Last week I made Feta again partly because of some discussions in a different board about P&H versus whole vat pasteurized whole cream top milk. I wanted to see what a two gallon batch would look like using a gallon of each. I had previously made two other batches. One used all whole milk and the other used all P&H. Both batches had turned out well but the P&H was a little tricky due to the soft curd. The previous week I had converted a course draining mat into a curd "pitcher" and wanted to try it in my two gallon steam table rectangular vat. The inspiration for this was the batch of Cheddar I had made where I was chasing the curds through the whey in the manner of a cat trying to catch several dozen mice at once.
The "pitcher" mat worked perfectly and I went on to finish the Feta by draining in a cloth suspended over a sink. The Feta ball was brined overnight and cut in the morning. It was full of nooks and crannies and all manner of voids, which I realized resulted from pitching the curd. Obviously, this was probably not going to do well in an aging brine. What to do, what to do? What I did was cut each hemisphere into four pieces and dried them for a week in the cave. This morning I cut the cheese into 3/4-inch cubes, rolled them in a mixture of rosemary, basil, thyme and garlic powder and covered them in an 50/50 olive/canola oil mixture. They are now in our regular refrigerator smiling at me every time I open the door.