How to Make Feta Cheese

How to Make Feta Cheese How to Make Feta Cheese There are certain things which you love making on your own. These include mouth watering recipes in the kitchen which can give you great pleasure. Your family will love you for it. At the same time, there are some basic things you can make in the kitchen which can be used as it is and also to add a better taste to some other dishes. Feta cheese is one of them. Though it has its roots in the ancient culture, making feta cheese at home is not very difficult if you follow the process correctly. Make sure that you get the right ingredients and follow the timing pattern to help turn out your cheese well. Let us learn how to make feta cheese in a very easy way.

Ingredients:

1 gallon fresh goat’s milk or cow milk
1 tbsp fresh yogurt
½ tbsp rennet
Table salt

Procedure:

To make the feta cheese, you will need a pot which can store more than 1 gallon, its lid, 1 long bladed knife, strainer, cheese mold and 2 clean and sterile handkerchiefs.
Heat the milk till it reaches a temperature of 30 degrees C. Keep stirring so that the milk does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Then turn off the heat.
Mix the yogurt with an equal quantity of milk to make a fine mixture. Then add this mixture to the rest of the warmed milk to make a homogenous solution. Let the milk stand for about an hour after covering it.
In the meantime, mix ½ tbsp rennet in some cool water. Then add this rennet solution to the milk after it has been left covered for an hour. Mix thoroughly. This should now be covered again and left overnight for the process to be completed. Make sure that you leave the pot of milk at room temperature.
The milk will have set the next day. Check to see that the milk has set completely and cleanly breaks when pierced.
Cut this curd just as you would cut the cheese. Start from one side and cut into cubes. Each cube should be about ½ inch in size.
Wash your hands well and lift the curd cubes and then stir well. Do this for about 15 minutes until you feel that the curd has contracted.
Put a clean handkerchief on the strainer and separate the curds from the whey. Leave it for about 2-4 hours until the whey completely drains out.
Put the curd now in a bowl and mix about ½ tsp salt in it. After the curd breaks up, you can put them in cheese molds. Then take the can and place a clean handkerchief at its sides. Now put the curd inside and fold the ends of the handkerchief over the can and cover. Put a weight on top of it and don’t disturb the setting till the next day.
Now take the whey you had discarded (about 20 oz) and add 5 tbsp salt to it. Mix thoroughly and make sure that the brine is acidic n nature. This will help to form the cheese well.
Make 1.5 inch cubes of the cheese and place in another large jar. Pour the brine you just made over the cheese. Keep in the fridge and allow to pickle. You will get feta cheese which will be very dry and crumbly in nature. Remember to store in the fridge all the time. And when you want to use some of it, wash well to remove the salt.

You have made feta cheese in your home and can store it to be used many times in the future. It will certainly save you the problem of running to the store every time you need feta cheese.