Made my first block of feta cheese from raw cows milk, tossed it in dried herbs, whats the best way to store it, i'm just not sure. Can i cut it into squares and store it in a brine of the whey, vinegar and salt,! or put a few squares in a container with some dried tomatoes, and toss in little olive oil, or just wrap it and keep in fridge. Have the whey in fridge my research says keep it at room temp 12-24 hrs to make it acidic so cheese dosen't go slimy any tips.
seaturtle,
Feb 4, 8:35pm
Have a look on the Mad Milly cheese site and you will see end recipe for brine to sit fetta in. I use the salt brine and kept in the fridge. I have also kept fetta in the pantry sitting in olive oil for months and it kept beautifully (A good trick I learnt when yachting, It works with most cheese). And I must say it sounds delish keeping with sundried tomatoes in oil I may have to try this when I make my next batch Also For a richer cheese flavor I re used the oil by just adding more cheese when eaten and also used a bit to dress salads with
davidt4,
Feb 4, 9:07pm
I keep my homemade feta in olive oil in the fridge.The cheese develops more character over a few weeks, and the oil can be used in cooking.
I don't add any herbs or other flavourings as we like the feta plain.
vmax2,
Feb 4, 10:19pm
I now put my feta in a brine of 100g salt, 500ml whey from the cheesemaking and 500ml boiling water.Gives the cheese a lovely flavour.
lindylambchops1,
Feb 5, 2:31am
*Mouth Watering*
fifie,
Feb 5, 2:37am
Decided to do some of each to see what we like best. All done and might i add looking impressive lol, i guess time will tell love this new hobbie i have found Thank you all.
vmax2,
Feb 5, 3:07am
Have you tried making camembert!I just cut into some of mine, delicious and moist and full of flavour.So much better than the shop cheese.
fifie,
Feb 5, 4:13am
Mmm sounds nice, haven't got that far yet vm just mastered the feta and ricotta so far but hopefully will get around to it, still getting my head round making the culture can't believe it turned out and worked lol
vmax2,
Feb 5, 4:23am
Making your own culture - how do you do that!I buy my culture to add to the cheese.Is it a bit like making sourdough bread and gathering the cultures in the air!
fifie,
Feb 5, 7:54am
Starter Cultures for brie, blue, or feta cheese. 150grams of your chosen cheese 250mls milk heated to 40deg celsius. USE something like a stab blender to mix milk and cheese blender tip must be sterilised as should be any container you place culture in. Mix milk and cheese well, once cooled put starter portions (usually 2 tablespoons) into small containers and freeze. label them with the type of culture in them. To reuse them they must be slowly be brought back to room temp. This recipe was given to me by Ashanti the cheese maker on this M/B, have only done the feta so far and have a few little tubs in the freezer, but will get round to trying the other ones to hopefully.
uli,
Feb 5, 8:12am
I freeze any cheese I cannot eat in time. Works very well - feta keeps up to 2 years (maybe longer but by then I have eaten it).
uli,
Feb 6, 3:52am
I did that too many years ago but it never produced a good product comparable with shop bought cheese. So in the last 15 years I have bought my starter cultures from CHR Hansen and all is well :) You need so little that the initial $50 or so outlay is well worth it. You can make thousands of liters of milk into cheese for that.
kandi_gurl,
Feb 7, 9:35am
Fifie! what do you do then with the starter portion to make the cheese, don't understand but have always wanted to make my own cheese
fifie,
Feb 7, 9:57am
You add the starter to your heated milk before you add rennet and go through the cheese making process. Suggest you do some research on cheesemaking plenty of info on net or in library books, or go to mad millies web site then cheesemaking its all there on video for you to watch. Start with the soft cheeses, ricotta, morezella, i like feta at the mo cause i have it in heaps of salads, pasta's etc Although i am trying this starter am still going to buy some starters from that place uli suggests so i can compare.
davidt4,
Feb 7, 8:56pm
You can also buy starters in small quantities from Mad Millie, either through their website, or at branches of Brewcraft, or at Farro.I use their mesophilic started for feta, and I am going to try making a fresh white Turkish-style cheese using flora danica.
fifie,
Apr 19, 12:56am
Can some one tell me with this feta cheese making before i toss it in herbs and put it with some olive oil and sun dried tomatoes am i meant to salt it before hand somewhere !it tastes good on crackers with ground pepper,or in salads, but iprefer the saltier taste of the cubes i put in abrine, think i'm going wrong somewhere.
davidt4,
Apr 19, 5:52am
Feta is normally soaked in a 15% brine for 12 - 15 hours.I use whey as the liquid for the brine.After the curd is brined I store it in olive oil.
fifie,
Apr 19, 7:57am
Duh,davidt so thats my problem i'm to quick at getting it in the oil lol, knew something wasn't right. Have some in the whey brine at the moment so will go toss some more in herbs then into the oil with my tomatoes and see if i can taste the difference tomorrow. Many thanks.
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