[Sca-cooks] Curdled milk/Quark/Ricotta???

[Gorgeous Muiredach]

Ok folkzzzz,

I'm still working on documenting my stuff for the contest in a couple
weeks.  I'm coming along nicely, but have (yet) another question that might
actually be of some interest to y'all :-)

I'm making (only?) three dishes out of Sabrina Welserin, one of them being
her Genovese Tart (#30 on the list).  In the translation by Valoise
Armstrong (
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html ),
he refers to "the fresh cheese from six ounces of curdled milk", with a
footnote saying that this would be known as Quark in Germany, and Topfen in
Austria.  I've had Quark in the past, it was fairly easy to find in the
health food stores in Montreal, QC.  However, of the three health food
stores I've identified in Savannah, one I couldn't get into, but when
called had a similar reaction to the one I got in the other two.  That is,
they looked at me like I had a green hand growing out of my forehead!!!

I used to make ricotta from cream about to turn bad when I was working in a
bistro up in Huntsville, ON.  The home made ricotta looks suspiciously like
the store-bought Quark :-)  While looking on the Florilegium for a curdled
milk cheese recipe, I came accross a post from Master A, talking about the
difficulty to find such recipes, given cheeses were usualy made by
illiterate farmers, or monks who's documentation disapeared in the 15th
century.

I'll therefore be making my own curdled milk cheese, but how the heck do I
document my method for it?  I'm half tempted to say something to the effect of:
Translator says it would be Quark.
Quark and home made ricotta are similar in colour, flavour and texture.
Therefore, this is how I did it, and why I did it that way.

For some reason, that logic doesn't *quite* satisfy
me.  Thoughts?  Ideas?  Kicks in the butt? :-)

FWIW, I've managed to finish the custard I had made last week for the
tartlets.  That is, 12oz of custard, eaten by the spoon!  Sugar BUZZZZZ :-)

Gorgeous Muiredach the Odd
Shire of Forth Castle
Meridies
mka
Nicolas Steenhout
"You must deal with me as I think of myself" J. Hockenberry