Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from Germany, Hesse

Handkäse (mit Musik)Handkäse

Sour-milk quark from cow milk, set by acid alone without rennet and ripened for one to two weeks, is ground with ripening salts, salt and sometimes caraway and shaped into small low-fat loaves of 20–125 g. The loaves ripen two to three days in warm sweating rooms, then one to three days more with a red smear. Handkäs mit Musik is the cheese marinated in onion, vinegar and oil.

Fully documentedCheese10 days – 20 daysPGI (EU, Hessischer Handkäse / Hessischer Handkäs, registered 2010)Family: Ripened acid-curd cheese family (Harzer, Olomoucké tvarůžky, Gamalost)

Recipe

Handkäse (mit Musik), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Manuel Heinrich Emha, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
No fixed amounts recordedThe PGI sets limits for the quark but publishes no amounts; the steps follow the PGI single document and the Hessian state control office's leaflet.
Sour-milk quark (Sauermilchquark)From cow milk only, ripened 7–14 days; it may come from outside Hesse. It must be white, soft but cohesive, slightly grainy, cleanly milk-sour, with at least 32% dry matter and pH below 4.2[rpgi-flyer][eu-oj-2009]
Ripening salts and table salt (possibly iodised)[rpgi-flyer][eu-oj-2009]
CaseinOptional[rpgi-flyer][eu-oj-2009]
Red-smear cultures[rpgi-flyer][eu-oj-2009]
Carawayoptional[rpgi-flyer][yumda-handkase]
Onions, vinegar and oilto tasteThe "Musik" marinade, with pepper and salt, added for serving[rpgi-flyer][yumda-handkase]
Starterthe quark is soured by acid alone, without rennet; red-smear pure cultures are added for ripening

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 days – 20 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countBrevibacterium linensMouldsGeotrichum candidumpH up to 4.27–14 days

What changes: Acid-set skim-milk quark ripens for one to two weeks before it becomes cheese

Step 1 of 5
Ripen the sour-milk quark
Time
7–14 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH up to 4.2
Set
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Brevibacterium linens
Moulds
Geotrichum candidum

Output: ripened quark.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
soft but cohesive, slightly grainy
Colour
white

Microbes at work in this step

the quark has been soured by acid alone, without rennet

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Sour-milk quark from cow milk, set by acid alone without rennet and ripened for one to two weeks, is ground with ripening salts, salt and sometimes caraway and shaped into small low-fat loaves of 20–125 g. The loaves ripen two to three days in warm sweating rooms, then one to three days more with a red smear. Handkäs mit Musik is the cheese marinated in onion, vinegar and oil. Made in 5 steps over 10 days – 20 days. The longest step, ripen the sour-milk quark, takes 7–14 days (Regierungspräsidium Gießen (Hesse) 2018). Red-smear pure cultures on the surface and Brevibacterium linens, which the Yumda encyclopedia names as the red culture sprayed on in brine do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7–14 daysReported[rpgi-flyer]Ripen the sour-milk quark
Temperature18–30 °CSet[eu-oj-2009]Sweat in warm rooms
AciditypH up to 4.2Set[eu-oj-2009]Ripen the sour-milk quark

What makes this one different

Handkäse is made from quark soured by acid alone, not from rennet curd, and it ripens in days, not months. Every step must happen in Hesse, though the quark may come from elsewhere. Harzer is the same type of cheese from the Harz.

Milk
Cow milk only, made into acid-set sour-milk quark without rennet; low-fat
Ripening
Quark ripened 7–14 days; loaves sweat 2–3 days, then ripen 1–3 more days
Size
Small loaves of 20–125 g
Composition
Fat in dry matter 1.1–2.3%, protein 26.6–37.7%, water 55.2–68.6%, carbohydrate under 1%; made only as the lowest fat class (Magerstufe)

Related ferments

Variants

  • Rotschmierekäse (Gelbkäse)Red smear only.
  • Hausmacher ArtAlso grows a white coat of Geotrichum candidum milk mould.
  • Handkäs mit MusikMarinated in onions, vinegar and oil.

Safety

The quark must have a pH below 4.2. The single document says the small loaves are packed at the dairy in Hesse, because unpacked transport would dry the surface and risk bacteriological infection.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The PGI document says Handkäse from Hesse is first recorded in 1813, when sellers from Groß-Gerau sold hand-shaped cheeses at the Mainz market. It became a staple of poor households, and a cheese-shaping machine invented in Groß-Gerau in 1893 raised output.

  1. [rpgi-flyer] Regierungspräsidium Gießen (Hesse), Hessischer Handkäse g.g.A. — Überwachung und Kontrolle der geografischen Herkunftszeichen in Hessen (control office leaflet), March 2018gov
  2. [eu-784-2010] Commission Regulation (EU) No 784/2010 of 3 September 2010 entering Hessischer Handkäse or Hessischer Handkäs (PGI) in the register, OJ L 234, 4.9.2010, pp. 5–6 (Spanish edition)spec
  3. [eu-oj-2009] European Union 2009, Publication of an application for registration, single document 'Hessischer Handkäse' / 'Hessischer Handkäs' (DE-PGI-0005-0618-06.07.2007), Official Journal C 320/47, 24.12.2009 (German text, via the EU Publications Office)spec
  4. [yumda-handkase] Yumda encyclopedia (LUMITOS AG), Handkäse (based on the German Wikipedia article)wiki