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Make / Fresh cheese (tvorog, quark)

Method · Updated on 9 October 2026

How to make tvorog or quark at home

Pasteurised milk, a mesophilic culture, a cool room and a cloth: how to sour milk overnight into a fresh curd and drain it into tvorog or quark.

You need
Milk, mesophilic culture, cloth
Ferment
About 12–16 hours at 20–30 °C 1
Keeps
5–7 days in the fridge 4
Work out the starterStart a Batch CardSomething went wrong?
A bowl of crumbly fresh tvorog

Tvorog and quark are fresh cheeses made by souring milk with lactic acid bacteria until it sets into a curd, then draining off the whey. 1 Unlike yogurt, the culture is mesophilic: it works at room temperature, not in a warm incubator. 2 We found industrial parameters for this process but no tested home recipe from an extension service; this method follows the industrial process at kitchen scale and is conservative about storage.

You need

  • 2 L pasteurised milk; skim gives classic quark, whole milk a richer tvorog 1
  • A mesophilic culture at the dose on its pack. Culture makers set doses per volume of milk 5. Cultured buttermilk with live cultures is the traditional home alternative 4
  • Optional: rennet. Industrial quark uses about one-tenth of a normal cheese dose to firm the curd; follow the rennet maker’s instructions, or leave it out for a softer, more acidic curd 1

Equipment

  • Pan and a thermometer
  • A covered bowl or pot
  • A colander lined with fine cloth, set over a bowl

Method

  1. Warm the milk

    Bring the milk to the working temperature of your culture, 20–30 °C (68–86 °F). Industrial quark milk is first heated to 85–95 °C for 5–15 minutes and cooled; at home, pasteurised milk brought to temperature is the simpler route. 12

  2. Add the culture

    Stir in the culture, and the rennet if you use it, gently and evenly. 1

  3. Let it sour

    Cover and leave undisturbed at 20–30 °C. The curd forms in about 12–16 hours, when the milk reaches about pH 4.5–4.7. 1

  4. Check the curd

    It is ready when it has set into a curd that breaks cleanly and has a thin layer of greenish whey on top.

  5. Drain

    Ladle the curd into the cloth-lined colander, cover and drain it in the fridge until it is as firm as you like; strained cultured milk reaches a cheese-like texture in 8–24 hours. 3

  6. Store

    Transfer to a clean covered container and refrigerate at 4 °C (40 °F) or below. 3

How to tell it is ready

  • A set curd that breaks cleanly, with whey separating at the edges
  • About pH 4.5–4.7, if you test 1
  • A fresh, mild sour smell; anything else is a reason to discard 6

Storing it

  • Fresh cheese holds over 45% water and is highly perishable: refrigerate and eat within 5–7 days 4
  • If any part shows mould, discard the whole cheese 7

Next batch: change one thing

Write down what you did in a Batch Card, change a single variable (time, temperature, starter or ingredient) and compare. Problems? See Tvorog and fresh cheese problems and fixes.

Sources

  1. Tetra Pak Dairy Processing Handbook: CheeseQuark: heat-treated skim milk fermented at 20–30 °C with mesophilic cultures to a coagulum at pH 4.5–4.7 after about 16 hours, with about one-tenth of a normal rennet dose; tvorog coagulates by bacterial acidification in about 12 hours. Accessed 2026-10-09.
  2. Tetra Pak Dairy Processing Handbook: Cultures and starter manufactureMesophilic cultures grow at 20–30 °C; thermophilic yogurt cultures at 42–45 °C. Accessed 2026-10-09.
  3. University of Illinois Extension: Making yogurt at homeHeat milk to 82–85 °C (180–185 °F); cool to 42–46 °C (108–115 °F); 2 tablespoons of yogurt per quart of milk; incubate 6–10 hours; ready when lightly gelled like thin pudding; refrigerate at or below 4 °C (40 °F) and eat within 14 days; use homemade yogurt as starter within 5–7 days; strain 2–4 hours for Greek-style and 8–24 hours for yogurt cheese, covered in the refrigerator; troubleshooting table. Accessed 2026-10-09.
  4. New Mexico State University: Making homemade cheese (Guide E-216)Soft cheese holds over 45% water, is highly perishable and keeps only 5–7 days refrigerated; buttermilk or yogurt can serve as the culture. Accessed 2026-10-09.
  5. Danisco CHOOZIT MA 4001 product descriptionA mesophilic culture maker gives 2.5–5 DCU per 100 litres of milk for quark: culture doses are set by the maker per volume of milk. Accessed 2026-10-09.
  6. University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension: Making yogurt at home (FNH-00062)Heat to 85–93 °C (185–200 °F) for 10–20 minutes, do not boil; culture is killed above 54 °C (130 °F) and grows poorly below 37 °C (98 °F); adding culture to milk over 46 °C (115 °F) can kill it; incubate 4–7 hours at 43 °C (110 °F); sets at pH 4.6; one 5 g freeze-dried packet or ¼ cup yogurt per quart; discard batches that fail to set or show microbial growth or odd odours; keeps about 10–21 days at 4 °C. Accessed 2026-10-09.
  7. UConn Extension: Handling food with mould (citing USDA FSIS)Yogurt, sour cream and soft cheeses such as cottage and cream cheese are discarded entirely if any part is mouldy. Accessed 2026-10-09.
  8. US FDA: The dangers of raw milkRaw milk can carry Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria and Campylobacter; soft cheeses and yogurt made from it are high-risk. Accessed 2026-10-09.

Numbers on this page come from these sources. Where sources give a range, we quote the range rather than a single figure.

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