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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => RENNET COAGULATED - Brine Ripened (Aegean Sea) => Topic started by: petee16 on July 21, 2009, 06:36:17 PM
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1st timer here. how long do you boil the milk for feta cheese , before adding the yogurt and rennet tablet. Thanks Pete
p.s. I'm using junket tablets all i can find for now. Should i use half or a whole tablet
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Hello Pete and welcome to the forum.
I just made another Feta last weekend, records here (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1715.0.html), using this recipe (http://cheeseforum.org/Recipes/Recipe_Feta.htm). I just warmed the milk to get a good rennet curd set as I'm using store bought pasteurized milk.
When you say boil, I assume you want to pasteurize it? Which is normally at slightly lower temp than boiling which would give it a slightly cooked taste. There is some info here (http://cheeseforum.org/Making/Milk.htm) on milk processing with links to pasteurizing.
So are you using raw milk thus the reason you want to pasteurize it?
On rennet amount, sorry but I haven't used junket tablets so don't know, I'd go with package directions. If you search this forum for "Junket" you'll get lots of hits of other members experiences and probably amounts, good luck.
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help guys. so far i i followed the instruction 24 hours room temp sitting outside. just checked it and i stuck my finger Thur it and it did not jell over looks like grits but the outside looks good. Thanks
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did you salt it???
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no i just cut it into little squares like it said to do . still floating in the whey and it is allot of whey.
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Would you copy or link the recipe you are using, please? That will make it easier to trouble shoot.
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http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Feta-Cheese (http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Feta-Cheese)
i used the liquid rennet by malaka instead of the tablets.
thank You guys so much for the help.
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Hi petee16, hope you didn't mind that I merged your two threads on this cheese.
To your problem: it did not jell over looks like grits but the outside looks good
When you say it looks like grits, is it fine grained almost rice sized? Not sure what you mean that from outside looks good.
I've used too much rennet once before when making a Camembert and forgot to add CaCl2 before renneting so I stirred the non-critical CaCl2 in using a whisk about 15 minutes after renneting. This was a mistake as solid curd had already started to form and by whisking again I mostly destroyed the curd set resulting in fine grained curds which did somewhat reform but looked like grits. A solid curd ca form in as little as 3 minutes, so it shouldn't be storred after that time.
Records and pictures here (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,952.0.html), could that be the cause of grits?
Any way shouldn't hurt it as with that recipe you will be hanging and pressing to remove more whey anyway.
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Hi,
Can you post more about your process? Temp at renneting, temp during ripening overnight? Was the milk frozen? How much rennet did you add?
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I use the liquid Malaka rennet, and I always add 5 - 5 1/2 drops per gallon. It works out well. Is that how much you added?
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yeah i used 5 drops in a 1/4 cp of water.then added it after a hour.
the milk was not frozen i pulled it out of the fridge.
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Hmmm, when first started making cheese I also used Malaka brand liquid rennet and I used 25 drops for 1 US gallon (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,63.0.html) of milk!
There is a picture of the side of my bottle here (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,33.msg110.html#msg110) that recommends 5 drops for each quart of milk. I found on earlier cheeses that when using store bought pasteurized homogenized whole cow's milk and no CaCl2 that I didn't get the curd gel strength I wanted in the time I wanted so I increased it dosage rate to 25 drops per 1 US gallon.
clherestian, are you using raw milk and what type that you get such a good curd set at such low dosages?
That said, the recipes that came with it on box and on paper inside range from 3 drops per 1 1. US gallon (albeit for soft draining cheeses) up 5 drops per 2 cups for the custard.
petee16, if you search some other posts here I think you'll find that most people when using goat's milk, require more rennet than with cow's milk.
If you have lots of milk, maybe you could do some test batches, ie four 1 quart batches with different amounts of rennet to determine the optimum dosage? Don't forget to thoroughly stir it in, rennet is very concentrated stuff.
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OK. i talked with my cousins in Greece they also said do not use salt use rock salt and let it cover over the cheese to let the rest of the whey come out also it doesn't make the cheese as salty. have you heard of that.. thanks for all your help and patience
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petee16, now that's interesting, lucky to have cousin's there that make it! I'm envious.
I have not heard of that, just so I understand, they are saying?
- Do not dry salt with 6% salt or go directly to 16% brine.
- Instead, cover with rock salt (which I think is just large grain salt crystals), which would result in salt saturated highly whey removed Feta.
- Presumably when whey stops draining, remove most of remaining rock salt and place in 16% brine to preserve Feta until eaten, which would pull some of the excess salt out of the Feta as it equalizes.
I and others here would be very interested in the full recipe they use . . . :).
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they use the same ingredients almost what i used. they also said that the cheese wouldn't come out as salty using the rock salt. they also said they use the whey for the brime and what is left over they make cottage cheese.
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sorry one more thing my cheese looks like cream cheese i put it in the brine now I'll let you know in 5 days lol.
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John - I use raw cow's milk and 5 drops of rennet seems to work ok. I might not be using enough, though. I do get a pretty firm set on my curds, but the ea is never totally clear, it still looks a little milky.
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petee16, good luck!
clherestian, good to know, my whey is clear, except when have lots of it to look through then it's the typical transparent green tint.