quark

Quark or quarg is a type of fresh dairy product made from milk. The milk is soured, usually by adding lactic acid bacteria cultures, and strained once the desired curdling is achieved. It can be classified as fresh acid-set cheese. Traditional quark can be made without rennet, but in modern dairies small quantities of rennet are typically added. It is soft, white and unaged, and usually has no salt added. Name Quark is possibly described by Tacitus in his book Germania as lac concretum ("thick milk"), eaten by Germanic peoples. However, this could also have meant soured milk or any other kind of fresh cheese or fermented milk product. 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. Etymology The word Quark (Late Middle High German: quarc, twarc, zwarg; Lower Saxon: dwarg), with usage in German documented since the 14th century, is thought to derive from a West Slavic equivalent, such as Lower Sorbian twarog, Upper Sorbian twaroh, Polish twaróg, Czech and Slovak tvaroh. The word is also cognate with Russian tvorog (творог) and Belarusian: tvaroh (тварог).