Sorry if this has been covered, I tried to find the answer in this board before posting.
I want to make a batch of feta from farm fresh cow milk (milked Friday, 4 days ago!) tonight. I see the
feta recipe posted calls for a 12-15% brine solution. This links to the
brine making page, which seems like it is not quite complete, as the table given is not filled out.
What does an XX% brine solution mean? How do you create one?
I have a feeling it is not well defined, and the author of each recipe might mean something slightly different. If they don't explicitly state what they mean, you might be left to come up with your own interpretation.
It could mean:
% by weight. So 120g salt to 1000g (1kg or 1 liter) water would be a 12% solution. Or perhaps you dissolve 120g of salt in water to make 1 liter, which I expect would be a slightly stronger solution.
% dilution. 120 ml of saturated brine diluted to 1 liter.
% by volume? I am not sure how you would measure this out.
Interestingly, when I ordered B. Linens from thecheesemaker.com, they sent me a limburger recipe that used the % dilution method above to make a 3% brine used to spray on the cheese as it aged.
Thanks in advance for your input. My future feta thanks you too!