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Quick solution to Feta failure

Started by tri3forme, April 07, 2014, 03:45:02 PM

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tri3forme

I'm brand new to the cheese making world. Made some mozz which turned out great. I also made some feta 2 weekends ago for the 1st time and everything seemed to work out perfectly.....dried it for a couple of days and set it in a light brine. Well, I was checking on it last weekend and it is slowly dissolving in the brine  :(  In panic, I took the cheese out of the brine and now it's just sitting in the fridge, covered with a towel and drying. Not sure why I decided to do that but seemed logical at the time.
After a bit of research, I'm guessing the pH is a bit out of whack.  The taste of the cheese is fantastic, it's just the texture is going south. What to do in a pinch? I was thinking 2 options
1) Cut off the soft outside to save the inside.
2) Mash it all up and create more of a "soft" feta.

Are those two options feasible? If so, which is preferable? And how would you recommend storage for each option?


Thanks

MacGruff

This is a pretty common problem and I know it hit me in my early attempts at making Feta. What I do these days - that works! - is:

After the cheese is made and you are drying it, apply a dry salt rub to it.
Retain the whey from the make and use it as the basis for the brine

Some people have added a small amount of CaCl to the brine to help the cheese maintain its texture.

Right now, in my fridge, is the last half pound of Feta I made almost two months ago. It will be gone soon and I will make another batch following those guidelines.

Good luck!

hoeklijn

Besides added CaCl to prevent extraction of CaCl from the feta, you need to be sure the PH of the brine is the same as the PH of the feta. This can be done by using the way from the make of by adding some vinegar to the brine.