Pot Cheese substitute

Best substitute

Farmer Cheese

Use the same amount as the pot cheese you are replacing

Best for blintz filling

Close match

Use farmer cheese 1:1 - it is the same style of cheese under a different name and is the closest thing you can buy. Dry curd cottage cheese (sometimes labeled pot-style cottage cheese) is equally good. If all you have is regular cottage cheese or ricotta, drain it hard in a cheesecloth-lined sieve for at least an hour and press out the whey; the flavor is close, and the only real difference is water, which is exactly what makes a blintz filling leak.

Other pot cheese substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Dry Curd Cottage Cheese
Close match
Use the same amount
Cottage cheese curds with the cream dressing left off entirely, sold as dry curd or pot-style cottage cheese; it is the direct supermarket equivalent of pot cheese.
What changes
Best for
blintz filling, kugel, baked cheesecake, pierogi, savory fillings
Ask at the deli counter or check the bottom shelf of the cottage cheese section - it is often the only unlabeled tub with no liquid in it. Nothing needs draining, so it goes straight into the bowl.
3Cottage Cheese, Drained and Pressed
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight after draining, so start with about 1 ½ cups cottage cheese for every 1 cup pot cheese
Ordinary small-curd cottage cheese with the whey and cream dressing removed, which is the single most available fix.
What changes
Best for
blintz filling, kugel, cheese danish, casseroles
Line a sieve with cheesecloth or a coffee filter, add the cottage cheese, and let it drain in the fridge for one to four hours, then squeeze gently. Undrained cottage cheese carries so much water that a blintz filling will weep in the pan and split the crepe.
4Whole-Milk Ricotta, Drained
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight after draining, plus 1 teaspoon lemon juice and a pinch of salt per cup
Fresh Italian curd cheese that is much smoother and slightly sweet, with none of the lactic sourness pot cheese has.
What changes
Best for
blintzes, sweet cheese fillings, cheesecake, baked pasta
Drain overnight in a cheesecloth-lined sieve. The finished filling will taste rounder, milkier and sweeter than the traditional version, and the texture will be creamy instead of pebbly - the lemon juice and salt bring back most of the tang. Skim-milk ricotta is too watery to bother with.
5Quark
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
German and Central European fresh cheese with a clean, distinctly sour dairy flavor and a smooth, thick body.
What changes
Best for
blintzes, syrniki, cheesecake, sweet fillings, spreads
Quark is more sour than pot cheese and much smoother, so a filling made with it tastes brighter and reads more like a cheesecake batter than a curd filling. Buy the thickest quark you can find; the yogurt-style tubs are too loose without draining.
6Cream Cheese Cut With Cottage Cheese
Taste and texture differ
Use half cream cheese and half drained cottage cheese by weight to replace pot cheese 1:1
A workable last resort when the Eastern European groceries are closed, using two things almost every supermarket has.
What changes
Best for
blintz filling, danish filling, cheesecake
Cream cheese alone is far too rich and gummy and it holds its shape rather than melting into a filling, which is why it needs the curds cut into it. Expect a noticeably richer, tangier, denser result and use a little less sugar than the recipe asks for.

What is Pot Cheese?

Pot Cheese is a fresh, unripened cow's milk cheese made by draining cottage-cheese curds much harder than usual, so it comes out dry, crumbly and barely salted rather than wet and creamy.

Cooking tips

In a blintz, knish or kugel filling, pot cheese is doing a structural job, not a flavoring one - it is the dry body that holds everything together. That means moisture matters more than brand: whatever you use, get it as dry as pot cheese before you mix in eggs or sugar, or the filling will loosen and run out the ends.
Squeeze drained curds in a clean kitchen towel rather than pressing them in the sieve. You will pull out another couple of tablespoons of whey per cup, and that is usually the difference between a filling that stays put and one that leaks.
Older Ashkenazi and Eastern European recipes call this cheese pot cheese, baker's cheese or dry curd cottage cheese more or less interchangeably. Baker's cheese, when you can find it, is the driest of all and works beautifully in cheesecake but needs an extra spoonful of sour cream in a blintz filling.
You can make a passable version at home by warming a half gallon of whole milk to about 185F, stirring in 3 tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar, letting the curds set for ten minutes off the heat, then draining them in cheesecloth for an hour. Add salt only at the end, once you can taste the finished curd.
Crumble by hand or with a fork. A food processor smears the curds into a smooth paste and you lose the slightly pebbly texture that makes a traditional cheese blintz taste like a cheese blintz.

Frequently asked questions

Is pot cheese the same as farmer cheese?

For cooking purposes, yes. Both are fresh unripened cheeses made from drained curds, and the names are used loosely and regionally. If there is a difference, it is that farmer cheese is pressed firmer and often salted more, while pot cheese is looser and blander. Swap them 1:1 and taste for salt before seasoning.

Can I just use regular cottage cheese straight from the tub?

Not without draining it. Regular cottage cheese is roughly the same curd sitting in whey and cream, and that extra liquid is what makes blintz fillings weep, kugel go soggy and cheesecake crack. An hour in a cheesecloth-lined sieve, then a gentle squeeze, gets you most of the way there.

Can I leave pot cheese out of the recipe?

Not in anything where it is the filling - blintzes, cheese pierogi, cheese knishes and cheese kugel have nothing left without it. In a savory potato knish or a noodle kugel where the cheese is one component among several, you can drop it and add an extra egg plus a couple of tablespoons of sour cream to keep the mixture bound, and accept a plainer, starchier result.

Why is pot cheese so hard to buy now?

It was a small-dairy and delicatessen product that never made the jump to national supermarket distribution, so it survives mostly in kosher markets and Eastern European groceries. That is why so many older Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and Ashkenazi recipes call for something you cannot find, and why farmer cheese or dry curd cottage cheese has become the standard stand-in.

Which substitute is best for a cheesecake?

Baker's cheese or dry curd cottage cheese, because a baked Eastern European cheesecake depends on a dry, dense curd to set firm. Drained whole-milk ricotta is the next best and gives a lighter, sweeter, slightly grainier cake. Cream cheese alone turns it into an American-style cheesecake, which is delicious but a different dessert.

Related substitutes

More dairy substitutes

Pot Cheese substitute

Other pot cheese substitutes

2Dry Curd Cottage Cheese

3Cottage Cheese, Drained and Pressed

4Whole-Milk Ricotta, Drained

5Quark

6Cream Cheese Cut With Cottage Cheese