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How much calories does cottage cheese have?
White cheese has been known to mankind for over 10 years, and the process of its production was to be discovered … by pure chance. In ancient times, milk was stored in containers made from animal stomachs. At that time, the rennet present in them, i.e. the digestive enzyme of ruminants, caused the separation of the curd and whey.
This is how the possibility of obtaining cheese was discovered and to this day this process uses rennet as well as lactic acid bacteria. White cheeses can be made of various types of milk – cow’s, goat’s or sheep’s milk.
There are several varieties of white cheeses, and the basic division takes into account the method of their production. Acid cheeses are obtained by adding lactic acid bacteria to milk. In this way, a cottage cheese is created, which, depending on the fat content, is divided into fat, semi-fat and lean.
White rennet – acid cheeses are obtained thanks to the action of both lactic acid bacteria and rennet. The product obtained thanks to this is in the form of country cheese or homogenized cheese. Cottage cheese is made of lumps of cottage cheese mixed with salted cream.
In turn, homogenized cheese is made during the centrifugal separation of the curd from the whey, and then mixing the cheese with pasteurized cream and flavor enhancers. Ricotta is made from whey obtained in the production of other cheeses. The whey is heated and acidified, which leads to the formation of a curd. Mozzarella, on the other hand, is a rennet cheese made by renneting milk and then fermenting it.
How much calories does mozzarella cheese have, and how much – cottage cheese?
It is time to compare the calorific value of different types of white cheese. Mascarpone cheese provides the most calories. It is a product made of cream, which is heated, acidified and thickened. 100 g of mascarpone is 350 – 400 calories.
How many calories does cream cheese have? 100 g of the product is about 200-250 calories, i.e. one triangle of processed cheese weighing 25 g is more than 50 calories. Next in the list is fat cottage cheese – 100 g of this product equals about 150-170 calories. This is the best cheese for cheesecake – just grind it twice. 100 g of semi-fat cottage cheese contains about 128 calories, and lean cottage cheese about 100-110 calories. This means that a 30 g slice of lean curd provides only 34 – 35 calories. It is the least caloric white cheese.
The calorific value of homogenized cheese varies depending on the additives used and the sugar content, because more often it can be found as a sweet (strawberry, chocolate, vanilla) snack than natural homogenized cheese, without additives. Typically, the caloric content of 100 g of such a product ranges from 100 to 140 calories.
Ricotta cheese has a similar caloric content, 100 g of which is approximately 130 – 150 calories. This is much less than mozzarella cheese – this cheese provides about 250 – 280 calories per 100 g of product. Mozarella can most often be found on a pizza or in a caprese salad. Feta cheese has a similar calorific value to mozzarella, it contains about 260 calories.
Regional cheeses, such as oscypki popular in southern Poland or Halloumi in southern Europe, are even more caloric and fat. 100g servings in both cases have over 300 calories.
Ranking of caloric content of selected white cheeses
White cheeses can be ranked from highest to lowest in calories as follows:
| The name of the cheese | Number of calories in 100 g |
|---|---|
| Mascarpone | 350-400 calories |
| Oscypek | 372 kcal |
| Halloumi | 321 kcal |
| mozarella | 250-280 calories |
| feta | 260 kcal |
| White greasy | 178 kcal |
| ricotta cheese | 130-150 calories |
| Homogenized | 100-140 calories |
| White semi-fat | 128 kcal |
| White skinny | 113 kcal |
Where would cheese rank in this ranking?
How much calories does cheese have?
Are yellow cheeses rightly considered to be quite calorific components of the diet? Is it worth giving up on them?
