[Sca-cooks] Cream cheese?

[wheezul at canby.com]

>>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.
>
> Rumpolt has a recipe for Ziger soup and several
> recipes for soft cheese (which we've discussed
> here before), but I wouldn't claim that they are
> the same as quark or cream cheese.
>
> Ranvaig

I wouldn't claim ziger to be cream cheese either, although I suspect that
Liutgard may want to add something creamy like quark to a recipe.  I'm
trying to remember if zu:ger is used in a fritter with greens, but I do
recall that zu:ger is used as a spread between slices of bread and then
egg-washed and fried.

It seems from Anna Wecker's recipe for zu:ger from milk that it could be
made a variety of ways, including an almond substitute (for which there is
a recipe in Daz buoch von guoter spîse).  IF I'm translating it correctly
she says you can use plain milk of cow, sheep or goat, whey or buttermilk.
 Whey is the best she says.  Vinegar or wine is the coagulating agent.  I
don't know how similar this is to modern quark, but the instruction to
keep the spent whey to serve as a souring agent is also interesting. 
There is no mention of heating the mixture, so it may be significantly
different from ricotta, but more like a pot cheese without rennet.

In "Ein alemannisches Büchlein von guter Speise" the instructions for
Mandelziger specify separation by sieve or cloth as in other ziger. 
("zu:ch es uff ain sib oder uff ain tuoch als vil als ander ziger").  This
recipe calls for almond milk, a bit of wine and grated bread and boiled
until thick and strained.

Katherine