You Can Ferment That: Quark

This article was originally featured in the January/February 2022 issue of Zymurgy magazine.

By Dave Carpenter

Quark is among the most popular cultured dairy products one encounters in Germany and much of Eastern Europe, but it’s rather uncommon in the United States. When one does find it here, quark usually costs more than it really should, probably because demand just isn’t that high.

To the uninitiated, quark can be a little hard to pin down. With respect to ingredients and process, it’s a type of soft fresh cheese that relies on lactic cultures for acidification, though modern production facilities often include rennet. Culinarily speaking, though, German-style quark is more similar to sour cream or yogurt than it is to a cheese, much as a tomato, botanically a fruit, is treated as a vegetable in the kitchen. While German quark leans creamy, Russian and Polish quark can be considerably drier and a bit grainy.

Commonly recommended substitutions for quark include cottage cheese, sour cream, Greek yogurt, fromage blanc, or some combination thereof. None of these quite hits the mark, but, fortunately, quark happens to be one of the easiest fermented products you can make at home. With just a day or two of advance planning, there’s no need to go searching for alternatives.

How to Make Quark

Quark is built on soured milk. Traditionally, fat-free or low-fat varieties are preferred, but whole milk works just as well. My preference is to begin with a low-fat buttermilk that contains live, active cultures. Then production is just a matter of keeping the buttermilk warm while the included microbes work their magic.

I’ve had great success with Kalona Supernatural Buttermilk, which, according to the manufacturer, contains Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. bifidus, Lactococcus lactis, and Leuconostoc mesenteroides. It’s important to use a buttermilk that has been inoculated after pasteurization. Such information isn’t always advertised, so you may need to ask the dairy about their methods.

If you can’t find buttermilk with live cultures, or if you’d prefer to explore how different cultures affect the finished product, you can obtain mesophilic direct-set cultures from a number of sources, including homebrew shops that offer cheesemaking supplies. Working with such cultures is straightforward, but you’ll want to adjust the process outlined here for the recommended temperature range for your particular microbes.

The hardest part of making quark is maintaining a steady temperature for 8 or more hours. The first time I tried it, I used a preheated convection oven with the interior light left on. It worked OK, but the resultant quark had a grainier, firmer texture than I wanted.

I’ve since discovered that an electric multi-cooker such as the ever-popular Instant Pot works much better (is there anything these devices can’t do?). A slow cooker is also a good option, though you might want to add a temperature controller and probe to maintain the recommended culturing environment.

My process is simple. Pour as much buttermilk as you like into an electric multi-cooker and close the lid. Turn the appliance on and switch it to yogurt mode. Set the temperature to 100°F (38°C) and set the timer for 12 hours. Then walk away. I’ll often do this in the evening so it acidifies and curdles overnight.

When the culturing time is up, line a fine-mesh sieve with cheesecloth and rest it in a generously sized bowl. Then, using a large spoon, carefully scoop the solid curds out of the pot and into the cheesecloth-lined sieve. You can use a slotted spoon if you wish, but it doesn’t matter all that much.

Once you’ve removed all of the curds, place your bowl-and-strainer stack in the kitchen sink and leave it to drain for about 30 minutes. Periodically lift the sieve out of the bowl to check how much whey has drained off, and either save the whey for another use—it’s an excellent alternative (or supplement) to milk or cream in mashed potatoes—or discard it. When the drainage rate has slowed to barely a trickle, gently pull the edges of the cheesecloth over the curds, not too tight, just to cover. Place the whole thing in the fridge.

Allow your quark to continue draining in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours, or overnight. When the curds have drained as much as they will (or as much as you like), open the cheesecloth back up and scoop the resulting quark into a mason jar or other storage container. The fresh quark will stay good in the fridge for at least a week, often much longer, but it’s unlikely that you’ll ever have a chance to test its longevity.

What to Do with Quark

If you begin with skimmed milk, you’ll end up with a fat-free product called Magerquark. This can be fine on its own, but I prefer it with a bit of cream stirred in, which yields a smoother, silkier Sahnequark. Alternatively, you can start with a semi-skimmed buttermilk so that the finished quark has a bit of fat to begin with. As is usually the case, the higher the fat, the richer the texture and flavor.

An excellent source of protein and calcium, there’s a reason some Germans say, Quark macht stark (“Quark makes you strong”). Quark works well as a stand-in for cream cheese on toast or bagels, either plain or mixed with a bit of honey. Or blend in salt, pepper, and herbs to make Kräuterquark, the Northern European answer to tzatziki.

Quark is a must if you enjoy German-style cheesecakes (Käsekuchen), which are built on a firm foundation of the stuff. Many a sweet German snack involves a generous quark filling, including the Quarktasche, which envelops lightly sweetened quark in puff pastry.

In Lusatia, a region straddling modern-day Germany and Poland, a common dish consists, simply, of boiled, peeled potatoes served with quark and linseed (flax) oil. For an inexpensive and filling, albeit monochrome, weeknight meal, one can do much worse. Or do as the Poles do and mix quark with (whey infused?) mashed potato for a meatless pierogi filling.

If you’ve avoided making a classic German cheesecake because you couldn’t find quark, you no longer have an excuse. And if quark is new to you, do give it a try. I think you’ll find that it soon becomes a new fermented favorite in your own kitchen.

Quark Recipe

Batch yield: Approximately 2 cups (500 mL)

INGREDIENTS

2 qt. active-culture buttermilk

EQUIPMENT

• Slow cooker, Instant Pot, or oven capable of sustaining a stable temperature of 100°F (38°C) for 8–12 hours or longer
• Oven-safe stainless-steel bowl or pot large enough to hold the buttermilk
• Large spoon
• Fine-mesh sieve
• Cheesecloth
• Bowl in which to rest the sieve

PROCESS

Hold buttermilk at 100°F (38°C) for 8–12 hours. Using a large spoon, carefully scoop the curds into a cheesecloth-lined sieve set in a large bowl. Allow to drain for 30 minutes or more. Pull edges of cheesecloth over the curds and place bowl and sieve in the refrigerator.

Allow to drain in the refrigerator at least 8 hours or overnight. Scoop drained quark into a storage container and refrigerate until ready to use.

Potatoes with Herbed Quark and Linseed Oil

(Pellkartoffeln mit Kräuterquark und Leinöl)

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

• 8 medium potatoes
• 2 cups (500 mL) quark
• Cream, to taste
• Minced garlic, to taste
• Minced fresh herbs, to taste (e.g. dill, parsley, chives)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, if desired
• Linseed (flax) oil

PROCESS

Cook potatoes in salted boiling water until fork-tender. Allow to cool while you prepare the herbed quark.

Blend enough cream into quark to yield desired texture, soft but not runny. Mix in garlic, fresh herbs, salt, and pepper to taste. Sample the quark and adjust seasoning as you wish. A splash of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar boosts acidity.

Peel potatoes and serve two per person. Divide quark evenly among the four servings. Drizzle linseed oil over the top of both potatoes and quark as desired. Pair with a snappy German-style Pils.

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Dave Carpenter is editor-in-chief of Zymurgy magazine.

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