gas blowing or incomplete knitting?

[Brochis]

Hi,

I'm a new cheesemaker and after making some chevre and mozzarella I embarked on making feta.  I mostly followed the recipe from Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Caldwell.  My procedure was:

1 gal whole milk, pasteurized non-homogenized heated to 90 F.  1/8 tsp mild lipase dissolved in 1/4 cup water added, stirred.  1/4 tsp CaCl2 in 1/4 cup water added, stirred.  1/2 cup ripened buttermilk added, stirred.  Let stand for 60 min at 90 F.  pH > 6.2

After 1 hour temp = 88 F.  Rewarmed to 91 F.

Diluted ½ tsp rennet in ½ cup water, added, stirred 20 seconds.  Let stand for 1 hour.

After 1 hour temp = 88 F.

Cut into 1 inch cubes, let heal for 15 minutes.  Heated back to 90 F, stirred gently but almost constantly for 20 minutes.  Curds shrank noticeably, got much firmer.  Cut overly-large curds into uniform pieces to match the rest.  Some very small pieces, but not many. pH ~6.0

Let stand for 5 minutes.

Ladle off whey.  Spoon curds into cheese mold and let drain.  After 1 hour, turned over back into mold.  After 2 more hours, flipped back again into mold.  I noticed there were some cracks in the cheese, as if the curds had not knitted together fully.  Picture of cheese wheel attached.  The red stain on the mold is cheese wax from a previous experiment.

Let rest until morning, about 10 hours.  pH ~4.8.  Made a brine of 200 g Kosher salt and 1.2 liters water (~15%).  Added 1/2 tsp CaCl2 and ~2 tbsp vinegar.  Floated the cheese in the salt solution for 8 hours, flipping several times.

Removed from brine, let dry 3 days at 55 F, turning twice daily. 

Yesterday I cut it into 1.5 inch chunks to submerge in a storage brine of 80 g Kosher salt and 1 liter reserved whey.  When I cut into the cheese wheel I found some holes. 

Is this from the lack of pressing, or is my cheese contaminated.  Is it toxic?    It smells fine, and the taste is good:  slightly tangy, creamy, salty.   I am concerned about some nasty bug living in my lovely cheese, bringing me slow horrible painful death.  Picture of cheese interior attached.


Thanks,

Brochis

[Kern]

Your cheese looks fine.  These are mechanical holes resulting from not packing the mold and forcing the air out while doing it.  At this point I'd probably dry age the brined cheese and use it young.  Next time carefully pack your mold with small amounts of curd hand pressing it in all the nooks and crannies to expel the air as you go.  Feta almost always has some mechanical holes - just not as many as you have.

It looks good enough to award you with your first cheese.  Welcome to the Forum.

[KindofBleu]

Not a direct response to the OP, but apropos. I made two Fetas from Caldwell’s book – and there’s a fair bit of errata there. Like, not a lot, but enough to confuse a fussy moron like me

In the Greek recipe she salts a pound for 8 hours, but a kilo for 4. The Creamy Bulgarian is more problematic – it’s a 1 gal make and salting instructions talk about cutting the cheese into 4x4 inch slabs. Now, I ain’t no Pythagoras, but that proved problematic. Also, the cheese was definitely too salty at the end, even by Feta standards. Point is – my Bulgarian Feta was an unmitigated disaster and I want to blame someone .

Will try the cheesemaking.com recipe next, although their pics don’t look quite right either. Wife’s Bulgarian, so I have eaten more Bulgarian Feta than I care to remember or admit -- I still recall the first time I walked into a regular local supermarket in Sofia and saw what must've been a dozen different types -- from crumbly to decadent creamy. And had a piece of each

Mind you – that was my first attempt at something somewhat complicated after only two weeks or so of making various quesos and chevres and what not, so I was bound to screw up, and I otherwise adore the Caldwell book and have been going to sleep with it for the last month.

[AnnDee]

I think there is a typo or error of some kind, it puzzled me a little on brining time of my parmesan make too.

[scasnerkay]

I think your feta looks just great! I do not pack the curds into the form at all, just scoop them in. Here is my take on feta, which I am using to teach a class...

Feta – Make Sheet

1 gallons milk: heat to 90 degrees while stirring gently to prevent scorching

1/8 t Flora Danica: Stir in for about 5 minutes, then keep the pot warm (off of heat) 60 mins. I usually just cover the pan with a lid and a towel

Scant 1/8 t veg rennet or scant 1/4 t calf rennet: Mix the rennet into ¼ cup filtered (chlorine free) water just before use. Stir into the milk after ripening period is over. Try to stir with an up and down motion of the spoon rather than round and round. The up and down motion for one minute, will allow the milk to still more quickly than the circular motion.

Coagulation: About 45 mins.... This will be the hardest part, as you want to assess for clean break.

Curd size: Cut into 2 inch cubes. It is hard to cut "cubes" in a round pot, especially the horizontal. They are sort of diagonal rather than horizontal really. Let the curds rest 10 mins after cutting.

Stir very gently, 20 mins

Settle 5 mins

Scoop into 2 forms - no cheesecloth is needed, but you may want to put the forms in a strainer over something to collect the whey!

Gently flip the cheese after 1 to 2 hours, turning over in the form. Drain whey frequently so it does not sit in the whey.

Hold at room temp for about 24 hours. You can go shorter or longer - taste a bit for sour/sharp  as desired

1 tsp salt rubbed into each cheese, hold at room temp another 12 to 24 hours

Another 1 tsp salt if desired, and move to frig temp.

Consume within 2 weeks.

[Brochis]

Update:

I tried the first piece of my feta after 9 days in the storage brine and it was excellent, dude!  Moderately stinky but not too much, just the right amount of lipase to give it plenty of character.  I wouldn't want to go higher with the lipase.  The texture was firm -- I could pick up a piece when I stabbed it with a fork -- and it would crumble when broken apart. The surface was not slimy so I guess the whey had enough calcium in it without adding any CaCl2.  Saltiness was OK when paired with Kalamata olives and water crackers.

Thanks for the encouragement,

Brochis

[Stinky]

Update:

I tried the first piece of my feta after 9 days in the storage brine and it was excellent, dude!  Moderately stinky but not too much, just the right amount of lipase to give it plenty of character.  I wouldn't want to go higher with the lipase.  The texture was firm -- I could pick up a piece when I stabbed it with a fork -- and it would crumble when broken apart. The surface was not slimy so I guess the whey had enough calcium in it without adding any CaCl2.  Saltiness was OK when paired with Kalamata olives and water crackers.

Thanks for the encouragement,

Brochis

Congratulations on the success! +C!