How To Make Feta Cheese

If you're looking for an easy Feta Cheese recipe you're in the right place this better recipe is so simple to make. it's become a staple in my refrigerator, it lasts for months and it's always ready to put on salads or even on a cheese board you can do this come into my kitchen let me show you how to make feta cheese eat 2 galas pasteurized and homogenized milk to 86 degrees Fahrenheit that should take roughly 20 minutes so while you're waiting take a half a teaspoon of lipase and dilute it in a quarter cup of non-chlorinated water by the time your milk reaches the target temperature of 86 the lipase will be ready to use for the milk when the milk has reached 86 degrees add the lipase and stir for about 30 seconds add a quarter teaspoon of mesophilic culture and sprinkle it over the top of the milk allow it to rehydrate for five minutes while we're waiting to check out these tiny teaspoons aren't they so cute the smallest one goes down to one sixty-fourth of a teaspoon I won't be needing that today just the quarter teaspoon but there are a lot of fun at that I'd show them to you stir the culture into the milk for one minute place the lid on the milk and allow it to sit for one hour while it acidifies part of the success of this cheese is your ability to maintain the temperature of 86 degrees for about 2 hours and 40 minutes I use a towel and I use it to insulate the heat inside the pot and that helps me maintain the temperature pretty well now in case you're wondering where yum-yum is she's right here watching me work hello pretty kitty.

Check your temperature to make sure we're maintaining the 86 degrees Fahrenheit add a teaspoon of calcium chloride to 1/4 cup of non-correlated water add it to the milk mixture and stir for 1 minute add 1 teaspoon of rennet to 1/4 cup of non-fluorinated water and add it to the milk mixture. stir again for up to one minute no longer place the lid on the pot and cover it again for another hour here's how you check for clean break slice the curd and pull it back pretty quickly you should see the way filling in the hole and yep I definitely see that there so this curd is ready to go.  let the Kurds heal for five minutes stir gently for five minutes and at this particular stage you definitely want to be careful with the Kurds because they're very fragile and you don't want to break them with shatter so just take your time and stir all the way through making sure that the larger pieces are cut you can do that with the side of your spoon pretty easily nice gentle stir for five minutes place the lid on the pot and let it rest for 20 minutes now repeat the last step stir again for five minutes and then cover and let it rest for another 20 minutes the next step is to drain the curds into to cheesecloth-lined calendars it's important to use a ninety weave cheesecloth that way you'll be sure that the cheesecloth is strong enough to handle the weight of the curds when they hang make two pouches out of the cheesecloth tie a knot at the top of each and hang the cheese for 16 hours the next day unwrap the cheese from the cheesecloth and slice the cheese into 1-inch pieces for a 2-pound batch of feta you use three teaspoons total of the non-iodized cheese salt the sprinkle it lightly on both sides this process is going to do two things it's going to help flavor the cheese but it's also going to wick away some of that way that will accumulate in your ripening bin place the cheese into the ripening bin I like to use a pie carrier it works really well for this purpose but you can use whatever you have on hand and that's it I'm going to place this on the kitchen counter I'm going to cover it and we're going to let this age for 72 hours after the first day you may see some way that's been dispelled from the cheese don't worry that's perfectly normal just drain it off let's prepare the brine solution this is a half gallon of purified water and 6 ounces of non-iodized salt I made it up earlier we're going to add one teaspoon of calcium chloride and one tablespoon plus one teaspoon of white vinegar and mix it all together make sure that your brine solution is at the same temperature as the cheese you're about to add and now we'll add the slabs directly to the brine you'll notice I'm using a repurposed popcorn bucket and she's making when you use plastic it's just important to make sure that it's food safe and now you know how to make feta cheese at home this recipe yielded a little over two pounds and will always be ready to go in your refrigerator.

If you want to know about the recipe for making kashkaval Cheese, click on the link.