Homemade Feta Is Better Than Store-Bought Feta

Here’s what you don’t like about fresh cheese: it has an expiration date. Of course, you can extend the shelf life in the freezer, but these icicles are of no use to our cottage cheese friends. You may have a brief affair with brie (about a week or two) and Gruyère may give you a month of passionate adoration, but for the most part our time with cheese is very short. Then you only have memories when you look at the place where your cheese was once stored in a cheese box.

That’s why feta is fantastic. It is present in it for a long time, in salads, stuffed olives and pilaf. You can eat it on its own without attracting any strange looks. Bake, and this is the main dish.

Making feta is a bit of a labor-intensive process, but it’s a great way to get familiar with cheese molds. Although feta can be made with any milk, it is traditionally made with sheep’s milk. Sheep milk is very fatty, remains white when processed, and is very difficult to find. On a positive note, this is the only milk to work with once frozen, so when you find it, put it in a jar. (To find your own sheep’s milk, visit local farms and ask around. Facebook is great for this.)

Feta ( recipe by Gavin Weber )

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon sheep’s milk, not UHT (may be pasteurized, VAT pasteurized, or raw)
• ⅛ teaspoon rennet dissolved in ¼ cup distilled water
• ⅛ teaspoon calcium chloride dissolved in ¼ cup distilled water, plus 1 teaspoon calcium chloride.
• 1/8 teaspoon mesophilic culture
• 2 liters of boiled, chilled water
• 250 grams of salt
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Equipment ( recommendations for choosing equipment can be found in our buying guide ):

• Pot 6 liters or more
• measuring spoons
• Thermometer
• 4 molds for medium sized square baskets.
• Gauze
• Cutting board
• Stainless steel colander
• Two empty liter bottles, such as containers for leftover milk.

Customize your space

As with all cheese, cleanliness is inextricably linked to cottage cheese. Make sure that the pot, countertop, all necessary and used utensils – from measuring spoons to a thermometer, faucet and sink – are all freshly washed and disinfected with white vinegar or a disinfectant solution. Keep a spray bottle of vinegar and clean towels nearby.

Once you get started, you don’t need to wash the dishes or anything else in the kitchen, as this can contaminate your cheese with drips. If you have enzymes, cover or move them so they don’t contaminate the cheese. We need a sterile environment.

Heat up the milk

This is a low temperature recipe so you don’t need to use a double boiler. Add all the milk to a stainless steel saucepan with a thermometer attached and bring it to 86℉ over medium to low heat while stirring.

Once the temperature reaches 86℉, remove the pot from the heat and turn off the heat. Add the mesophilic culture by sprinkling it on top of the milk, then recap the pot and stand aside for five minutes to allow the culture to rehydrate.

When you return, stir the culture in the milk for at least a minute, using the crazy eight pattern. Check the temperature and make sure it is still within a few degrees of 86℉. Once this happens, close the lid and let the milk mature for an hour.

When you return, remove the lid, stir the milk in the saucepan until a good funnel forms, then add ⅛ teaspoon of calcium chloride dissolved in ¼ cup of distilled water. Stir for a full minute, then add the rennet solution to the milk and mix for another minute, but no more. Bring the milk to a boil, then cover it again for an hour.

cut cottage cheese

Sheep’s milk is beautiful when it hardens; it’s like hard tofu. Check for a clean break. Your knife should cut the curd neatly, with the curd retaining its (new) edge and shape after you remove the knife. If you have a clean gap, go ahead. If you don’t, close the lid, wait another ten minutes, and repeat the test.

Once you have a clean tear, you need to cut the curd into ½ inch cubes. To do this, you will need to cut rows from top to bottom, every ½ inch, creating rows of cuts in the same direction, and then rotate the pot to create a new set of lines running perpendicular to the first set. From the top it will look like a grid and you will have long columns of curd going down from the top.

Now you need to make corner cuts to cut these posts into smaller pieces. Holding the knife at a 45-degree angle, start cutting through the curd again. Now turn the pan 90 degrees and repeat the same. Do this four times in total to make cuts on all sides, making sure the knife goes through and touches the metal on the other side. The result should be a pan full of about 1/2 inch curd and all the bars will disappear.

Use a slotted spoon to lift the curd and make sure it’s fairly even and nothing has escaped. If so, just cut them the same way you find them with a cheese knife. Then cover the pot and let the curds heal for five minutes.

Mix curd and whey

When you return, you will notice that the whey is now floating on top and the curd has sunk down. Gently stir the curd for the next 25 minutes. Do not stir in simple circular motions; take a slotted spoon and start at the bottom of the pan, working your way up the curd to the top of the whey. Repeat this movement over and over. This process will help separate the whey and further decompose the curd. By the end of 25 minutes, they will be much smaller. Let the curd sit for another five minutes before draining the water.

Drain the curd

Line a colander with cheesecloth and place it over a saucepan to collect the whey. Although you won’t be using it in this recipe, sheep’s milk whey is great for making ricotta.

Gently and slowly pour the curd into the cheesecloth and let it drain for at least 30 minutes. It may take longer for the whey to drain completely, but you want a porridge-like consistency.

In the form

It’s time to set up the forms. Place a cutting board next to the sink so that its corner hangs over the sink. Place a bamboo board on top and then two molds on top of the bamboo. Lay a piece of cheesecloth over both molds so that the excess cheesecloth hangs down the sides of the baskets.

Place a matchbox or similar under the side of the cutting board that is farthest from the sink. This side should be raised just enough for the whey to drain into the sink.

Start scooping out the cheesecloth from the cheesecloth, scraping the cheesecloth as needed, and spread it out into the moulds. It’s okay if you run out of space, wait a minute or two and the curd will deflate, making room for more curd. The whey should already drain from the molds into the sink.

Once all the curds are in the molds, fold the cheesecloth over the curds and place additional baskets on top of the curds. You are going to use carts as followers. Take the bottles, fill them with water and disinfect their outer surface. Put them in baskets. You use the bottles as light weights; you need a few pounds of pressure.

Flip ’em up

Let them sit for two hours to drip off and then it’s time to turn over. It seems more intimidating than it deserves. These cheeses will be brittle but firm. Remove the bottles from the basket rails. Carefully remove the cheese using cheesecloth as a bandage. Remove the cheesecloth and with (very clean) hands carefully place the cheeses back into the molds, turning them over. Give them a little push with your hand so that they fit well in there. Put the cheesecloth on top again, and then the guide baskets and milk bottles and leave for another two hours.

It’s time to desalt

Sheep’s milk and salt give the feta its iconic, spicy and unusual taste. Salt is extracted from brine. To do this, boil water and salt, let it cool, add vinegar and 1 teaspoon of calcium chloride.

Once your feta is ready to come out of the molds (and it should be right now), it’s time to put it in a Tupperware bowl full of brine. Carefully remove the cheeses from the molds and gently place them in the brine. Cover the Tupperware and place it in a safe place on the table, away from pets and prying friends. Leave for three to four days at room temperature, turning once a day, always with clean hands. At the end of the fourth day, it was finally time to reunite with your feta. It’s edible, storeable, and can keep in the fridge for four months, but I’ve never been able to last a full quarter of the year.