7 x dairy products

We'd like to share a list of most used dairy products, and how you can use them effectively in your kitchen.

1. Mascarpone
2. Sour cream
3. Crème Fraîche
4. Greek yogurt
5. Hang up
6. Quark
7. Buttermilk

7 x dairy products

1. Mascarpone

Mascarpone is an Italian dairy product. In the process of making mascarpone, they add citric to cream. The reaction from the citric will divide the liquid from the solid parts. The cream is then drained and that what remains, is a thick and creamy "cheese".

The first thing that will pop in your mind, is probably making a tiramisu. You can also use it in other kinds of desserts (for example: strawberry pecan pie), but also for all sorts of pasta and other warm dishes (for example: red beet ravioli).

Raspberry tiramisu

2. Sour cream

Sour cream is lower in fat than e.g. cream and creme fraiche, namely 20% fat instead of 35%. However, the texture gives the impression that it is a thicker and therefore a more fat product. This consistency is achieved by acidifying cream with a bacterial culture.

You can use sour cream in all kinds of refreshing recipes, such as dressings and sauces. E.g. to create a creamy cucumber salad or finish a dish like a mexican bean stew with a scoop of sour cream.

3. Crème Fraîche

Crème Fraîche is basically heavy cream that has thickened because of fermentation from the addition of starter culture (bacteria). It has a high acidity and can be heated easily with a low chance that it will curdle. That makes it perfect for a lovely addition to a soup such as our cucumber soup or as an addition to a tomato tartlet.

4. Greek yogurt

Perhaps you're thinking all those bacteria in dairy products, that doesn't sound good. Without talking about what's healthy or not, the bacteria actually helps your body with digestion. So we mean good bacteria, that has also been added to milk to create Greek yogurt. The reaction will divide the liquid from the solid parts, such as for most dairy products. Sometimes they even add more cream to the solid parts to get that creamy, soft yogurt we know as Greek yogurt.

Greek yogurt can be used exactly the same as other kinds of yogurts, the best known recipe is probably tzatziki. You can also create a lovely dessert or breakfast with fresh fruits using Greek yogurt.

Greek yogurt mascarpone with blueberries and honey

5. Hang up

Plain yogurt has been placed in a cheese cloth (and colander) overnight so all the liquid have drained and the thick yogurt that's left is very smooth and soft. The consistency is somewhere between heavy cream and Greek yogurt. It's used as a dessert and you can add all kinds of sweeteners and it's best combined with fruit such as a mille-feuille with strawberries. You can also create a savory hang up very easily by e.g. adding pureed cucumber.

6. Quark

To create quark, the process is similar to cheese making. To get cheese, you'll heat milk with an addition of rennet and the milk will separate into curds on top and whey on the bottom. But to create quark, the temperature of heating the milk will be much lower and they use less rennet. This process will get a thick and quite sour consistency, known as quark. Actually, they're all kinds of quarks available, some are smooth and others are more stiff.

Quark can be used in a lot of dessert, such as our strawberry dessert. You can also create this lovely raspberry quark pie. Did you know, you can also substitute a part of the butter with quark in all kinds of pie crusts? So for example, a dough asks for 100 grams of butter, you can substitute 25 gram of butter with quark for a 'healthier' dough.

7. Buttermilk

Buttermilk is a sour milk, not only the taste is different from regular milk, it's also a bit thicker. Traditional buttermilk used to be the liquid that was leftover from churning butter out of cream. Nowadays the butter making process has changed, therefore there are no leftovers and buttermilk how we know it now comes from, again, adding bacteria to milk.

The sourness in buttermilk is great to activate leavening agents, such as yeast, baking powder or baking soda. The sourness will create fluffier pancakes, muffins and so on. It's also perfect for tender chicken, but you can also marinate chicken in yogurt instead of buttermilk. The tenderness of the chicken is because of the acids and enzymes in buttermilk and yogurt. We got a recipe for tender fried chicken here.

Buttermilk blueberry muffins