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    Home » Recipes » Czech Recipes

    Homemade Czech Tvaroh Cheese

    Published: Oct 12, 2022 · Modified: Nov 1, 2022 by Petra Kupská

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    Tvaroh cheese is a traditional sweet baking ingredient in the Czech Republic and all over Central Europe. In today's recipe, I will explain what tvaroh is and how to make it quickly and easily at home!

    Homemade tvaroh - fresh cheese from cow milk.
    Table of Contents hide
    ➜ What is Czech tvaroh?
    ➜ Use of tvaroh cheese in the kitchen
    ➜ Tvaroh in international cuisines
    ➜ Ingredients
    ➜ Equipment
    ➜ Making homemade tvaroh
    ➜ Storage
    ➜ Useful tips
    Homemade Czech Tvaroh Cheese

    ➜ What is Czech tvaroh?

    Tvaroh is a Czech type of unripened curd cheese that is traditionally produced from fresh cow's milk. Tvaroh is created by fermenting milk and separating the whey from the solid components of the cheese. Finally, the curdled fresh cheese is drained through a fine cloth to get the right consistency and crumbly texture.

    Making tvaroh cheese the traditional way takes about three days.

    ➜ Use of tvaroh cheese in the kitchen

    Tvaroh is most commonly used to make kolache and sheet cake filling, as a topping for sweet dumplings, or to make cheese dough.

    It's also fantastic in savory dishes. Tvaroh is frequently the key component in a variety of popular Czech spreads.

    Tvaroh filled Czech kolache pastry.
    Czech kolache with tvaroh filling

    ➜ Tvaroh in international cuisines

    In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, it is no problem to buy tvaroh cheese in a regular grocery store. Germans call it Quark; in Polish, it's twaróg.

    But even in the US, people looking for tvaroh don't have to worry: a suitable alternative exists in the form of farmer's cheese, which can be bought in the refrigerated dairy aisle at the store.

    Good news for those who can't find tvaroh in their local grocery shop: You can easily make this cheese at home, just like Czech grandmothers did back in the day!

    ➜ Ingredients

    Ingredients for making Czech tvaroh cheese, inclusive captions.

    To make homemade tvaroh, you only need two basic ingredients:

    • Fresh cow milk; I used fresh pasteurized whole milk with a fat content of 3.5%. Raw milk from a local farm is also a good choice, but I would recommend pasteurizing it at home to make sure no germs remain in the milk. After all, the milk needs to be left to ferment at room temperature for two days. Do not use long-life milk treated with the UHT method; fresh milk is imperative.
    • Lemon juice; I add it to the milk to encourage souring

    ✅ You’ll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.

    ➜ Equipment

    Equipment to make homemade tvaroh cheese.
    • A pot with a lid; in which the milk will ferment
    • Sufficiently large sieve; it does not have to have an extra fine mesh
    • Cheese cloth; or thinner cotton canvas
    • A pot into which you let the whey drip

    ➜ Making homemade tvaroh

    STEP 1: Pour the milk into a saucepan and stir in the lemon juice. Cover with a lid, leaving about ½ inch of space on the rim. Let stand for two days on the kitchen counter at room temperature.

    Making Czech tvaroh fresh cheese.

    STEP 2: After about two days, the solid components of the cheese separate from the whey. The solid cheese will float on the surface while the whey sinks to the bottom of the pot.

    Soured milk in a pot.

    STEP 3: Now you need to separate the cheese from the liquid whey. Prepare a clean pot and put a sieve over it. Line the sieve with a fine clean cloth. Pour the curdled milk into the lined sieve and allow the whey to drain.

    Draining homemade fresh cheese.

    STEP 4: To make sure the tvaroh contains less liquid, twist the cheesecloth gently to get as much whey out of the cheese curds as possible. This will give you a soft tvaroh with a creamy consistency, ready to use in your recipes.

    MY TIP: If you want a dryer cheese, weigh the curds down with a small pot of water, for example, and let the whey drip overnight. By the next day, the cheese will acquire a crumbly consistency with no excess whey liquid.

    I know there are a lot of recipes on the internet that use fresh warmed milk with lemon juice to make farmers' cheese / Czech tvaroh. I've tried this method too, but the milk never turned sour as well as it did when I let it sit at room temperature for two days.

