Quark Wars, Episode Three: The Home Team Triumphs!

Spread on Boston brown bread, the lemon quark makes a great breakfast or even a light lunch. I'm eating it for snacks, too, so puffed up in my own success am I.

Here's the finished recipe so you can try making it without all the hassle. It's better that way, all triumphant glow and no retreats to bed.

Pam's Lemon Quark

½ gallon whole milk
Juice from 4-5 lemons, plus very finely grated zest from 3-4 of them (the amount is a taste preference)
1 scant tsp sugar
1 pot large enough to hold ½ gallon of milk
1 pot large enough to hold most of the ½ gallon of milk
1 clean kitchen towel or cheese cloth large enough to cover the strainer and lap over the edges
1 strainer, preferably fairly small in diameter that will sit securely on the smaller pot
1 bowl for mixing the flavorings into the cheese

In the larger pot, scald the milk until small bubbles form around the edge of the pot and the milk is hot but not boiling. Add about 5-6 tablespoons of lemon juice to the hot mixture – you will know when you have added enough as white curds will form immediately, separating from the greenish whey. If you don't see this dramatic change, add more lemon juice.

Pour the hot liquid through the towel- or cheesecloth-lined strainer, capturing the curds and allowing the whey to drain down into the pot below. Gather the ends of the towel or cheesecloth together and suspend, if you can – this will hasten the draining. When the draining stops, the quark is ready for the next step. (Some recipes advocate squeezing the towel at this point to get rid of more whey but I found that if you don’t, you have about the right amount of moisture for the next step).

When the quark has drained to desired consistency (about 15 minutes? - this depends on the thickness of your towel), transfer it into a bowl, add more lemon juice to taste (about 3 tablespoons, but I like mine tangy), the scant teaspoon of sugar, the lemon zest and enough of the whey to moisten if you need more moisture. Using a hand mixer, beat the curds until they are fairly smooth and all the ingredients are mixed in, roughly the consistency of yogurt. (If you like a smoother texture, I think you could use a blender or put it in a food processor, but I haven't tried this). Taste and adjust for lemon/sugar balance, spread on bread or fresh fruit and enjoy! It yields about a cup of tasty spread. Keeps well in the refrigerator for about five days.

Quark Wars, Episode Two: Fall Back and Regroup

After retreating briefly to bed and pulling the covers over my head, discouraged by the rain, My Beloved's lack of health, and the miserable failure of my cheese experiments, I bounced back into the kitchen determined to try again.

It seemed that, if the milk didn't curdle much, I must have added too little acid, so I doubled up on the lemon juice in the remaining milk and the result was both immediate and heartening. White islands of curd separated in the blink of an eye from the greenish whey, just as they were supposed to do. Now, to strain them off.

On the first try, I used a very fine kitchen towel, doubled over, and learned why it is that cheese cloth is not a fine weave - it's because fine weaves won't let the whey drain through - it took hours.

This time, I used a single layer of a regular kitchen towel and the whey whisked down into the pot below, leaving a fistful of curds nicely patterned by the weave of the towel. These I dumped into a bowl to begin the seasoning.

The curds are almost tasteless at this point - I suppose the curdling lemon juice goes away in the whey. The flavor I was seeking was similar to the lemon quark I enjoyed from Spring Hill Cheese Company back in the summer. It's very slightly sweet and wonderfully perfumed with lemon and spreadable like hummus.

I added not only some lemon juice for moisture but some very finely grated lemon zest as well, then a pinch of sugar and stirred it together until it was homogenous, then let it stand for an hour or so to meld the flavors. It was delicious. Light and creamish but with a lively lemon punch and a little texture that reminded me of hummus.

I'd make this again in a heartbeat - it's easy once you fall back and regroup!

Quark Wars, Episode One: The Battle Is Joined

Intrigued by the idea that I could make cheese at home, I've been thinking about and researching on the interweb to find recipes.

I read about requeson at The Wednesday Chef. I looked at several brief descriptions from Googled articles. I even scanned a story from a 4th grader who was successful at making cheese for her classmates. It sounded so easy - heat milk, add acid, strain the curds - what could be simpler?

Little did I know that it would use too many of the pots in my kitchen arsenal and all my strainers, more productive of major frustration than of tasty cheese, not a good thing when one is stuck indoors in a three-day rainstorm with a sick Beloved, a leaking roof and an energetic young dog.

And here's the pathetic yield from my first attempt, a tiny bowl of very bland curds about the consistency of hummus. What you can't see is the nearly half gallon of milk in the pot below that didn't curdle.

Back to the drawing boards!