Not to be confused with cheese curd. For fromage blanc uses fictional TV character, see Tita Tovenaar. For the elementary particle and its antiparticle, see Quark. This lead needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Quark or quarg is a type of fresh dairy product made by warming soured milk until the desired amount of curdling is achieved, and then straining it. Dictionaries sometimes translate it as curd cheese, cottage cheese, farmer cheese or junket. Iberian Peninsula and in some Latin American countries. Although quark is sometimes referred to loosely as a type of “cottage cheese”, they can be distinguished by the different production aspects and textural quality, with the cottage cheese grains described as more chewy or meaty.
A cognate term for quark, túró, is used in Hungarian. In Israel, gevina levana denotes the creamy variety similar to the German types of quark. Quark is a member of the acid-set cheese group, whose coagulation mainly relies on the acidity, produced by lactic acid bacteria feeding on the lactose. Manufacture of quark normally uses pasteurized skim milk as main ingredient, but cream can be added later to adjust fat content. In Germany, it is continuously stirred to prevent hardening, resulting in a thick, creamy texture. Quark with higher fat content is made by adding cream after cooling.
Quark may be flavored with herbs, spices, or fruit. Some or most of the whey is removed to standardize the quark to the desired thickness. Variations in quark preparation occur across different regions of Germany and Austria. Most of the Austrian and other Central and Eastern European varieties contain less whey and are therefore drier and more solid than the German and Scandinavian ones. Under Russian governmental regulations, tvorog is distinguished from cheeses, and classified as a separate type of dairy product.