Feta – The Pickled Cheese
Feta is a great cheese for beginners; there is no need for special equipment, and it is hard to screw it up. For the reader’s benefit, I have apparently taken it upon myself to mess this batch up – so, I guess it is possible.
Like almost all cheeses, the cheesemaker will want access to unhomogenized milk, but raw milk will be preferable as it will still contain many non-starter bacteria and even some lipase that will only enhance the flavor after aging. Additionally, no special forms are needed as one could ultimately drain the curds by hanging them in a pouch of cheesecloth. On the flip side, if one does not have cheesecloth, one could poke holes into an old container – even an old soup can – in order to drain the curd. Finally, this cheese is not pressed and does not need a special cheesecave (a.k.a., fancy post-cheese aging requirements).
First a story: my make day was drizzly. I had to borrow a stock pot from a neighbor as I did not have one large enough to hold the nearly three gallons of milk. After sanitization and getting the milk in the pot, I learned that the available portable stove top was induction and the stock pot was not… So, I frantically transported all my supplies and a heavy pot of milk to the neighbor’s in the rain. So, this check is now part of my preparation checklist going forward.
Ingredients:
10 L of raw milk
1/8 tsp of Alpha* culture
2 tbsp of Calf rennet**
Salt – iodine-free
* the cheese supply company offers only proprietary blends, so I found one that contained similar strains I have used for feta in the past
** the rennet sold by the supply company is diluted to 12 times that I have used in the past; this is 12 times the amount I would use with the US rennet, which is between 1:12000 and 1:15000 chymosin
| Time | Activity | Temperature | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13:30 | Milk in Pot | 15°C | N/A |
| 13:40 | Running to Neighbor’s | 15°C | On |
| 13:54 | Added Cultures | 29°C | Off |
| 13:57 | Stirring | 30°C | Off |
| 14:31 | Added rennet | 30°C | Off |
| 14:46 | Flocculation Point*** | 30°C | Off |
| 15:31 | Cutting curd into 2 cm cubes / let rest | 28°C | Off |
| 15:35 | Stirring gently | 28°C | On |
| 15:51 | Reached final temp a bit too soon | 31°C | Off |
| 16:01 | Pitching the curd | 31°C | Off |
| 16:06 | Transferring curd to form | 31°C | N/A |
| 16:09 | Curds in form | N/A | N/A |
| 16:15 | Flipped the cheese | N/A | N/A |
| 08:00 +1 Day | Cut into 2 inch cubes / Heavily salted | Room | N/A |
| 20:58 +1 Day | Made Brine | Room | N/A |
| 08:15 +2 Days | Put Feta in Brine / Stored in Cellar | 15°C | N/A |
*** I used a flocculation multiple of four. Note this is typical for a feta. One would use a lower flocculation multiple for hard cheese (i.e., less moisture) and a higher for a fresh cheese (i.e., more moisture). Fifteen minutes passed between adding the rennet and the flocculation point, so I multiplied by four to get a full hour between adding rennet and cutting the curd.
The Brine:
2 L water (chlorine-free)
Approximately 300 g salt (iodine-free)
1 ½ tsp Calcium Chloride
½ tsp vinegar
Results:
Approximately three days into aging, I noticed that the vinegar I purchased was a concentrate – five times the acidity of normal vinegar (I simply had purchased the smallest bottle). This means my brine was super acidic. When I dug into my 6-week aged feta, the bottom portion had become quite mushy – spreadable, one might say. The top portion was still appropriately firm. Although all of the feta tasted fantastic, my texture issues will have me tossing out a good portion of this attempt.
