[Sca-cooks] Cream cheese?

wheezul at canby.com wheezul at canby.com
Wed Aug 3 21:45:52 PDT 2011


> On 8/3/2011 5:42 PM, Johnna Holloway wrote:
>
> Hmm. Interesting.
>
> How about quark? Anyone here worked with it? There is apparently a
> possible mention of it in Tacitus, which has me rummaging through my
> books to see if I have his stuff on the Germanic peoples...
>
> Liutgard
> Hmm. Interesting.
>
> How about quark? Anyone here worked with it? There is apparently a
> possible mention of it in Tacitus, which has me rummaging through my
> books to see if I have his stuff on the Germanic peoples...
>
> Liutgard
>

I LOVE cream cheese so I try to read everything I can on it.  First of all
there is a 16th century recipe for 'flot kesen' from Rontzier's "Kunstbuch
von Mancherley Essen" dated 1598:

Von Flot Kesen
Man thut Laue in Flot das es ruenne /
gibts darnach in Formen oder durchschlege das die
Waddecke dadurch lauffe / gibts darnach in ein Sil-
ber / und frisch Flot darueber / wescht Erd: oder hei-
delbirn in Wein auss und gibt sie auch darueber / etc.

About Cream Cheese
One adds rennet in cream so it curdles /
give it next in a form or sieve that the
whey there-through runs / give it forth in a sil-
ver [dish] / and fresh cream over the top of it/ wash straw- or
bilberries* out in wine and place them over the top / etc.

Another 16th century mention:
The manner of making jonchees, butter and cheeses. Chapter 23, Livre 1, La
Maison Rustique (I've translated this from the French)

"She gathers the cream from the top of the milk, separated after the milk
is taken from the cow, and cooled a bit, and of this cream one has cheese
of cream that she is wont to sell in summer for afternoon snacks and
desserts."

I've also been working with quark, but haven't found the word "quark" in
any pre-16th century materials yet.  Glossaries advised me that züger
(zu:ger) or its variant spellings zyger, ziger or cziger are the earlier
words for quark or topfen.  I taught my mother to make it last
Thanksgiving and we made a marvelous German style cheesecake.  She was
quite excited about it as the $6 a container quark from the deli was a
little spendy for her taste.  I'll try to check out MHGDB for
ziger/zyger/zuger tomorrow on a faster computer than this old clunker.

PDX side note - BTW Liutgard, have you checked out Sheridan Fruit Market
on Grand Ave?  Last time I was there I bought some non ultra-pasteurized
cream "Garry's Meadow Fresh" out of Mulino.  I noted with interest that
there was a large block of fresh cream cheese, but I can't recall if it
had gelatin in it.  I made 'flot käse' (ka:se) from the cream I bought
there (in glass bottles) - it turned out nommy and I served it with
waffles we made over the fire with sour cherry sauce.

Katherine






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