Feta - Softening In Brine, Causes?

[MattK]

Other posts have taught me the brine is either too basic or lacks CaCl2, and the addition of either/both at the beginning would have kept my feta hunks nice and firm. Well, they're getting soft...real soft.

My question is...will adding CaCl2 or acid to the brine now recover the firmness, or is it too late? I'm thinking what harm can it do now, the cheese is practically mush. I was thinking of re-pressing, but if fixing the brine can reverse the process, I'll try that first.

...and this is what I get for trying a new cheese without consulting this board first....

[CdnMorganGal]

I had the same problem, and it wasnt the brine or CaCl2 - I am thinking the cheese hadnt drained enough, and it ended up diluting the brine.  The softened cheese made an excellent salad dressing though!  My husband wants me to repeat my mistake... lol

[MattK]

The cheese hung in a cheese cloth for bout 18 hours, and was quite firm when I cut it into 2-in cubes. They held their shape for about 24 hours in the brine, then started mushing out.

[mtncheesemaker]

Hi Matt;
I had the same problem when I started making feta. I found some tips from fiascofarm.com to be quite helpful. After draining for 24 hours, either in a mold or cheesecloth, (flipping at 4 hours or so), cut into 3" blocks, salt liberally, and put into a Tupperware type container in the fridge for 2-3 days to "harden" up. Then put them into your brine, preferably made from your whey. This hardening up really made a big difference for me.
I don't think you can save them up by changing your brine calcium/acidity at this point, but I would take them out of the brine so they don't get worse. Maybe use them in a cooked dish, etc..
Pam

[MattK]

Thanks Pam, good advice. Reading further, it does seem letting it sit for longer than what is normally comfortable gives it that extra time to set up/dry out.

I'm thinking of draining the brine and replacing with water to reduce saltiness, letting it sit for a bit, then making some sort of cheese sauce out of what's left. I'm also thinking of adding the hunks to a sourdough...that sounds good to me.

Thanks again!

MattK

[gemma.tyson]

Hi Matt.  Just made some more Fetta myself.  Previous try was a failure, melted away like yours.  Made a wonderful cheese sauce for lasagna - not really a failure except I wanted it in blocks in oil.  Tried draining and drying it this time as suggested on this forum, and it is working really well.  Looks like fetta now.
Good luck

[Gustav]

I propably had the same problem about 14 times with feta, until I also, after cutting the cheese into 3" cubes, placed it in a SATURATED BRINE for 4 hours per 1 pound of cheese, removed it from the brine & placed it on a mesh rack in the fridge to dripdry for 2-3 days, turning it every now and then. This Stabilizes the cheese, without doing this, the chance of having mushy cheese is minimized dramatically. After drying, place in either 8%-10% Brine. Some will say that is too low, but because the cheese was stabilised in the saturated brine, it already has enough salt & doesn't need as much in the brine. When packaging, tru to fill the container up to the lid so there is no air space for molds etc.. to grow.

I used the mushy cheese in dinner dishes as well. Since I did this, it worked wonderful. NB. It is better to use brine from the cheese for the whey as the PH should be fine in it. If you want to, i I'm sure you may add some CaCl as well. Make sure the cheese blocks arent smaller than 3" cubes, or else the cheese will be too hard & salty.

Hope this helps.

[MattK]

I made another batch (4 gallons) of feta, and employed several of the techniques suggested here and in other threads on the matter.

I used whey for the brine, added CaCl2 to milk and whey, and let the cheese dry/set in the fridge for 4 days before putting in 14% brine.

Eight days later, cheese is as solid as ever, and tastes great! Thanks again to all the posters who offered advice!

MattK

[Gürkan Yeniçeri]

The only untested/unmeasured variable here is the pH.

I copy/pasted a text here about preparing the brine. This is what I do usually and no melting.

[MattK]

The only untested/unmeasured variable here is the pH.

Hi there - I'm assuming I fixed this variable by using whey instead of water for the brine. We could group pH and Ca content as 'brine chemistry' and fix both by using whey.

CHeers!
MattK

[smoky mountain girl]

Hello.  The only cheese I've ever made is Feta using the recipe on Fiasco Farm and mine has always been awesome.  I don't know anything about why or what I'm doing, I just do what she says and its always worked great.