Topfen

Ingredients

The milk

• 2 litreswhole milk
• pasteurised, not UHT
• see the note

The souring

• 300 mlcultured buttermilk
• or 4 tablespoons plain live yoghurt
• or 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• for a quicker acid-set curd

Equipment

• a heavy pot
• a thermometer
• helpful but not essential
• a sieve
• muslin or a clean cloth
• a large bowl

To use it

• in Topfenstrudel
• or Topfenknödel
• or Topfenpalatschinken
• in Liptauer
• or eaten plain with fruit

Directions

1. Use whole pasteurised milk. Do not use UHT milk. Warm the milk to about twenty-five degrees. Stir in the buttermilk or yoghurt.
2. Cover it and leave it somewhere warm. Give it twelve to twenty-four hours. Discard it if anything is wrong. Use clean pots and utensils.
3. Keep it covered. Do not leave it souring for days. Warm the set milk very gently.
4. Take it to about forty degrees. Never let it boil. Use a water bath if you are unsure. Set the pot in a larger pot of hot water.
5. Heat the milk to about eighty degrees. Take it off the heat. Stir in lemon juice. It curdles within a minute. Let it stand ten minutes. Line a sieve with muslin. Set it over a bowl. Pour the curds in.
6. Pour gently. Two hours gives a soft spreadable curd. Tie the cloth and hang it over the bowl. Press it gently. Do not throw the whey away.
7. Keep it covered. That matters less if you are baking with it.

Technique

• Do not use UHT milk. Its proteins are denatured and will not form a proper curd — you get a thin sludge instead, which is the commonest failure with any home curd cheese.
• Never let it boil. Boiling makes the curd tough, rubbery and grainy; gentle warmth to about forty degrees gives a soft creamy one. A water bath makes overheating almost impossible.
• The whey turning from milky to clear yellowish is the signal that the curd has separated properly.
• Drain to the texture you need. Two hours gives a soft spreadable curd, four to six a firm one, overnight a very dry one. Wet Topfen ruins a strudel or dumpling — it leaks and makes pastry soggy — so drain it properly for baking.
• Pour the curds in gently and press only lightly. Breaking them up or pressing hard gives a dense rubbery result.
• Push it through a sieve before using it in a filling or spread. That breaks up every lump and gives a far smoother result for five minutes’ work.
• Keep the whey. It goes into bread dough, soup, smoothies or for cooking grains, and it keeps five days refrigerated.
• The cultured route with buttermilk or live yoghurt is the traditional one and tastes of soured milk. The lemon-juice acid route is quicker, tastes of lemon, comes out firmer and more granular, works in cooking and is less good eaten plain — the atlas says so rather than pretending they match.
• Judge the soured milk by smell: sour and clean like yoghurt is right; putrid, yeasty or ammoniac is not, and any mould means discard it. Use clean pots, keep it covered, and do not leave it souring for days.
• Raw milk can be used and carries risk from harmful bacteria; pasteurised is the safer route and the atlas leaves the choice to you.
• Topfen is unsalted, which is exactly what makes it work in both sweet and savoury dishes.
• This is one of the genuinely easy cheeses — no rennet, no special cultures, no ageing.

Substitutions

• Quark replaces Topfen exactly; they are the same thing under two names.
• Tvaroh, twaróg, túró or biezpiens all substitute closely.
• Well-drained ricotta substitutes at some cost in tang.
• Cottage cheese, drained and sieved, works in cooking.
• Lemon juice replaces buttermilk for a quicker acid-set curd with a different taste.
• Live yoghurt replaces buttermilk as the culture.

Variations

• Topfenstrudel fills strudel pastry with sweetened curd, lemon and raisins.
• Topfenknödel are sweet curd dumplings rolled in buttered breadcrumbs.
• Topfenpalatschinken fills pancakes with the same and bakes them in custard.
• Liptauer is the savoury paprika spread built on it.
• Topfen mit Leinöl serves it plain with Styrian pumpkin seed oil.
• Curd pancakes in Latvia and syrniki in Russia use the same cheese fried.

History

The Austrian name for quark and the backbone of Viennese pastry, from Topfenstrudel to Topfenknödel.

Frequently asked questions

What is Topfen?

Topfen is a cheese & dairy from Austria: fresh soured curd cheese used in strudel, dumplings and spreads. The Austrian name for quark and the backbone of Viennese pastry, from Topfenstrudel to Topfenknödel.

How long does Topfen take to make?

Topfen takes 15 minutes plus draining of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 500 g. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Topfen?

Yes, within limits. Quark replaces Topfen exactly; they are the same thing under two names. Tvaroh, twaróg, túró or biezpiens all substitute closely. Well-drained ricotta substitutes at some cost in tang. Cottage cheese, drained and sieved, works in cooking. Lemon juice replaces buttermilk for a quicker acid-set curd with a different taste. Live yoghurt replaces buttermilk as the culture.

What is the most important thing to get right in Topfen?

Use whole pasteurised milk. Do not use UHT milk. Warm the milk to about twenty-five degrees. Stir in the buttermilk or yoghurt.