We began our 2nd DIY challenge on Monday with a quest to find local milk. Not to worry if you missed that part, you can still make quark with your regular milk, but the yield and the curd may be negatively impacted. To learn more about the best milk choices for home cheesemaking and how to adapt when the best choice isn’t available, this is an excellent article from our friends at New England Cheesemaking Supply. They wrote the book on home dairy, literally.
Better yet, you still have time to complete the first part of the challenge – get out there and find some locally produced cream line (non-homogenized) milk – that is the point, remember?
Quick Overview of the Process:
- Heat the milk and add the culture (15 minutes)
- Allow it to sit covered (12-24 hours unattended)
- Drain the curds (15 min. of your time plus 4-8 hours unattended)
What you need:
- 1 gallon milk – whole, 2% or skim. Not ultra-pasteurized. Non-homogenized cream line milk is the best.
- 2 TBS – ¼ cup cultured buttermilk – this is the culture
- Stainless Stock pot large enough to hold a gallon of milk
- Kitchen thermometer
- Spoon or ladle
- Colander & clean tightly woven cloth. This can be an old pillowcase, dress shirt, paper coffee filter (for smaller batches) or non-terrycloth dish towel. Nylon Tricot from the fabric store also works well. What does not work well are the packages of cheesecloth you can buy at the grocery store.
- Large bowl to nest the colander in – be sure there’s some space between the colander and the bottom of the bowl or the cheese be sitting in the whey and won’t drain.
The everyday, mundane cheesemaking supplies in my kitchen – nothing scary here.
Before you start:
- Clear space for your bowl & colander in the refrigerator
- Wash your equipment in hot, soapy water rinsing thoroughly
- Wipe down your counters & sink with 2 TBS bleach in 1 gallon lukewarm water
- Wash your hands well with soap and warm water
Heat the milk to 86ºF. You do this by placing the pot of milk directly on the burner. Make sure to heat the milk slowly and stir it gently as it heats. Pay close attention at this step – it’s not exciting, but burning the milk will flavor the cheese and not in a good way. Once the milk is at 86º, stir in the buttermilk and remove from heat.
Find a cool, quiet place in your house that’s not too humid or too damp and be aware that any powerful odors will be absorbed by the milk. Leave the pot of milk covered and undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours while the culture in the buttermilk works to produce acid and coagulation of the curd. The temperature should be allowed to slowly drop to 68-71F during this time.
The actual amount of time will vary depending on your milk, temperature & humidity and how firm you want your final Quark. Note the time you started – I just write it on a post-it and attach to the lid of the pot.
You can tell when the curd is right when one or both of these happen:
- A thin layer of yellow liquid (whey) forms on the surface and the curd begins pulling away from the sides like soft gelatin.
- When you insert a knife blade flat side up at a 45 degree angle into the curd and lift up gently, the cheese will split & break cleanly, like softly set gelatin.
The curds can now be transferred to a colander lined with butter muslin. Simply pour the contents of the stock pot gently into the cloth-lined colander.
your quark will drain from this —- to this, as soft or stiff as you like
The 4 corners of the cloth are brought together and tied off to form a draining bag. If you like, this can be opened at intervals during the draining and the curds scraped from the cloth to the center for better draining although I rarely bother.
Your draining bag can now be suspended from a hook or even from your faucet. Make sure you hang the bag over a pot, sink or bowl to capture the draining whey.
Confession: I rarely hang my draining bag anymore. It is messy and awkward so I just empty the whey bowl early on – it fills quickly, then slows – leave the colander nested in the bowl, fold the edges of the cheesecloth over the top, weight it with a small plate and leave in the fridge. It is slower, but tidier and I don’t have to adjust my schedule to check on my cheese. If you want to get a sustainability gold star, save your whey for fermenting, add to soups, breads, or baked goods. It’s got about half the nutrition of the original milk, so it’s a shame to pour it down the drain…
Allow to drain for 12-24 hours (or longer if you like your cheese really stiff) in a place where the temperature is at 68-72F. If you drain in the fridge, it may take longer, but will still get there. The actual draining time will determine the dryness of your final cheese.
Eat quark! spread on bread, top with olives & drizzle with olive oil or go sweet and sprinkle with cinnamon & drizzle with honey. Good with fruit or crackers.
The beauty of making your own cheese is that you can make it exactly the way you like it. Choose a buttermilk you enjoy to use as a culture, because your cheese will taste like the buttermilk. If you drain it longer, your cheese will be drier. If you use low-fat milk, your cheese will be more tart and yield less.
Quark does not traditionally have salt, but since it’s my cheese, I can make it any way I want. I stir in ¼ – ½ tsp kosher salt before storing my quark in a recycled 32 ounce yogurt container. The container is usually nearly to very full.
One gallon should yield a nearly full 32 ounce container, although yield will be affected by the firmness of your curd and the amount of fat in the milk (higher fat content typically yields more cheese).
Quark also has a slightly lumpy texture – you can whip it smoother if you prefer.
Aside from the fact that you should be very proud of yourself for having made quark, if you’d like to win prizes for your effort, here’s how to complete your challenge:
Visit us here and leave a comment and you’ll be entered to win a $25.00 gift certificate from our friends at the East End Food Co-op – a perfect place to visit when you’re on a dairy exploration mission! To be eligible, comments must be posted by midnight Sunday, September 16.
What do we want to know?
- How did your quark making go
- Did you learn anything valuable we can all benefit from
- How did you use your Quark
- Flaming failures are always entertaining
- What did you think of the money savings and/or quality difference.
- Anything else you found interesting and relevant
Okay, people, you have your mission: Get Quarking!
Our new pastor wrote a small piece in our local paper concerning our community milk buying club. The title of this piece was “Milk Money.” He had recently moved to the area from Seattle and was astonished that our drop site location was based on an honor system; put your money in a can and take your milk. “Were they serious? Was I expected to put my five-dollar bill in the jar and just leave the scene? I was convinced that there was a hidden camera on me and a crowd onlookers hiding, just waiting to jump out laughing because I fell for the bait.” In the end, my pastor friend realized what a blessing it was to find a community of like minded individuals where trust and respect are the norm. But, that’s how it goes when you begin to appreciate your food and where it comes from.
Buying local milk has changed my life – literally. I realized 10 years ago how important it is to purchase milk directly from small independent farmers and we have never looked back. The quality of the milk, the connection with the farmer and all the hard work and dedication they put into producing their milk, and the ability to see exactly how they care for their animals, is priceless. And speaking of price, I pay 30% less for cream line milk from pasture fed cows which are basically raised organically, than the Ultra-Pasteurized, homogenized, organic milk at the local grocery store. Ultra-Pasteurized milk, by the way, does not even need to be refrigerated (until after opening). It’s completely lifeless; no good bacteria and none of the important enzymes our bodies require. Try finding any commercial brand that is not Ultra-Pasteurized; they just don’t exist.
Anyone who comes to our house and tries our milk raves about how incredibly awesome it is. Every Tuesday I drive to Pasture Made Creamery and bring milk and cheese back for my family and 14 other families as well. I don’t charge for this service; it is my philanthropy and my pleasure to help provide this outstanding milk for my friends and my community.
One requirement to join our buying club is that everyone must first go out to the farm to meet Adam, see his beautiful farm, and how they do things there. This summer was particularly busy for me as my family purchased a new home, so members took turns making “the milk run.”
Yes, buying locally and connecting with my community; this is truly a blessing.