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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => RENNET COAGULATED - Brine Ripened (Aegean Sea) => Topic started by: Cheese Head on February 02, 2011, 01:04:31 AM
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There have been several discussions on brine for ripening cheeses such as Feta in, most regards to using a saturated brine or 16% salt brine, the generally accepted minimum % salt to long term inhibit growth of unwanted microorganisms. There are also some Wiki Articles (http://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki/) on salt and brine including brine for ripening cheese in.
But most people (me included) find Feta aged in 16% or higher brine too salty for taste (unless in a cooked dish) and thus before using on salads etc often remove from brine and soak a little in milk or water first to reduce the % salt.
Most commercially made Feta is shipped either crumbled dry of with a little bit of brine, generally too small an amount to measure the salt content. So from local Eastern Mediterranean store here in Houston I asked for 3 baggies of brine with my Feta purchase, to ensure enough brine to measure the % salt. Older pictures of Feta's after removal from large shipping containers being sold by the pound here (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2400.0.html), last pictures are of shipping containers, I bought the Bulgarian Feta. The server ladled the brine into baggies from a big bucket in a fridge, which was full of brine probably from the shipping containers of a mix of commercial Feta's. I measured it at 8.5% salt.
Also, notice the brine, looks very whey coloured, expected as this is brine the cheese has been shipped in, also notice price of this purchase at USD4.89/lb vs 15 months older linked pictures at USD4.29/lb, 11% annual inflation!
My next batch will use ~8.5% salt brine to get a less salty taste, even if it means it won't last years in fridge as less than 16%.
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Would be interesting to see how long the Feta will keep in the 8.5% brine and how salty it is going to taste. Are you going to age it at room temp? If yes, then will you be doing it without any salt?
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Sorry for delay, finally made a new batch of Feta!
Meanwhile member george13 made a batch at 8% but still found it too salty (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,7705.0.html).
So the batch I've just made (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,8162.0.html) is at 6%, will let you know how it tastes later.
Also while making that batch, I used whey for brine and measured enough salt to make a 6% brine, but my salometer measured it at 8%, so I think the whey did not have a SG of 1 the same as water (sorry did not measure the whey first). Using that experience, the commercial brine provided in the 3 baggies above also, from the colour looks like whey based brine. So the 8.5% I measured in the original post could be incorrect and the actual % salt ~ 6.5%.