[Italian dip] Quark, DIY Fresh Cheese Recipe

ngeapk.blogspot.com - I'm putting the final touches on my Bavarian travel/recipe book and it should be ready in the next few weeks on Amazon! I'm so excited to share it with everyone! It has accounts of my experiences here in Germany plus more than 50 authentic German recipes. And I tested and adapted all the recipes to ingredients easily found in the USA. I even converted those pesky metric measurements into the pounds and ounces.

Here's a recipe lifted straight out of the book to give you a little taste, so to speak:

One of the critical ingredients for several of the recipes in the book is Quark. But Quark in German isn't referring to subatomic particles or a greedy Ferengi from Star Trek. Instead, it's a soft, fresh cheese with a consistency anywhere between that of ricotta and that of yogurt, depending on the type. The flavor is somewhere between sour cream and cream cheese. Europeans consume tons of this stuff in everything from savory dishes to desserts.

Here is some Quark I made last week:


In German supermarkets, Quark is sold in the dairy section near the yogurt. There are three types: Magerquark (less than 1% fat), regular Quark (20% fat), and Sahnequark or Speisequark (40% fat). You can also find Kraüterquark pre-mixed with herbs and many varieties of snack and dessert Quark mixed with fruit, caramel, chocolate and so on.

Here's a shot of the commercially prepared Quark from my local supermarket:

Quark is becoming easier to find in the US, but it can still be elusive. You can find it online or in large international supermarkets, European specialty shops and health food stores. If you can’t find Quark you can easily make your own. Just plan to make it at least a day ahead of using it, two days is better.

You will have liquid whey as a byproduct of making Quark. You'll need cheesecloth, a strainer bag or coffee filter to drain the whey from the Quark. The whey is rich in protein and you can use it instead of water or milk in bread dough, pancake batter or biscuit dough.

Do not use ultra-pasteurized milk for this recipe. Pasteurized is fine and raw milk is even better.

Quark Recipe

Yield: about 1 cup (220 g)

Ingredients:
2 cups (473 ml) whole milk
½ cup (60 ml) cultured buttermilk

Instructions:
In a large, heavy saucepan, bring the milk slowly to a simmer, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon on the bottom to prevent scorching. Remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature.

Pour the milk into a bowl. Whisk in the buttermilk. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set a plate on top.

Let the mixture sit for several hours at room temperature until it achieves a yogurt-like consistency. This will take at least 6 hours and possibly overnight or more, depending on the temperature of the room.

Pour the thickened mixture into a colander or strainer lined with clean cheesecloth dampened with boiling water. Let it drain over a clean bowl for at least 2 to 3 hours until you are left with Quark the consistency of sour cream.

Use immediately or refrigerate in a sealed container for up to a week. Reserve the drained, protein-rich liquid whey for other recipes.

You can vary the percentage of buttermilk in the recipe to get a less creamy result. For example, I've used a recipe that is 1 part buttermilk to 1 part whole milk. The results were much less creamy with drier curds than the Quark you see in the photos above:

The flavor was pretty much the same and the consistency was much better for some recipes, such as German cheesecake. So, increase the percentage of buttermilk in the recipe if you want a drier curd, keeping the total amount of liquid the same.

In the near future, I'll give you a delicious recipe to use your fresh Quark in.

Photo for No Apparent Reason:

other source : http://komnatachista.blogspot.com, http://solopos.com, http://viva.co.id

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