quark

[Guest guest]

Sorry if this is already a dead topic, but I ran across this in an old digest

just now and wanted to comment.

When I lived in Germany as an exchange student, I knew a German familiy who

(illegally) bought raw milk from a dairy down the road. The mother taught me

how to make quark from scratch, rather than buying it at the store. All she

did was let the raw milk sit on the counter for a day or two, then pour it

into a cloth bag suspended over a bowl. The milk solids were the quark, and

she used the whey in breakfast muesli (probably in other things as well, but

I don't remember).

The best way I've been able to explain what quark is like, to friends, is to

say that if you add milk to quark, stir it up, you get something very much

like sour cream.

It makes great cheesecake when mixed with eggs and sweetener (like honey) and

a little lemon juice and then baked on a crust in a springform pan! Another

of the ways we would eat it in Germany, was with boiled potatoes tossed with

butter and chopped parsley. The potatoes would be heaped on a plate, with a

side of quark mixed with chopped onion. Wonderful stuff. Just potatoes and

onion-quark would make a filling lunch.

Anyhow, to answer the quote below, I believe that quark is a cultured milk

product. You can even buy quark culture, but I'm not sure why you'd do that

if you can make it from raw milk without having to add culture. Perhaps the

culture available for sale is for those who are starting with pasteurized

milk.

~~Jean

In a message dated 3/7/2002 5:37:32 AM Pacific Standard Time,

writes:

> One note, though: AFAIK quark is a fresh cheese, like mozarella, so it's

> probably off the table for lactose-intolerant people and those with gut

> problems, at least until they get healthy and can handle fresh raw milk.

>