and in bulk, cottage cheese waned into an unpopular status by the tail end of the decade. New high-protein dairy like yogurt arrived , not to mention interest in cream cheese steadily climbed.

As a result, cottage cheese appeared all but destined for continued decline into obscurity. Americans still loved dairy; these big curds simply didn't make the list. Then — seemingly out of nowhere — arrived the TikTokers in the nutrition niche. Blended up, cottage cheese no longer carried its divisive consistency. And it even offered more protein per serving than plain yogurt. And so, this dairy product has entered the mainstream once more, intriguing the public via small screens.