2

What is the difference, if any, between the two dairy products quark (consumed in German-speaking countries) and skyr (traditional in Iceland)?

They are both similar to what the result would be if you took cottage cheese and blended it.

I'm interested in any differences in the contents. I read the Wiki articles I linked to. In Britain skyr is labelled as yoghurt (at least the Arla brand is) and must therefore contain both Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. Wiki mentions both in their skyr article and neither in their quark article, where they mention lactococcus instead. But I don't take Wiki as canon and I wouldn't assume that these and only these bacteria are included.

Improve this question
7
  • 1
    The wiki articles explain a fair few differences, do you have a specific thought, like are they different in cooking in certain dishes etc?
    – James
    Commented Jul 17, 2018 at 12:21
  • 1
    You have linked articles which explain that one requires the action of mesophile bacteria on milk and the other requires the action of Streptococcus and lactobacillus on milk. What else do you want to know?
    – Spagirl
    Commented Jul 17, 2018 at 12:48
  • 1
    I'm interested in any differences in the contents. I read the Wiki articles I linked to. In Britain skyr is labelled as yoghurt (at least the Arla brand is) and must therefore contain both Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. Wiki mention both in their skyr article and neither in their quark article, where they mention lactococcus instead. But I don't take Wiki as canon and I wouldn't assume that these and only these bacteria are included. I was hoping to attract the attention here of a dairy foods maven :-) (For comparison, kefir has more than 40 species of bacteria.)
    – user68238
    Commented Jul 17, 2018 at 12:50
  • 3
    @ruffle Okay, since you clearly do already know quite a lot about fermented and soured milk products, please put some of that into your question so that people can understand what it is you already know and what the further information you seek is.
    – Spagirl
    Commented Jul 17, 2018 at 13:42
  • @Spagirl - OK I will do that.
    – user68238
    Commented Jul 17, 2018 at 14:48

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

Stiftung Warentest, a famous German consumer protection agency, actually tried to answer that question and even had trained food testers try to determine the difference in taste. The result was basically that Skyr is very close to lightly beaten (Mager-)Quark, but with a higher acidity closer to traditional Yoghurt than traditional Quark and with a higher calcium content.

Improve this answer
3
  • op wants to know the difference in the contents (although this is not in the question, but added in a comment below it)
    – Luciano
    Commented Jul 18, 2018 at 10:39
  • @Luciano I cannot list all non-differences.
    – John Hammond
    Commented Jul 18, 2018 at 12:03
  • test.de/… Here is (i think) the link to that, it's just in German and more about Skyr than purely the comparison
    – Hobbamok
    Commented Jan 24, 2022 at 14:43

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.