Quark (cheese) - Name

Name

The name comes from the Late Middle High German Quark, which in turn is derived through twarc, quarc, zwarg from the Lower Sorbian Slavic tvarog (Polish twaróg, Belarusian тварог, Russian творог, and Czech and Slovak tvaroh) which means "curd". In Austria, the name Topfen (pot cheese) is used. In Flanders, it is called plattekaas (flat cheese), while the Dutch use the name kwark. In French it is called fromage à la pie. In Denmark, it is called kvark. In Norway and Sweden, it is called kvarg. In Hungarian cuisine it is termed túró, with the word juhtúró referring to quark made from ewe's milk.

The cheese is also known simply as "white cheese" (Polish: ser biały, Lithuanian: Baltas sūris, southern Germany: Weißkäse or weißer Käs, Hebrew: Gvina Levana גבינה לבנה, Serbian: beli sir), as opposed to any rennet-set "yellow cheese".

In Finnish, it is known as rahka, while in Estonian, as kohupiim (foamy milk). In Latvian, it is called biezpiens (thick milk). The French-language word for it is seré, but it is most commonly called fromage blanc.

Quark is possibly described by Tacitus in his book Germania as lac concretum (thick milk), eaten by Germanic peoples.

In the midwestern US, quark is called simply farmer's cheese.