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Last week I made Feta again partly because of some discussions in a different board about P&H versus whole vat pasteurized whole cream top milk.  I wanted to see what a two gallon batch would look like using a gallon of each.  I had previously made two other batches.  One used all whole milk and the other used all P&H.  Both batches had turned out well but the P&H was a little tricky due to the soft curd.  The previous week I had converted a course draining mat into a curd "pitcher" and wanted to try it in my two gallon steam table rectangular vat.  The inspiration for this was the batch of Cheddar I had made where I was chasing the curds through the whey in the manner of a cat trying to catch several dozen mice at once.

The "pitcher" mat worked perfectly and I went on to finish the Feta by draining in a cloth suspended over a sink.  The Feta ball was brined overnight and cut in the morning.  It was full of nooks and crannies and all manner of voids, which I realized resulted from pitching the curd.  Obviously, this was probably not going to do well in an aging brine.  What to do, what to do?  What I did was cut each hemisphere into four pieces and dried them for a week in the cave.  This morning I cut the cheese into 3/4-inch cubes, rolled them in a mixture of rosemary, basil, thyme and garlic powder and covered them in an 50/50 olive/canola oil mixture.  They are now in our regular refrigerator smiling at me every time I open the door.   

       

Looks delicious  . A cheese for you for the save  . Just curious-why a mixture of oils?



Susan

My guess, as I've done this before, is get the flavor of olive and not use the money you would pay to get more olive.

Quote from: SOSEATTLE on April 05, 2015, 01:03:48 AM
Looks delicious  . A cheese for you for the save  . Just curious-why a mixture of oils?

The primary reason for the mix of the two oils is that in a 38F refrigerator olive oil congeals to a semi-solid.  Caldwell says to use a mix of 75% canola oil and 25% olive oil because of this.  I was short of canola oil so opted for a 50/50 mix.  We'll see how this turns out.  I may have to change the oil! 

It looks gooooood! :-) A cheese for you.

Beautiful job Kern and a cheese to you.  Than again, next time a picture of the "pitcher" is worth a thousand words and maybe even another cheese  .

Beautiful! Another C4U. I love feta cheese ... but for some reason have never made any. You may have inspired me to change that ... or at least add it to the active "this cheese needs to be made soon" list!