the.com/curds and whey

means The separated solid lumps (curds) and watery liquid (whey) left when milk sours or is treated with rennet — basically homemade cottage cheese in progress, famously eaten with a spoon by Little Miss Muffet.

from Curd traces back to Middle English 'crudde,' meaning a coagulated mass, related to the idea of something thickening or congealing. Whey comes from Old English 'hwæg,' a Germanic word for the thin liquid left behind after milk curdles — it has cousins in Dutch 'wei' and other Germanic tongues. The two words have sat side by side in English kitchens for centuries, long before Miss Muffet made them famous; the nursery rhyme itself only dates to the 1800s, though its heroine is sometimes (without real evidence) linked to various historical Muffets.