Feta cheese on spinach salad.
This is a guide to making feta cheese at home. Feta is widely used in Greek cooking, and tastes great mixed with olive oil on salads. Making feta requires goat’s milk, so it’s great to try if you raise goats, or just want to try something new in the cheese department.
Let’s begin!
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
Ingredients:
1) 1 gallon of goat’s milk
2) Fresh yogurt
3) Salt
4) Rennet tablets
Kitchen Equipment:
5) A thermometer
6) A large (over a gallon) stainless steel pot with a lid.
7) A second pot or container of similar size
8) A large bowl
9) A large spoon for stirring
10) A large glass or jar for mixing
11) A knife
12) A tablespoon
13) A strainer
14) A handkerchief
15) A wide-mouth glass jar for storing the feta cheese
HOW TO DO IT:
Feta cheese on bruschetta. I believe the word you are looking for is “mmmmmmm…”
1) Place the goat’s milk in the large pot and place on a stove element. Warm the milk to 85F, stirring regularly. Once it reaches this temperature, turn off the element and remove the pot.
2) Add 1 tablespoon of yogurt to the milk. Stir very thoroughly.
3) Put on the lid and let the pot sit for 1 hour at room temperature.
4) Add ½ a tablet or rennet to a glass of water and let sit.
5) After the milk has sat for an hour, add the glass of water with dissolved rennet to the milk. Stir thoroughly.
6) Return the lid to the pot, and let the milk sit overnight at room temperature.
7) Check the contents of the pot the next morning. There should a separation between curds and whey. If you can dip your finger through the top layer and it stays mostly solid, it is ready. If the top layer is still very wet and leaves your finger covered in goo, there has been a problem somewhere and you will need to start the process again.
8) Cut the top layer of curds into ½ inch cubes.
9) Reach into the pot and lift up any large pieces of curd that have sunk to the bottom. Cut them into ½ inch cubes.
10) Let sit for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
11) Line the strainer with a handkerchief, and place it over the second container.
12) Pour the contents of the pot slowly into the container. The whey should slowly drain through the handkerchief and strainer, leaving just the curds. Let the curds drain fully (this will take 3-4 hours). Save the whey as we will use it in step #16.
13) When ready, place the curds into the big bowl.
14) Add ½ a tablespoon of salt to the curds.
15) Press the cheese into the desired shape (a cheese mold can be used for this). Let sit overnight.
16) Lastly, we need to make pickling solution. Mix 20 ounces of the left over whey with 5 tablespoons of salt. Let the solution sit at room temperature for 24 hrs to increase acidity.
17) Cut the cheese (lol) into 1 inch cubes, putting them in the wide mouth jar. Add the picking solution from step #16. Put the jar into the refrigerator and let pickle for several days.
18) When ready, the cheese will be dry and crumbly. Rinse before using.
You now have homemade feta cheese ready to use!
FOR RELATED ARTICLES, CHECK OUT:
HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE COTTAGE CHEESE
Good luck and stay prepared!
