He had quark in the store that he's selling and we tried them side by side. He takes a bite, and then he takes another bite, and he's like, “This is the best quark I've had in a long time. So I took it to Norbert Wabnig, who owns The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills. I'm testing all these different batches of quark and I'm wondering if what I'm making is really cheese. It was totally simple and you get this wonderful creamy cheese that's kind of similar to a mascarpone meets a sour cream meets a yogurt. I think we had a batch in there for almost a week, but I'd recommend maybe 3 to 4 days. When we strained it, we strained it in the refrigerator - I specify that in the recipe.
NC: When it thickened overnight, it did have a fresh cheesy smell, but nothing off or negative whatsoever. LRK: Is there harm that could come to it - spoilage - by leaving it out for a day? Even I could do it and I'm so intimidated by the whole thought of making cheese. NC: It doesn't get any simpler than that. Take that and strain it overnight in a cheesecloth-lined strainer.
Let that sit overnight at room temperature and you'll notice it will thicken to a yogurt-like consistency. Let it come to room temperature and then whisk in maybe 1/2 cup of buttermilk. We were testing it with whole milk, but I've also tried it with lactose-free milk and nonfat milk. You can use all your own kitchen equipment and you can whip it up in 2 days. You just need to make a quick trip to the grocery store. LRK: Making it, do you need a culture? Do you need something beyond just a way to separate the curds and whey? There are variations of it that can be found throughout the world, but this type of cheese is mostly particular to the Scandinavian region, northern Europe, and parts of Russia. Noelle Carter: It's a fresh, creamy-style cheese. Lynne Rossetto Kasper: I think we need a definition: What is quark? Not the physicists’ neutron proton quark, but the dairy quark that's heading into its moment in the sun.
She asks a lot of questions, including, “Why not make that myself?” She writes for the Daily Dish column in the Los Angeles Times and runs the test kitchen there. Noelle Carter is a “Why not?” kind of cook.