Homemade Feta Cheese
Tomato salad with homemade feta © kvalifood.com
Video Recipe - It is a LOT of fun to make your own cheese and it’s actually pretty easy. It does takes a little bit of utensils and ingredients that you don’t normally have, but they are easy to obtain and it is definitely worth the effort. The funny thing is that all the cheeses we know have the same basic recipe. Just small changes in how you follow the recipe gives the different cheeses. So if you can make a kind of cheese you can actually make them all. Feta cheese is one of the easiest and fastest. And you don’t have to wait a month before it can be eaten. Therefore, it is an ideal starting cheese.
Ingredients
cheese
- 4 liters (4 quarts) whole milk - preferably homogenized
- 1/8 tsp cheese culture (or 3 tablespoons plain yogurt)
- 1/8 tsp lipase enzyme (optional)
- ½ tsp rennet
brine, 10%-15%
- 1-1½ dl (½ cup) salt
- 1 liter(1 quart) of water
Directions
Heat the milk to 32°C (90°F).
Mix cheese culture and lipase enzyme with ½ dl (1/4 cup) water.
Stir it in the milk and mix well.
Leave it to ferment for ½ to 1 hour.
Add the rennet and stir well.
Leave it absolutely untouched for 1 hour.
Splitting
Check with your finger if you can “break” the milk. That means whether it behaves as a rigid gel. If not, wait until you can.
Cut the cheese into cubes of about 2cm x 2cm (1 inch x 1 inch), using a flat spatula, bread knife or the like. First cut a checkered pattern from top to bottom. Then Cut diagonally from the side. You end up with some crooked dices, but it’s good enough. They should all be roughly the same size.
Leave the mixture to stand for 10-20 minutes so the whey can seperate from the curd.
Stir gently in between.
Pour 3/4 liter (3/4 quart) of whey. It is easiest with a lid on the pot that keeps the curd back while you pour.
Leave the mixture to stand for 10-20 minutes more while stirring gently from time to time.
Draining
Spread cheese filling in one or more leaking containers.
Let the whey drain off.
Turn the cheese over, bottom up, 2 times with 10 minutes between each time.
Then turn 2-3 times during the next day.
Acid Check
Check with a strip of litmus paper that the PH level is between 4.7 and 4.9. If it is not, then let the cheese sit for a few hours until it is.
Cutting / shaping
Cut the blocks into cubes of about 4cm x 4cm (1½ inch x 1½ inch) - if the cheese is not firm enough to cut, let it stand and drain in the refrigerator for a few hours until it becomes more solid.
Brining
Pour the salt and water into a saucepan and heat until the salt is dissolved. You can also just dissolve the salt with a stick blender it in cold water.
Put the cheese cubes into the brine and leave it out for 24 hours. You can leave it out for longer. Then it becomes saltier and more brittle / crumbly.
Put it in the fridge until use it. Can easily keep it in the refrigerator up to a month.
Notes
You can buy lipase enzyme, cheese culture and rennet in several online stores. Just google it.
If you do not have precise heat control as I have, then you can heat the milk up to eg 34 degrees, and then pack your milk container into a duvet, quilt or towels while it ferments.
Once in a while you can then gradually heat it back up and stir occasionally, and move back to the towels.
Save the whey. It can be used for baking or for starting fermented vegetables and fruit.