Yellow cheese is made from milk by acidifying it and renneting it and then separating the whey. In the next step, the cheese is heated and then put into the brine – and this is how the final product is obtained. Taking into account the differences in the production process, as well as the differences in taste, the following types of cheese can be distinguished:
- English type cheeses, which include cheddar cheese; such a cheese is characterized by a smooth texture and a taste ranging from mild, to sour, to expressive, with a hint of bitterness,
- Italian type cheeses, long-ripening, with a hard and brittle consistency; here we include, among others, Grana Padano cheese or Parmesan cheese,
- Swiss-type cheeses, i.e. long-ripening cheeses with large eyes, elastic consistency and mild flavor; Swiss-type cheeses include emmentaler, maasdamer or radamer,
- Dutch type cheeses, distinguished by an average maturing time and a delicate, slightly sour taste; a representative of such cheese is gouda,
- Swiss-Dutch type cheeses of medium ripening time with small eyes, with a distinctive flavor; such features has, among others. Tilsit cheese or salami.
What about their caloric content? How much calories does a slice of cheese have? Of course, a lot depends on the type of cheese, but you can give an average value – it’s about 70-80 calories. This means that 100 g of cheese is approximately 320 – 400 calories. Among the popular types, the most caloric cheese is Parmesan cheese – it is about 430 calories per 100 g. Cheddar cheese also has a lot of calories – an average of 400 calories per 100 g. Ementaler, gouda or edam cheese provide an average of 350 – 360 calories per 100 g.
Calorific value ranking of selected yellow cheeses
| The name of the cheese | Number of calories in 100 g |
|---|---|
| Parmesan | 430 kcal |
| cheddar | 400 kcal |
| emmentaler | 383 kcal |
| Edamian | 357 kcal |
| Gouda | 356 kcal |
| Maasdamer | 334 kcal |
Several thousand types of cheese are produced in the world, and in Poland alone there are nearly 100 of them, which is why we only list the most popular ones in our list. If you are interested in species that are missing from our listings, be sure to check out here: https://.pl/sery-kalorie.
Blue cheeses
Cheeses of this species are among the most expressive, but their specific taste probably has as many amateurs as opponents. They are made of milk and rennet, and apart from the taste and smell, they are also characterized by the appearance – they can be overgrown with blue, green or white mold.
Apart from the emotions that blue cheeses evoke in the kitchen, it is worth adding that they are also very caloric. 100 g of Camembert is about 300 kcal, even more can be found in Brie cheese, as much as 333 kcal. French cheeses are ahead of the Gorgonzola Cheese from Lombardy, a serving of 100 g is 350 kcal.
Vegetable cheeses, i.e. vegan cheese substitutes
For many years we were used only to cheeses of animal origin, obtained from cow, sheep, buffalo or even … camel milk. Currently, vegetable equivalents of cheeses, obtained from soybean “milk”, coconut oil or, for example, cashew nuts, have become extremely popular. Are these products more or less caloric than their traditional counterparts?
Vegetable cheddar provides about 100 calories per 300 g, Parmesan equivalent equals 280 calories on average, cottage cheese – 244 calories. This means that the vegetable equivalents of cheeses have fewer calories, but not as much as you might think. Their composition remains another issue, but… here you can read our article https://.pl/artykul10996_Bez-deka-mleka-ale-z-tluszczem.html.
In short – while many vegan substitutes have quite decent composition and nutritional values, in the case of vegetable “cheeses” producers still have a long way to improve their quality.
Cheese in the diet – eat or rather avoid?
Cheese or cottage cheese can certainly be a valuable component of our diet. People with lactose intolerance or allergy to milk protein should be careful about its consumption, although the market is also increasingly offering lactose-free cheeses (we even have the whole diet: https://.pl/dieta/bezmleczna-bezlaktozowa.html) .
You should not be afraid of even those cheeses that are distinguished by a higher calorific value – it is enough to reach for them only occasionally. And as we repeat on every occasion – we do not gain weight from specific products, but from excess calories – therefore demonizing and excluding cheese from the diet in the absence of contraindications is not justified.
What kind of cheese is one of your favorites?
Bibliography: [1] Traditional cheese making. A practical guide for everyone; European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (http://ksow.pl/files/portal/Publikacje/Tradycyjny_wyrob_sera__Praktyczny_pwiedznik_dla_kazdego-kompresja.pdf) [2] Jones A. (2020) History of Cheese, Part 1: The Ancient Origins of Cheese [3] Kołakowski P. et al., Microflora of ripening cheeses; Innovative Dairy, 2013, 1, 6-13.