John's Cheese #031 - Feta #4

[Tea]

John I put fresh herbs and garlic into the whey with the last stir of the curd, then poured the curd and whey into the mould so that all the flavours and herbs would find there way into the cheese.  Find my post Feta #4, I think it is towards to end of that post.

Lady, you probably have noticed that different cheeses call for different salt solutions to be made up.  Most cheeses seem to be around the 20%, but feta it is between 12-15% salt solution, which for me equates to 120gr salt and 880gr boiling water for a 12% solution.  A saturated solution is when no more salt can be dissolved into the water, which ends up being somewhere around a 26% salt solution.  HTH

[LadyLiberty]

John I put fresh herbs and garlic into the whey with the last stir of the curd, then poured the curd and whey into the mould so that all the flavours and herbs would find there way into the cheese.  Find my post Feta #4, I think it is towards to end of that post.

Lady, you probably have noticed that different cheeses call for different salt solutions to be made up.  Most cheeses seem to be around the 20%, but feta it is between 12-15% salt solution, which for me equates to 120gr salt and 880gr boiling water for a 12% solution.  A saturated solution is when no more salt can be dissolved into the water, which ends up being somewhere around a 26% salt solution.  HTH

Ah, thank you for that explanation, now I get it!

[Cheese Head]

Tea, thanks for the methodology and yes just found your old post, thanks for ideas.

[Cheese Head]

Just ate some of this Feta aged 16 days in brine on pizza with artichokes and on salad, picture posted above.

In summary, still too moist, not crumbly, not very salty, flavour nice but not strong.

Brine colour has gone from white opaque to more whey green opaque, not as much as colour in picture. Presumably from whey coming out of cheese.

[eVenom]

I whonder how it was after a month? do you have any left?

[Cheese Head]

Hi eVenon, actually still do have some left and ate some on salad last night, tastes great, still a little creamy soft.

[Worlock]

Mister John, can you estimate for me what .25 grams is in teaspoons?  Also the .40 that you used for the Lipase.

TIA

[Cheese Head]

Worlock, 0.25 gram is ~1/8 teaspoon, 0.40 gram is ~ 1/5 teaspoon, volume amounts are variable as depends on settling of powder, plus I was having trouble measuring that small accurately, which is why I switched from this to this  mini scale. Have fun!

[Worlock]

That is very interesting.  Doesn't that seem a bit less than usual for 1 gal?  Or is that completely brand name dependent, ie, for culture and whatnot... 

[Cheese Head]

I think those are quite standard amounts per 1 US gallon of cow's milk for manufactured meso culture and lipase . . . they've worked for me for many batches, others may use more I haven't checked their records. Here is a guideline for starter culture from where I buy mine, it's the same amount. And here is their recommendation on lipase amounts, in this batch I used almost double their recommendation as I wanted a stronger taste and as I bought their mild Calf Lipase and as I mistakenly bought the 16 ounce bag so i have a life time supply!

The rennet I'm using is crystal (picture of green packages) so I wouldn't use that as a guideline as yours is probably different brand or liquid. I think best to go by manufacturers recommendation then up or down amount on later batches depending on results. That said, lots of posts on curd setting rennet and amounts in the Ingredients Board.

Let us know what you try and how it works out!

[Worlock]

First off, thank you for your patience to what might seem as really basic questions.  To me they're not, hehe.... I'm really trying to wrap my mind around the science of it, the fascination of it, the pure joy of feeding my family homemade cheese as I did today.  We had today feta and parsley typical of what we grew accustomed to in Turkey while we spent 4 years in.  It was deeply pleasing. 

[Cheese Head]

No problem with questions, always happy to help. But, I'm no guru, I'm not a great cheese maker as you can see by some of my records, and others on here are way more knowledgeable about cheese and cheese making than me.

It is a fascinating and very complicated subject that in some ways I think modern society has somewhat lost from all the cheese makers of the last 2000 years before us. And agree, in our high tech society it's very pleasing to make something artisanal, especially when it turns out well ;D.

Congrats on your 4 years posting in Turkey, my family and I were 3 years in Damascus during which we did a very nice driving holiday up through to Cappadocia Area in Turkey, moved to Houston in 2004. I don't remember parsley feta, did you use dry or fresh parsley and how much and would you use less or more next time?

[DeejayDebi]

Very nice looking cheese Giovani!

I am probaly gonna get slapped for this but I've never cared for feta. I wonder if I'd like homemade feta? I made it once for my sister and gave it away before even trying it. Maybe I should try again. You've inspired me!

[Worlock]

No problem with questions, always happy to help. But, I'm no guru, I'm not a great cheese maker as you can see by some of my records, and others on here are way more knowledgeable about cheese and cheese making than me.

It is a fascinating and very complicated subject that in some ways I think modern society has somewhat lost from all the cheese makers of the last 2000 years before us. And agree, in our high tech society it's very pleasing to make something artisanal, especially when it turns out well ;D.

Congrats on your 4 years posting in Turkey, my family and I were 3 years in Damascus during which we did a very nice driving holiday up through to Cappadocia Area in Turkey, moved to Houston in 2004. I don't remember parsley feta, did you use dry or fresh parsley and how much and would you use less or more next time?

Fresh parsley.  To use anything else would be a travesty of justice!  lol... My wife is a master of Borek.  A fried fetta/parsley casing in what's I'm sure you remember, cigarette borek.   She took many many Turkish cooking classes.  It was really wonderful.  She learned so much and we as a family benefited from her knowledge and really got into the weekly Sunday market runs she would make.  Sigh... man those were such good times.

[Worlock]

Debi, I'd never slap you for saying that... but I would give you the *look*.... lol.....