What is Farmer's Cheese?

Tangy and soft, this is a versatility champ in your kitchen.

Since working here at Deck Family Farm I have fallen in love with our Creamy Cow farmer's cheese, something I hadn't heard of before. And today I realized that I've been eating it for a while! It is the same thing I used to eat when I lived in Germany —the ubiquitous "quark" cheese.

Farmer's cheese and quark belong to the same category of "fresh cheese." Fresh cheese goes by other names and is just as popular in Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Austria and Switzerland. Varieties include ricotta from Italy, Neufchâtel from France, twaróg from Poland, queso fresco from Mexico, and American cottage cheese and cream cheese.

All of these products are versions of curdled milk presented with differing amounts of whey or cream removed or added.

It is found all over Europe because cheese is a practical way to extend the life of milk, since cheese can remain edible far longer than liquid milk. Hard cheeses are developed after the fresh cheese stage by aging the curds with salts in a carefully controlled environment. Then, as we know, the hard cheese can last for years.

Farmers cheeses are not aged. The milk is only cultured, which causes the breakdown of milk's fat, protein, and water emulsion. The protein and fat then form clumps, called curds, and the whey is drained off. What's left is a soft, tangy cheese.

The tang comes from lactic acid, which forms in the milk because of the natural bacteria added to the liquid milk. This is what "cultured" means on the product label. The bacteria culture is added to the liquid milk and then allowed time for the bacteria to eat the sugars, reducing the pH of the milk. This disrupts the emulsion and causes curdling.

Uncultured milk products accomplish the same result but by directly adding acid or through the application of heat, and therefore do not contain beneficial bacteria.

Cultured milk as a category encompasses foods we are quite familiar with: yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream, and kefir. These are not strained to remove the whey.

The variation in fresh cheese products is created by differences in the fat content of the original milk; varying the culture; the time spent developing curds; and by time spent straining out the whey. In the case of cream cheese, the farmers cheese is whipped with uncultured cream giving it the special buttery flavor and texture.

After this research I feel so much more knowledgeable about fresh cheeses and how they are produced, and it also gives me permission to use them interchangeably in my cooking! So now, if I want to make something that calls for cream cheese but I only have ricotta or farmers cheese, I know I can proceed.

What can we do with Creamy Cow Farmer's Cheese? The list is pretty long, including all meals of the day and dessert.

• Use as a spread on bread, toast, or crackers

• Add toppings to the spread like herb salt & onion, or jams, honey & fresh fruit, depending on preference

• Use to create a creamy sauce for pasta such as Alfredo, vodka, and carbonara sauces

• In creamy meat dishes like beef stroganoff

• Melted into fondue and queso

• In salad dressings such as green goddess or creamy balsamic

• Add chunks to tangy salads, like beets with orange and vinaigrette

• Eastern European pound cakes or sponge cakes that use cheese in the batter

• Cheesecake of all kinds

• Crêpes, blintzes, and Danish-style pastries

• Fresh cheese with berry compote

• Baked with spaghetti squash for a creamy side

• Cooked with eggs and tomatoes to make shakshuka

• Replace feta and cotija in Greek and Mexican dishes

I recently made a pasta dish using Deck Family Farm hot Italian sausages, turnip greens, and green garlic. After sautéing the veggies and cooking the sausages, I combined them with a little pasta water and some farmer's cheese. I added the noodles and stirred it together. Fresh-squeezed lemon and chili flakes were a nice addition. Tasty and easy!

The 12-oz package of sausage, one bunch of greens, and one package of pasta fed my husband and me at dinner and for lunch the next day, with substantial pasta left over to make quick meals later.

Quark and other regional fresh cheeses were developed as a technology to preserve the milk and consistently nourish their communities. We see our membership as a community, too, and now that you understand that ancient tradition, perhaps you'll give our Creamy Cow farmer's cheese a try!