After a request from Annet who was looking for more information about Feta, I knew that I could fulfil the request easily. She was disappointed at the diminishing quality of commercially made cheese. What better way to overcome that issue, by making your own Feta using our Feta video tutorial!
It can also be served cooked or grilled, as part of a sandwich or as a salty alternative to other cheeses in a variety of dishes.
Now what are you waiting for? Get some milk and get cracking!
Just so you know exactly what I put in it, here is the ingredient list that I used.
Feta
- 4 litres full cream milk (1 gallon)
- 1/4 teaspoon of lipase diluted in 60ml (quarter of a cup) of non-chlorinated water
- 1 gm (1 heaped smidgen) direct set mesophilic culture
- 2.5 ml rennet diluted in 60 ml of non-chlorinated water
- 2.5 ml calcium chloride diluted in 60 ml of unchlorinated water (if milk is homogenised)
- Brine:
Follow these instructions.
Enjoy this wonderful cheese!
Link on page to brine is broken
Fixed
You mention 1 gram of mesophilic culture in the video and 2.5 grams in the recipe – which should it be?
Hi John, good question. It is 1 gm (1 heaped smidgen) of mesophilic culture. Sorry about that. I corrected the recipe.
Dear Gavin good evening from Greece
I am glad you are interested to build feta cheese
a small correction
Feta done with sheep and goat milk in the ratio 70/30
Having cut the curd leave for 10-15 minutes and then strain. when removed from the mold, cut into pieces and put it on the shelf, pour onto the coarse salt and let stand for 5-6 hours and repeat on the other side.
Now you can leave the cheese for at least two months to mature.
I apologize for the very bad English 🙁
Hi Niko,
Thanks for the tips. I will have to try adding goats milk to my feta as well. I can't source sheeps milk here where I live.
I will also let the next batch mature longer.
Gav
Gavin,
This turned out great! I tried it with a couple slight variations:
1) I replaced 1/3 of the milk with goat's milk, and I used a herb salt from Epicure for the brine. Turned out incredible! Nice and creamy and great for crackers.
2) For the second variation, I used all goats milk, and let drain for 8 hours instead. It created a much more "crumbly" feta.
Thanks again! Love the blog!
Tasos
Thank you so much for this tutorial, I luv the way you teach and explain your process and the wonderful little practical ideas you share!
You definitely are a blessing I'm sure for many…I am sort of ashamed to admit that I do not know how to translate the grams to teaspoons as I am in the USA. Can you please help me with that?
I would luv to try the feta with a gallon or two of raw milk…or perhaps I should start with store bought milk first!
Many blessings…
Ask and you shall receive!! Thanks Gavin – heading to the homebrew shop tomorrow, apparently they also sell all the cheesemaking bits.
Will let you know how I go – and more importantly how it stacks up against Aldi's Danish feta that I used to so love…