Owly055
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- Feb 28, 2014
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My first couple of batches of feta were quite successful, then for some reason I started having issues with it softening in the brine. Unfortunately I didn't document exactly what I did, nor did I completely follow any particular recipe, for several reasons. I resorted to storing it in olive oil when I had softening problems, and that is a fine stopgap measure.
I had been salting the feta curds before pressing them into a mold, using the amount of salt Ascher called for, and the brine concentration he called for. Of course I was not using raw milk, but other than that I was following his recipe more or less, adding calcium chloride based on the recipe at Cheese.Com. I tried using a commercial culture instead of my kefir, and that didn't make any difference. I also tried raising the temp after cutting the curds with the idea that "cooking the curd" would firm the curd a bit...... which it did.....I did this very slowly of course, and never much over 100F...... being conservative. It made no difference.
After a bit more reading, I found the solution that seems to work well. I made up a saturated brine, and brined the cut up block of feta for a few hours. I then put it in the fridge on a bamboo sushi mat in a plastic container without a tight lid for several days (3). It firmed up very nicely, and since it has been in the storage brine, has shown no sign of wanting to "melt". This cheese had been salted before I put it in the saturated brine. The next batch I will forego salting the curds and use just the saturated brine for salting. My saturated brine had some calcium chloride in it, but no vinegar. My storage brine has 1/4 C salt to 1L of water, some calcium chloride (not meaured), and 1/4 C vinegar. The saturated brine recipe used called for far too much salt.... some salt is expected to be visible and remain undissolved..... doesn't matter of course, it's just wasteful, but salt is cheap.
H.W.
I had been salting the feta curds before pressing them into a mold, using the amount of salt Ascher called for, and the brine concentration he called for. Of course I was not using raw milk, but other than that I was following his recipe more or less, adding calcium chloride based on the recipe at Cheese.Com. I tried using a commercial culture instead of my kefir, and that didn't make any difference. I also tried raising the temp after cutting the curds with the idea that "cooking the curd" would firm the curd a bit...... which it did.....I did this very slowly of course, and never much over 100F...... being conservative. It made no difference.
After a bit more reading, I found the solution that seems to work well. I made up a saturated brine, and brined the cut up block of feta for a few hours. I then put it in the fridge on a bamboo sushi mat in a plastic container without a tight lid for several days (3). It firmed up very nicely, and since it has been in the storage brine, has shown no sign of wanting to "melt". This cheese had been salted before I put it in the saturated brine. The next batch I will forego salting the curds and use just the saturated brine for salting. My saturated brine had some calcium chloride in it, but no vinegar. My storage brine has 1/4 C salt to 1L of water, some calcium chloride (not meaured), and 1/4 C vinegar. The saturated brine recipe used called for far too much salt.... some salt is expected to be visible and remain undissolved..... doesn't matter of course, it's just wasteful, but salt is cheap.
H.W.
