I have now made three "batches" of "feta style" cheese and am working on a Bulgarian "sirene" cheese
Boy... this is a fun hobby! As I stated in my introduction, my very first attempt turned out... okay... the taste was good - similar to some fetas I've bought at the grocery store, but it was very crumbly. It was so crumbly, there was no point really in aging it in brine. So I ate it. All. The whole pound or so, in a day or two
Crumbled it on salads, or just spooned it into my mouth.
The next two "batches," each from 4 litres of milk, turned out with a really nice curd. The first of the next two was from goat's milk (pasteurized) and then cow's milk (also pasteurized). The goat's milk at first did not seem to have much taste to it, but after a month in the brine, it's really nice
The third batch from cow's milk also had a very nice textured curd, smelled wonderful from the get go (after a couple of days of air drying) and is now in brine.
All of these were made using a culture called "Probat 222" which came with a Feta "kit" from cheesemaking.ca. I understand this culture is also used for making buttermilk.
So this is where I have a question, with a little bit of background:
I have a friend who lives in Greece. Her grandmother makes feta. When I asked how, this was the reply:
"So here is the detailed description
We take less than a half spoon of rennet and we put it in 4 litres of medium temperature milk.
We cover the milk very well so it keeps it's temperature for more than 3 hours.
We uncover, we cut and we put it in cheese cloth hanging so it's drained. We keep the whey.
After is perfectly drained , we cut it and we put it in a bowl wiith thick salt. We leave it in the bowl for 2 days.
Then we transfer it in the tin with the whey we have kept from the cheese cloth .
I m sorry if the description was crappy. I hope you understood what i wrote."
She later qualified the "medium temperature" to mean "about the temperature the milk comes out of the cow."
When I asked if she added any "bacterial culture," she said "No! The only thing added is rennet."
So what is going on here? What is this "feta" that this Greek person is making in Greece? Is it just using whatever bacteria happens to already be in the milk or the air?