    That is why I advocate a little patience when making homemade tvaroh cheese and recommend letting the milk sour naturally, as was the custom in the past. Although it takes two extra days, the result is guaranteed!

    Fresh tvaroh cheese

    ➜ Storage

    Store fresh tvaroh in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will keep for up to five days.

    In the old days, Czechs used to leave the tvaroh for another two days at room temperature and then use it as a base ingredient for making delicate salty cheeses. Indeed, the world-famous Czech smelly "tvarůžky" is made from aged tvaroh cheese!

    Recipes using tvaroh as an ingredient

    • Tvaroh filling – for kolache, buchty and other sweet pastry
    • Rozhuda – Czech spread with chives
    • Puff pastry with sweet cheese filling

    ➜ Useful tips

    • The tvaroh cheese has a slightly sour taste and mild flavor and is suitable for both sweet and savory dishes.
    • If you want the tvaroh cheese to have a milder taste, add half a cup of heavy cream to the milk before souring.
    • Instead of lemon juice, add distilled white vinegar to encourage the milk to sour. Use the same amount of vinegar as the lemon juice specified in the recipe. Another way to boost the fermentation of fresh cow's milk is to add a cup of buttermilk to it.

    Tried this recipe?

    Leave a review down in the comments! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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    Czech tvaroh cheese.

    Homemade Czech Tvaroh Cheese

    Tvaroh cheese is a traditional sweet baking ingredient in the Czech Republic and all over Central Europe. In today's recipe, I will explain what tvaroh is and how to make it quickly and easily at home!
    Print Pin
    Prep Time: 15 minutes
    Resting time: 2 days
    Total Time: 2 days 15 minutes
    Servings: 1 pound
    Calories: 571kcal
    Author: Petra Kupská
    Prevent your screen from going dark
    Course: Appetizer
    Cuisine: Czech
    Keyword: Dairy recipes

    Ingredients

    • ¼ gallon fresh cow whole milk (1 liter)
    • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice fresh

    Instructions

    • Pour the milk into a saucepan and stir in the lemon juice. Cover with a lid, leaving about ½ inch of space on the rim. Let stand for two days on the kitchen counter at room temperature.
    • After about two days, the solid components of the cheese separate from the whey. The solid cheese will float on the surface while the whey sinks to the bottom of the pot.
    • Now you need to separate the cheese from the liquid whey. Prepare a clean pot and put a sieve over it. Line the sieve with a fine clean cloth. Pour the curdled milk into the lined sieve and allow the whey to drain.
    • To make sure the tvaroh contains less liquid, twist the cheesecloth gently to get as much whey out of the cheese curds as possible. This will give you a soft tvaroh with a creamy consistency, ready to use in your recipes.

    Notes

    • Makes about 1 pound (450 g) of tvaroh cheese.
    • If you want a dryer cheese, weigh the curds down with a small pot of water, for example, and let the whey drip overnight. By the next day, the cheese will acquire a crumbly consistency with no excess whey liquid.
    • STORAGE: Store fresh tvaroh in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will keep for up to five days.
    • If you want the tvaroh cheese to have a milder taste, add half a cup of heavy cream to the milk before souring.
    • Instead of lemon juice, add distilled white vinegar to encourage the milk to sour. Another way to boost the fermentation of fresh cow's milk is to add a cup of buttermilk to it.

    DISCLAIMER: Because I come from Central Europe, my recipes are based on metric units such as grams or milliliters. Check out how I convert metric units to the U.S. system:

    Conversion chart

    Nutritional Estimate pro portion

    Calories: 571kcal | Carbohydrates: 45g | Protein: 31g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 18g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 114mg | Sodium: 360mg | Potassium: 1435mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 46g | Vitamin A: 1534IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 1165mg | Iron: 0.01mg
    Do you like the recipe?I would be happy for your feedback! Please, rate the recipe and share your opinion or questions in comments bellow. Thank you very much.
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    Hi there, I’m Petra, a self-taught home cook and a Czech mom of two teen boys with more than 20 years of cooking experience. I am here to share traditional recipes from the Czech Republic, a small country in the very heart of Europe.

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