Cheesepalooza Challenge 3 Part 1 – Feta

We are still on Chapter 2 Beginning Cheese Making in Mary Karlin’s Artisan Cheese Making at Home with the third Cheesepalooza challenge but the cheeses are the last two in the chapter – Feta and Halloumi (J and I are excited to be moving onto Chapter 3 Intermediate Cheese Making in November with the joys of mozzarella, provolone, fontina, gouda, and many more).

As we were going down to Calgary for Thanksgiving and our family there has heard about our cheese making adventures, and we wanted to share our experiences, we technically made our first batch of feta in September, since it had to age for at least 5 days. As there are two options for aging the feta we did do another batch in October – so we hope this is not outside of the official Cheesepalooza rules!

Since both methods are the same except for the aging process, I have combined them here except for the last steps and the tasting.

As always, we assembled all of our ingredients, and carefully sterilized all of the equipment that we would be using. We usually buy goat feta, so we stayed with the goat milk for our feta too. As we progress through making different cheeses, each one is bringing slightly different ingredients and approach . For feta this includes adding some lipase powder. What is lipase powder you ask? Well not sure if I want to tell you since you may not want to eat cheese. It is an enzyme that is extracted from a lamb or calf, freeze dried and used for a variety of applications such as cheese and yogourt making. I am actually not certain if the lipase we used is from a calf or lamb, but I am sure someone will let me know. What it does is give the cheese a stronger flavour. Another slight difference is this is the first time that we are “cutting the curds” and “cooking the curds”, which are not done in the ricotta or the chevre.

So now that we have everything assembled we begin by putting the milk and lipase (diluted in some water) into our pot and stir, we then slowly heat it up to 86 degrees F (or just slightly higher).

After getting the milk to temperature we remove from the heat and then add the Aroma B mesophilic starter culture (this is actually something new to, as this is the first time using one of the starters for us, as we used buttermilk as the starter in the chevre). We let it sit to rehydrate for a couple of minutes then stir it into the milk.

We now let it sit and ripen for 1 hour and try and keep it at 86 degrees F. this is easier said than done, and after making a few batches it does become easier. However for this first batch I did have the temperature go up the mid 90s, and of course below 86 as I was trying to adjust the water bath. For the water bath we improvised as is often done in home cheese making by using a large roasting pan as the water bath.

After the hour of ripening, not much has changed; it still looks like a pot of milk. We then add the calcium chloride, mix it in then add the rennet (another enzyme critical for cheese making, and comes from a calf stomach, although there are non-animal types – I always wonder how some things are discovered as they do not always seem obvious). Again we let it sit for another hour for the the curds to form, again keeping it at 86 degrees F.
There is always anticipation at critical steps, wondering if it will work, and we are pleased that it did. We uncovered the pot to see the light colour whey with the beautiful mass of curd. We insert a spatula to see if we have a nice clean break and we do!

Now we get to cut the cheese, no I mean cut the curd! We let this rest for about 10 minutes. Again keeping it at 86 degrees F.

After the short rest, we then had to stir the curd for 20 minutes to keep the curds from glomming together. J was quick to volunteer to stir as that seemed like more fun than just watching the milk sit for hours. I was quite impressed that he stirred for about five minutes, and came back stir again later for a bit, but most of the stirring was left to dad.

After the 20 minutes of stirring the curds changed from having “sharp” edges to being more pillow like. Another period of rest but only for 5 minutes.
After the rest J transferred the curd to our cheesecloth lined colander.

We then tied it up to let it drain for a few hours.

We then unwrapped our treasure to find what looks like feta – which is good since that is what we are making.

We sliced it into 1 inch cubes for the aging process.

It is at this stage we have two options. Sprinkle with salt and let age for 5 days, or sprinkle with salt and age for 1 day, then transfer into brine for 21 days. For the first batch we took the 5 day dry aging approach.

After the 5 days we placed the cheese in a light brine for the trip to Calgary!

For the second batch we also sprinkled with salt as in the first but only let it age this way for 24 hours.

Then it was placed in but did do the 21 day aging too.

So now we had some feta!

For the first batch, the first taste was that it was too salty, but had great texture and to quote my wife “It tastes like feta!” We soaked some in plain water for about an hour and this did remove some of the saltiness.
The feta was a big hit for Thanksgiving but like Valerie A Canadian Foodie, we found that with the 5 day salting then storing in brine, the feta became soft and gelatinous, not at all appealing. I wonder if we need to cut down on the rennet a little bit.

We served it with just a little olive oil drizzled on top. Some of us also had it with basturma – a dry aged beef tenderloin with various spices, we sometimes call it Armenian prosciutto!

We also had it J’s favourite way on tomato with some fresh basil, always a hit.

Appearance: Nice white colour, with a few “holes” or “cracks” as in commercial products
Nose: Not a lot of aroma, just hints of the goat milk, does have good “sea” smell (not sure how else to describe the smell of salt)
Overall Taste: Has a nice tangy taste
Sweet to Salty: This is defiantly a salty profile, even after soaking in plain water
Mild to Robust: Mild with a slight goat flavour
Mouth Feel: Slightly grainy on the tongue but a bit of a creamy texture

For the second batch, it seemed less salty right out of the brine but was still fairly salty, so prior to serving we stoked in plain water for a bit. We tried it a few different ways. We found it quite delicious crumbled on one homemade vegetarian chili.

We also rolled some Alberta prosciutto from Valbella Gourmet Foods tat we picked from Sunterra. This was quite delicious.

Unfortunately, after a few weeks this batch also became soft and gelatinous, like the first.

Appearance: Nice white colour, with a few “holes” or “cracks” as in commercial products
Nose: Not a lot of aroma, just hints of the goat milk, does have good “sea” smell (not sure how else to describe the smell of salt)
Overall Taste: Has a nice tangy taste
Sweet to Salty: Salty
Mild to Robust: Mild with a slight goat flavour
Mouth Feel: Slightly grainy on the tongue but a bit of a creamy texture

We do like feta, so we will make it again and experiment to try and not have it turn soft and gelatinous. Also wondering about larger blocks of cheese , say 2 or 3 inches square.

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