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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Central Europe

Quark

Skim milk is heated hard, cooled, and soured overnight with a mesophilic lactic culture and a very small dose of rennet until it sets at about pH 4.6. The soft curd is drained in cloth bags or, in dairies, spun in a separator, giving a fresh, spoonable cheese that is kept cold. Made in 5 steps over 36 h – 38 h. The longest step, drain off the whey, takes 20 h (Lepesioti S 2021) and runs at 58–60 °C (Tetra Pak). Mesophilic lactococci does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step20 hMeasured[lepesioti2021]Drain off the whey
Temperature58–60 °CReported[tetrapak-quarg]Drain off the whey
AciditypH 4.5–4.7Reported[tetrapak-quarg][lepesioti2021]Sour until the milk sets

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe rennet dose is per 100 kg of milk; the culture dose is not given.
Skim milk[tetrapak-quarg]
Mesophilic lactic culture · The handbook names Lactobacillus lactis/cremoris (lactococci)[tetrapak-quarg]
About 1 ml liquid rennet per 100 kg milkRennet · About one tenth of a normal cheese dose[tetrapak-quarg]
Startermesophilic lactic culture plus a little rennet

Total time across the recorded steps: 36 h – 38 h

Start
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85–95 °C

What changes: Skim milk is heated hard, which kills bacteria and binds whey proteins into the curd

Step 1 of 5
Heat the skim milk
Time
5–15 min
Reported
Temperature
85–95 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis

Output: heated skim milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
white

Microbes at work in this step

heat kills milk bacteria and denatures whey proteins, which raises quark yield

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Quark is set mostly by acid, with only a tenth of a normal rennet dose, and is never ripened. Unlike cottage cheese the curd is not cut and cooked into grains; it is drained or separated into a smooth paste.

Milk
Usually skim milk
Setting
About 16 h to pH 4.5–4.7 with a mesophilic culture and a tenth of a normal rennet dose

Related ferments

Variants

  • TopfenAustrian and Bavarian name for the same cheese.
  • TvorogEast European acid-curd cheese of the same kind.

Safety

The milk is heated hard before souring; keep quark cold.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [tetrapak-quarg] Tetra Pak, Dairy Processing Handbook, chapter 16 Cheese, section Quargbook
  2. [lepesioti2021] Lepesioti S., Zoidou E., Lioliou D., Moschopoulou E., Moatsou G. 2021, Quark-type cheese: effect of fat content, homogenization, and heat treatment of cheese milk, Foods 10(1):184, doi:10.3390/foods10010184paper