MY PANTRY: CREAM OR SAHNE – DAIRY CONVERSION (2024)

(Hier geht’s zur deutschen Version dieses Posts)

Preparing St. Colomba Cream, a favorite summer dessert, for the first time in Maine, I didn’t quite know what to use instead of the Sahnequark (cream quark) the recipe calls for.

Well, it has cream in it, I mused, and so does mascarpone. And that’s what I took.

But instead of creating a smooth, velvety dessert, I ended up with a dense and uber-rich vanilla cream. With 30% more fat than it should have had, the saintly Irish gooseberry dessert weighed down our stomach like a stone.

Moving from Europe to the US, I had to get used to several new, or in some ways different dairy products.

I, also, wondered at all the low, or even no-fat choices in the dairy aisle. (Not to mention my confusion about no-fat yogurt consumption on one hand, and obesity rate on the other).

Some products seemed to be just the same as their German namesakes. But were they, really?

German “saure Sahne” means “sour cream”, but is it like US sour cream? (No, it’s not!) And “Sauerrahm” or “Schmand”? Again, they are “soured cream” – but not sour cream!

The difference between Austrian “Schlagobers” and German “Schlagsahne”? The translation for both is “whipping cream”! (But Schlagobers has more fat.)

Fortunately, finding the right American substitute for most of these European dairy products is not as crucial as it is for flour types.

The difference is often in the fat content. But in many cases you can exchange a full fat with a low-fat product to make a leaner version of a recipe, and vice versa.

Some American cheeses, like cottage cheese and cream cheese, made their way overseas, same as some milk products of European origin are available in the US (like ricotta, mascarpone, and crème fraîche.)

Quark, a traditional baking ingredient of German and Jewish immigrant communities, had been replaced by cheaper, less perishable cream cheese in the late 19th century. Sadly, quark never managed a comeback, whereas other European dairy products, like kefir, skyr and Greek yogurt were recently introduced.

A few dairies in Vermont and Wisconsin are still producing quark, but you rarely find it in the supermarket, and it is quite expensive. And, unfortunately, it doesn’t taste as good as its European counterpart – it has only measly 3-5% fat, much less than even German low fat quark with its 10% fat content.

To make Käsekuchen, traditional German cheesecake, without quark, I had to develop my own version.

Commonly used dairy products in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the US, with their fat content.

European supermarkets offer less low-fat versions of dairy products than American stores (you will not find a low fat ricotta or mascarpone), but, on the contrary, several higher fat options with cream (Sahnejoghurt, Sahnequark).

I didn’t include non-fat dairy products in my list – they do not perform like regular dairy. They have more sugar added to make up for their bland taste, and contain extra stabilizers to keep them from being too watery.

Some dairy products are slightly in their taste: yogurt and buttermilk in Europe are a bit more acidic than in the US. But you can safely exchange dairy products with a similar consistency, acidity, and a fat content that’s not too far apart.

If you like laminated pastries, like croissants, you get better results with European-type butter than with regular American butter – the slightly higher fat content (US-butter 80%, European butter 82%) makes all the difference!

HOW TO SUBSTITUTE:

If there is an American equivalent listed in the same row, use it: (like Buttermilk = Buttermilch.)

For Schlagsahne and Schlagobers: use whipping cream or heavy cream. For a leaner version: light cream or half-and-half, but only, if you don’t want to whip it.

For Crème double: use heavy cream, or 50% heavy cream plus 50% mascarpone.

For Dickmilch: use kefir or yogurt (low-fat or regular.)

For Saure Sahne: use Greek yogurt or sour cream (light or regular.)

For Sahnejoghurt: use Greek yogurt (full fat) or sour cream.

For Schmand/Sauerrahm: use sour cream or crème fraîche.

QUARK

To substitute quark in the USA, you either have to go into cheese production or make do with a compromise. American-made quark (if you can find any) only has 3-5% fat, and, therefore, is more similar to kefir or yogurt.

It also matters what kind of dish you want to prepare. For pastries you can often substitute quark with cream cheese or plain Greek yogurt. But for recipes with quark as main ingredient, it can be iffy – when I tried to make quark dumplings with a mixture of Philadelphia and sour cream, they sadly disintegrated in the simmering water.

For Magerquark (10%): use full fat Greek yogurt.

For Quark/Speisequark (20%): in pastry recipes, substitute with cream cheese. For creamy desserts, use full fat Greek yogurt, or a cream cheese/sour cream mixture (I don’t find ricotta a great substitute – compared with tangy quark it is too bland, and its consistency too gritty.)

For Sahnequark (40%) : use a mixture of cream cheese and crème fraiche or sour cream. Or blend half mascarpone/half cottage cheese in a blender.

I completely re-wrote to this post (originally published in 2013), adding more information and formatting it to be read on a cellphone.