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Riha's feta #4 – The Great Feta Experiment

Started by riha, September 16, 2009, 11:48:38 PM

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riha

Well, perhaps not great, but experiment anyway.

I have made 3 batches of Feta and have been very pleased with the results. I have read several Feta recipes and they have basically three different methods of salting the cheese before storing: sprinkling, brining, and skipping the salting step.

As a curious cheese scientist student I want to know how the different salting methods effect the outcome. So I decided to divide my next batch into three different ways of salting. Furthermore, I will store half of each in strong brine and half in mild brine.

The recipe I used:

ingredients

  • 10 liters fresh milk
  • 1/4 tsp MM4001 mesophilic starter
  • 1/2 tsp mild lipase
  • 10 ml liquid rennet

procedure

  • Heat milk to 32°C
  • Add the starter and the lipase, stir well. Let the milk ripen for 60 minutes.
  • Add the rennet, stir well. Let the curd form 60 minutes.
  • Test for clean break. Cut into 1cm cubes.
  • Let the curds heal for five minutes.
  • Heal for 30 minutes stirring every 10 minutes.
  • Let the curds settle for 5 minutes.
  • Pour into a colander lined with a cheesecloth. Tie the cheesecloth to a bag and hang for 4 hours.
  • Turn the cheese. Let it hang for 24 hours.
  • Cut the cheese into smaller pieces, salt and store in brine.

After hanging I divided the cheese (1650g) into three not-so-equal portions. My guesstimation missed a bit and I ended with one 400g block and two bigger ones. No matter.

The first one (exhibit A) I chopped into 3cm cubes and stored half of it in 14% brine and half of it in 8% brine. No additional salting.

The second one (exhibit B) I dumped into a saturated brine for 5hours and 30 minutes. This estimate is based on Peter Dixon's "8 hours per pound of cheese". I had two 330 gram blocks. After brining, I chopped them into 3cm cubes and stored in 8% and 14% brines.

The third (exhibit C) one chopped into 3cm cubes (surprise), and salted by sprinkling the surfaces with salt. I used about 10 grams of salt for 400 grams of cheese. These cubes were left for 3 days in room temperature to mature and then stored in 8% and 14% brines.

Now they are all happily in their brines, waiting to mature. I was thinking I'd test the taste/structure every two weeks. Starting now.

Pics:

Everything ready.

Handy spoon holder & too much milk.

Curds cut.

Draining.

riha

More pics.

After 4 hours of hanging.

After turning and 24 hours of hanging.

In 6 pieces.

In brine.

riha

Still more pics.

Salted by sprinkling.

All the cheeses in a row. Two rows actually.

DeejayDebi

Very nice lookking cheese and a really good write up there gal!

riha

Just to set things straight, am a male. Even if I do have a ponytail :)

Or did I you mean I should get a life?

DeejayDebi

LOL That's twice now I got the genders wrong.  Sorry! I have a cousin named Ryha and she's a girl. Silly me. I'm sorry!

Cheese Head

riha, great review, looking forward to your tasting results!

You used "fresh milk" assume it was cow's milk as you added lipase? Also, was it raw or store bought past & homogenized milk?

Like your hanger and especially your spoon/ladle holder!

cmharris6002

Really wonferful looking feta! I had the same questions as John about the milk.

Christy

riha

Sorry, I mixed up the terms. I meant raw milk when I said fresh milk. It's organic milk from a nearby farm. No pasteurization or homogenization. And from a cow, yes. Unfortunately no goat or sheep milk available here.


Ginger

I use the recipe from Fias Farms website.  I use store bought milk with calcium chloride and after it sits in my rubbermaid container for about five days I put the pieces in a gallon size ziplock and throw the bag in the freezer.  This has worked out well.  Ginger

riha

What's a rubbermaid? I have never heard the word.

Also, do you freeze your feta? Those ziplock bags sound like a good idea. I'm always out of glass jars, even if I like them for all preservation purposes.

DeejayDebi

riha
Rubbermaid is a brand name for those plastic products like bowls and boxes and everything else made today from plastic. A big company here in the states that's been around forever. They've all but put Tupperware (another plastic bowl company that speciallized in home party sales) out of business.

Ginger

After the cheese is hung for 24 hours, I cut it into cubes and it sits in the container for 5 days.  I drain it every morning and evening and after the 5th day I put the cubes in the plastic bag and put the bag in the freezer.  I don't brine the feta.  It thaws out quickly and is always handy when I need it.

riha

Debi, thanks. We have Tupperware here as well, but Rubbermaid was a mystery.

Tomhog, I thought you froze a bags full of brine and Feta. That's more logical. But why don't you brine your Feta? I think it's very handy. Ready to eat all the time one piece at a time and (practically) never spoils.

Do you make soft or crumbly Feta?

Ginger

It is crumbly when it thaws out.  I guess when I started making feta I was very leary of the brine and didn't want to worry about the cheese dissinigrating in it.  I froze it and that is the way I always do it now.  Maybe the next batch I make I will try the brine.