Cooked cheese from the Odenwald

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 500 g quark (low-fat quark)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3 tbsp butter if needed
• possibly caraway if required

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Total time approx. 12 hours 30 minutes

The lean version – but still delicious!

Wrap the quark in a linen cloth and place it in a sieve. Place the cloth in a bowl, weigh it down, and let it drain overnight (you may need to wring it out a bit more). Set the resulting whey aside the next day. Mix the quark well with 1 teaspoon of baking soda and let it stand, covered, for at least 3 hours until it appears glassy. Stir the quark occasionally. Then pour the mixture into a saucepan (you may want to add about 3 tablespoons of butter for smoothness) and heat it on the stovetop over low heat. Gradually add the reserved whey until the cheese reaches the desired consistency. The cheese should never get hot, and it must be stirred vigorously constantly. Then bottle the mixture, season with salt, and if desired, refine it with caraway seeds. The cooked cheese will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for at least two weeks. The recipe is a bit time-consuming, but definitely worth it. We serve it with fresh farmhouse bread and finely chopped onions marinated in vinegar and oil, which are then spread over the cheese (cooked cheese with music!). If you like, you can also add extra caraway seeds to the cheese. A little anecdote: The people of the Odenwald region claim that the wickedest women make the best cooked cheese because they stir particularly vigorously when they’re angry.