Quark (dairy product)

The milk is soured, usually by adding lactic acid bacteria cultures, and strained once the desired curdling is achieved.

Quark and its dryer variant Tvorog is traditional in the cuisines of Baltic, Germanic and Slavic-speaking countries as well as amongst Ashkenazi Jews and various Turkic peoples.

Quark is somewhat similar to yogurt cheeses such as the South Asian chak(k)a, the Arabic labneh, and the Central Asian suzma or Persian kashk, but while these products are obtained by straining yogurt (milk fermented with thermophile bacteria), quark is made from soured milk fermented with mesophile bacteria.

Quark is possibly described by Tacitus in his book Germania as lac concretum ("thick milk"), eaten by Germanic peoples.

[3] The word Quark (Late Middle High German: quarc, twarc, zwarg;[4] Lower Saxon: dwarg[5]), with usage in German documented since the 14th century,[6][7] is thought to derive from a West Slavic equivalent,[6][7][8][9] such as Lower Sorbian twarog, Upper Sorbian twaroh, Polish twaróg, Czech and Slovak tvaroh.

Cognates also occur in Scandinavia (Danish kvark, Norwegian and Swedish kvarg) and the Netherlands (Dutch kwark).

[17] In several languages quark is also known as "white cheese" (French: fromage blanc, southern German: Weißkäse or weißer Käs, Hebrew: גבינה לבנה, romanized: gevina levana, Lithuanian: baltas sūris, Polish: biały ser, Serbian: beli sir), as opposed to any rennet-set "yellow cheese".

In Israel, gevina levana denotes the creamy variety similar to the German types of quark.

[22][23] Manufacture of quark normally uses pasteurized skim milk as the main ingredient, but cream can be added later to adjust fat content.

[3][25][26] In the dairy industry today, quark is mostly produced with a small quantity of rennet, added after the culture when the solution is still only slightly acidic (ph 6.1).

This type of quark has the firmness of sour cream but is slightly drier, resulting in a somewhat crumbly texture (like ricotta).

[28] In general, the dry mass of quark has 1% to 40% fat;[28] most of the rest is protein (80% of which is casein), calcium, and phosphate.

Traditionally, this is done by hanging the cheese in a muslin bag[23][32] or a loosely woven cotton gauze called cheesecloth and letting the whey drip off,[33] which gives quark its distinctive shape of a wedge with rounded edges.

[34][35] Under Russian governmental regulations, tvorog is distinguished from cheeses, and classified as a separate type of dairy product.

While Magerquark is often used for baking or is eaten as breakfast with a side of fruit or muesli, Sahnequark also forms the basis of a large number of quark desserts (called Quarkspeise when homemade or Quarkdessert when sold in German[39]).

[d][11] In neighboring Netherlands there is a different variant; these cakes, called kwarktaart in Dutch, usually have a cookie crumb crust, and the quark is typically mixed with whipped cream, gelatine, and sugar.

[35] In Austria, Topfen is commonly used in baking for desserts like above-mentioned Topfenkuchen, Topfenstrudel and Topfen-Palatschinken (Topfen-filled crèpes).

In Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, tvorog (Belarusian: тварог, Russian: творог, Ukrainian: сир) is highly popular and is bought frequently or made at home by almost every family.

It is mixed with eggs, sugar, raisins and nuts and dried into a solid pyramid-shaped mass called paskha/syrna paska.

In Latvia, quark is eaten savory mixed with sour cream and scallions on rye bread or with potatoes.

[45][46][47] Lifeway Foods manufactures a product under the title "farmer cheese" which is available in a variety of metropolitan locations with Jewish, as well as former Soviet populations.

[49] In Australia, Ukrainian traditional quark is produced by Blue Bay Cheese in the Mornington Peninsula.

[citation needed] In the United Kingdom, fat-free quark is produced by several independent manufacturers based throughout the country.