Hi all,
I’m having a problem with my feta softening in brine. I’ve done a lot of reading and despite tweaking of the pH and CaCl2 of the brine, it keeps happening. I’ve also tried drying it longer before going into brine. I’m hoping someone might be able to pinpoint my problem. I’ve recently been trying to use pH targets (pH sticks) with no real success and I’m wondering if pH (not getting acidic enough) is the issue. I’m using pH sticks which I know aren’t the greatest but a pH meter is on my wish list.
Recipe is raw cows milk, aroma B, lipase, CaCl2 temp 85F/30C. My cow tends to have soft curd which is why I add CaCl2 and it seems to help.
Ripened 1 hour. Normally I’d just go ahead but since this time I had pH sticks I checked and pH was 7.0. I waited another 10 mins pH 7.0, waited another 10 mins pH still 7.0, gave up and added rennet.
Let set 40 mins, clean break, cut into 3/4” cubes, let stand 15 mins, stirred gently 20 mins
Ladled into Camembert hoops
Let drain flipping every 2 hours til bedtime which was 3 flips, then let sit at room temp overnight
At 24 hours checked pH by shoving a stick into the cheese, pH was 5.0, waited and at 32 hours pH was still 5.0. Since it didn’t seem to be moving, I weighed the cheese, cut it into semi circles which were about 3”/10cm tall, salted at just under 5% (I was concerned the edges of the semicircles were going to be too salty so chickened out of the full 5%) and let it sit in a tub with the lid partially open at room temp another 24 hours draining whey as it accumulated.
I then put it in an 8% brine with CaCl2 added at a rate of 2Tbsp/gallon(4L) and vinegar to bring pH to 4.5 and put it in the fridge.
5 days later the edges are soft (again grrr). I checked the pH of the brine and it was up at 5.3. I cut off the soft stuff, adjusted pH back to 4.5 and put the chunks back in. The soft stuff also tastes extremely salty which I imagine is the soft stuff soaking up the salt?
The only other thing I can think of other than pH is that the CaCl2 solution might be wrong? It’s from Glengarry so I'm assuming its probably right. I did buy some granules so I could make up my own.
Side question, if thoughts are pH is the issue, should I just keep on with the ripening until pH drops even if it takes say 2-3 hours? Same with draining time prior to salting?
Thank you for any thoughts,
Teresa