Hans and Gaby’s Homemade Quark
Quark is a fresh soft cheese, made from either cow’s or goat’s milk which, with reasonably little effort, can be ready to eat within 24 hours.
Specialist cheese suppliers are your best bet for sourcing cheese making cultures and either animal or vegetarian rennet.
You’ll need:
- 10 litres cow’s or goat’s milk
- 100 ml of culture (or 150 ml buttermilk)
- 5-10 drops rennet
You’ll also need:
- Large stainless steel pot, at least 10l capacity
- A thermometer.
- A long knife for cutting the curd – ideally the blade should be longer than the depth of the milk in the pot.
- A sheet of muslin.
- A bucket with drainage holes or other receptacle which will allow liquid to drain away – a very large colander might do the trick.
The Steps:
- Heat the milk in a stainless steel pot to between 27 and 32 celcius (we used 27 degrees for our goat’s milk quark and 29 degrees for the cow’s milk version; increase the temperatures slightly if the milk has a very high fat content).
- Remove from the heat and stir in the culture or buttermilk. Allow it to sour for 5-6 hours at room temperature.
- Add the rennet – 1 drop per litre for firmer quark, 1 drop per 2 litres for softer quark – and stir using a scooping motion going from the top to the bottom of the liquid.
- Leave again at room temperature – the milk will thicken and form a curd after about 2-4 hours. Probe by cutting the curd with a knife – if the cut stays open and whey appears, proceed with cutting, otherwise wait.
- Place your sheet of muslin into a perforated bucket or colander. The muslin should be big enough to line the container and drape over the sides. Place the muslin-lined container into a sink.
- Cut the curd into cuboids by making a series of cuts top to bottom and left to right across the curd mass. Allow to rest for a few minutes then start scooping the curd into the muslin using a ladle or skimmer.
- Gather together the ends of the muslin and twist together so that the curd is covered. Leave at room temperature overnight, after which it’s ready for consumption.
- Store in the fridge, where it should keep for about 10 days. Quark can also be frozen.
The Variations:
- You can have your quark plain or mixed with herbs, on a baked potato, mixed with fruit, on a pizza, made into a cheesecake or in any number of other ways.
The Results:
- This should yield around 2-2.5kg quark
Gaby’s Horseradish Quark
This was a wonderfully fresh-tasting combination that we got to try using some of the soft cheese made on the course. It goes without saying that you don’t have to make your own cheese in order to enjoy this, it’s just very satisfying if you do.
You can think of the quantities here very much as guidelines – just add as much apple, horseradish, lemon juice and salt to the cheese as is to your taste.
You’ll need:
- 250g quark or other fresh, soft goat’s or cow’s milk cheese
- Half of a small-ish eating apple, around 75g, grated
- 1-2 tsp finely grated fresh horseradish, or to taste
- lemon juice to taste
- salt to taste
The Steps:
- Mix the quark with the grated apple, grated horseradish, a squeeze of lemon juice and a good pinch of salt. Taste and add more of whatever you think is needed.
- Spread on bread, toast or crackers and enjoy.
The Variations:
- I’d imagine that you could try this using cottage cheese or cream cheese in place of the quark.
The Results:
- 250g of horseradish quark