On my third attempt, I have a success to celebrate!
I used Mary Karlin's recipe from the book "Artisan Cheese Making at Home" and am tickled pink that it worked great! I made the Feta on Saturday using 1 gallon of raw Goat's milk. Everything during the process worked as advertised and I had a nice wheel of cheese at the end of it. Since I have a round mold, and being playful, I cut the wheel into one inch tall rounds and then cut each round into wedges. (Think of laughing cow cheese as a model). The last step in the process was to sprinkle kosher salt all over the cheese and put it in a container in the fridge for five days, and then the recipe says to brine it.
Well, my patience expired today and I grabbed one wedge and bit into it. YUM!!!! The taste was wonderful, the cheese is obviously young and not crumbly yet, and the salt quantity is just right. I am delighted by this success!
The recipe asks that the cheese be brined after tomorrow, so I am looking at how to brine the cheese. I saved all the whey from making it, but am nervous about going up to 16% or 18% salt level as discussed in the wiki articles on this board. This is because my first attempt at Feta was in an 18% brine and it was way too salty to eat. My second was at 12% and it fell apart... Now since then, I switched recipes, so maybe I am being overly cautious for no reason. Still....
Recommendations anyone?
Morning MacGruff and congrats on the cheese. I would think that the cheese that fell apart with the 12% brine was a cheese problem and not a brine problem. I usually brine at 12% and I am sure that I have seen CH say that he has brined some at 6%. Whether the cheese is creamy or crumbly is also due to the amount of stirring that you do while making the cheese, and not solely dependent of the brine %.
HTH's
Tea - I rather agree with you. My cheese looks much better on this attempt than the previous ones, so I am quite sure it's the cheese, not the brine, nonetheless, in the interest of being safe, I split my cheese wedges into two piles and have one pile in a light brine, and the other in a saturated brine.
I used the reserved whey for the brine and only added Kosher Salt. Now I'll wait a week and see what happens.
I guess I am getting too impatient. ;)
Last night we had a party at our house so I pulled out a couple of wedges of Feta from each of the brining solutions. Cutting off small slivers from each and tasting them, led me to quickly put the wedges in plain water. While the inside of the cheese was very tasty, they had picked up more salt from the brining and were too salty to be enjoyable.
What was interesting to me to note was that the wedges from the lightly brined solution were significantly softer to the touch than the wedges from the saturated brine solution - which were much firmer!
After about an hour in water, I placed the wedges on a cheese board. Throughout the party, people tasted them and liked them. By the end of the party, there was very little left of the cheese wedges and lots of compliments.
I guess the lesson is that a saturated brine makes the cheese firmer and the water bath before eating is the solution to the overly salty flavor.
In any case, I have a success with Feta to proudly share.
Well to be honest, I haven't heard of feta being stored in a saturated brine. Even my haloumi recipe calls for only a 20% brine, which I confess is way to salty for comfort.
Feta brine is usually around 12-15%, and from what I have been reading of late, even those numbers are on the upper limits.
Anyway, what ever you decide, glad to hear that it was well received by your friends.
McGruff, you can also store your feta in oil - EV olive oil is the nicest (but it hardens in the fridge), I've had some in macadamia oil. You can then add dried herbs for flavour. Lasts forever in oil.
Margaret
Thanks Tea.
Margaret - I have heard of that before and seen pics of people storing Feta in oil with herbs. My concern is that the Feta would pick up the oil - which I do NOT want. Has it worked for you when you did it? Did the Feta pick up any oily flavors? Also, you must do something with it before using: Do you pat ir dry? rinse? what?
Thanks,
Hi MacGruff,
I had to go and taste my feta to remind myself what it was like! I think you need to drain it on kitchen paper as the surface of the cubes is oily, but inside it is still the usual crumbly feta as it is from brine. I didn't think it had picked up oily flavour really, but I have no sense of smell, so... I suggest you put a little bit in oil and see what you think. (Or buy one of those tubs of marinated feta, at about triple what it costs to make :D) I mostly crumble feta on pizza, toss through pasta, sprinkle on steamed vegetables, put into quiche, etc. as straight feta is too salty for my taste, so any residual oil doesn't matter in that sort of context.
After brining for a couple of hours I take the blocks out, leave them to dry off a bit, cut them into cubes (ca 1-2cm) and put them in oil with a sprinkle of dried herbs or dried chilli, or whatever. If you are more particular than I am about sterilizing the container, you should be able to keep it in your pantry, but I keep it in the fridge.
I've an issue with the saltiness of feta and I've been experimenting with lower concentrations of brine for storage, but oil is easier as you don't need to change it, as you need to with brine if you keep it for a long time. Of course, the solution is to eat it up quickly! But I'm the only feta eater in the house (and the only blue vein eater as well) and there's just so much cheese I can consume in a day.
Best wishes
Margaret
My successful Feta is rapidly shrinking so I might not have any left for experimentation!!! ^-^
Today I gave two wedges to the store owner who sold me the raw goat's milk I used. She's planning on eating it tonight or tomorrow and will tell me what she thinks. My wife and I used three or four wedges chopped up in a salad we made as a side dish to a Greek-style dinner we created which involved: stuffed grape leaves; two kinds of Falafel; and Pita. Between that, and my son's girlfriend (who eats a wedge every day she pops by), there are only a few left.
Maybe I will try the oiling with the next batch????
Anyway, thanks for the support and ideas!!!
No need to worry about it going soft in the brine then? :)
Margaret