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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Bakery Boulevard is making quark

Posted by Natalie Elliott on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 1:22 PM

Natalie Elliott
Quark with the fixin's

Every Wednesday and Sunday, Boulevard Bread Co.'s cheesemaker Blair Graves preps a new batch of quark — a creamy yogurt-like pan cheese. Boulevard sells the stuff in its fridge cases at all its locations, alongside the house-made yogurt, for $4.95 for six-ounces, and for an additional $2 you can have it outfitted for breakfasting with cinnamon apple chunks and some homemade granola.

Graves said quark was a cafe staple during her time on the west coast, and she decided to provide it to the Little Rock community as a unique yogurt substitute. But, despite the chemical similarities, as she explains, quark is actually more versatile than your average yogurt cup.

First of all, quark is rich and opaque. If you're a consumer of the whole-milk varieties of organic yogurt (especially Stonyfield Farms and Brown Cow brands), then you might be familiar with the concept of the "cream top": an inches-thick layer of extra-dense smooth curd that is so rich having more than two spoonfuls feels decadent. Quark has a consistency identical to this, except a sourish taste more reminiscent of creme fraiche or sour cream. For this reason, it can be flavored with honey or maple syrup and served as a sweet snack, or used in a savory capacity as a sour cream or even a cream cheese substitute. Graves said she recently used a dollop of quark to complement a potato soup. She also says that it's been a popular item among Boulevard's Eastern European customers who often use it as cream cheese replacement in cheesecake recipes.

Don't be intimidated by the tartness — after all, plain, unsweetened yogurt itself is pretty tangy. Because the $4.95 portion is a bit large for one sitting, I used the remaining quark in a smoothie (just like I would yogurt) and it provided a thicker, smoother consistency — more like a hearty milkshake — definitely a delicious change of pace from the way yogurt too easily thins out and liquefies.

Tags: Blair Graves, Boulevard Bread Co.

        
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Can anyone give me a sense of the calories/fat/etc. of a typical serving?

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Posted by Big Fun on 02/02/2012 at 9:32 PM

What is shown here doesn't look like Quark at all. Original Quark is farmer's cheese, not yogurt like. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_%28chee… and http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_%28Milc…

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Posted by arkansasmediawatch on 02/04/2012 at 4:16 PM

Arkansasmediawatch, it certainly looks like the German variety Quark shown on those links you provided. Plus the article doesn't say she is making Quark in its original form...

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Posted by L on 02/04/2012 at 5:39 PM

Original Quark is indeed a farmer's cheese. Farmer's Cheese refers to a style of fresh cheese. There are many incarnations of Farmer's Cheese including, quark, fromage blanc, fromage frais, cottage cheese, queso fresco, etc. Every cheese producing culture has, in some form or fashion, a farmer's cheese. The Polish style quark that you see at the top of the Wikipedia article has either had more of the whey drained off and would therefore be more similar to queso fresco or is still in the curd draining bag. It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but either way it does not look like the quark that I am making. The picture under that, of the German style quark, looks almost exactly like our quark. Yogurt is a little different chemically than some of the softer cheeses like quark, but can be very similar in both flavor and texture. There are different styles of yogurt as well. The quark that I am making is less like Dannon and more like a good, whole-milk yogurt as described in the AR Times article. You are probably aware that there are different styles of cheddar, mozzarella, gouda and just about any cheese you can think of unless you are getting into name protected cheeses and even then you will have some differences depending on how long the cheeses have been aged. If you've never had quark come treat yourself and try some. There will be a fresh batch ready to go on Monday. Big Fun, I do not have any nutritional information available. But I believe it would be about the same as a whole milk yogurt.

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Posted by Blair on 02/04/2012 at 5:55 PM

Arkansasmediawatch, as a graduate with a degree in Mass Communications, I have studied media for years. Credible media outlets do not cite wikipedia as a news source. The professors would not accept assignments that had wikipedia cited because it is not credible. Anyone can post anything on wikipedia. Sources should be based on fact, not opinion.

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Posted by starlette501 on 02/04/2012 at 6:05 PM

Everyone can have an opinion. Not everyone can post on wikipedia. In earlier years it was easier to post on wikipedia. Some took advantage of this ease to post articles or to slant articles. This was detected and the rules were tightened. Wikipedia is currently the best single source of information about anything which can be accessed instantly. Good research can go beyond it to find more information. The original article by Natalie does not cite wikipedia. It is cited by a reader who did not spend as much time on the subject as the reporter did. Wikipedia articles are updated far faster than print articles.

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Posted by Robert W on 02/06/2012 at 1:47 AM

Robert, my comment was addressed to the reader "Arkansasmediawatch," not the writer of the article. I am aware that wikipedia has become more strict about what is being posted. But again I will state, credible media outlets do not cite wikipedia as a source. In school, students are not allowed to cite wikipedia as a source.

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Posted by starlette501 on 02/06/2012 at 9:03 AM

I believe cheese is a Dutch plot to overthrow America, and Blaire Graves is actually Fraulein Guttenheimer from Rotterdam

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Posted by crappieking on 02/09/2012 at 12:51 PM

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