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Better Feta

April 16, 2009 @ 21:15 By Gavin Webber 7 Comments

Yesterday, amongst all the chaos of the day, I managed to squeeze in a cheese making session.  In truth, I was about an hour into it when Kim said she needed to go to the doctors to check on her foot, so I threw in the cultures, hoped that the milk would be OK (and Kim of course), and spent the following hour looking after my lovely wife and getting the antibiotics from the pharmacy for her. 

When we returned home, I tucked her into bed, made her as comfortable as I could and got back into the kitchen.  I added the rennet and waited for an hour for it to set.  I then cut the curds with a whisk and spent the next two hours stirring every 10 minutes to get the curds to gently release the whey and to stop it from clumping together.  The final product needs to have a fair bit of moisture still in it so you have to be careful not to stir too often or too vigorously.

After the two hours, it was time to strain the curds and whey and to press.  I decided to make two wheels out of the 7 litres of milk.  One big one for marinating in oil, and the other to eat straight away.  The small wheel pressed OK, and held its form well.  However, the second one was very cumbersome.  Every time I tightened the press, the cheese erupted out of the sides of the follower like a volcano.  I decided that I must have missed a step that was not in my recipe book.  I remembered back to my class, whereby I had to massage the curds gently to release more whey after the initial straining.  So that is what I did.  After that, the cheese pressed fine.  Here are the finished products.

Better Feta 001

The large one weighs 740g and the smaller one is 440g.

Here they are in brine, being salted one on top of the other.

Better Feta 004

I have found that a 2 litre flip top ice-cream container is just perfect for brining.  There is about 5mm of solution covering the top wheel.

I will remove them tomorrow, cut the large one up into 2cm cubes and marinate just like I did with the first feta I made.  I will take some of the smaller wheel when I visit Kim in hospital with some crackers for an afternoon snack.  That should put a smile on her dial!

 

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Filed Under: Cheese, Sustainable Living

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About Gavin Webber

Gavin Webber's daily goal is to live a more sustainable lifestyle, in an effort to reduce his family's environmental footprint so we can all make a difference for our children & future generations to come.

Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Comments

  1. Little Terraced House says

    April 16, 2009 at 22:07

    Hiya Gavin, sorry to hear about Kim, please pass on my best wishes for her speedy recovery. Love to you both.

    Babs xx

    Reply
  2. Silver Rookie says

    April 16, 2009 at 22:47

    Hey Gav,
    I’m impressed at your time management skills!
    Cheers
    Jane

    Reply
  3. Gavin says

    April 16, 2009 at 23:12

    @ Babs. Thank you. I will when I see Kim tomorrow.

    @ Jane. It was a bit of a struggle. I will save some for when you and Sim next visit!

    Reply
  4. Anke says

    April 16, 2009 at 23:52

    I love feta cheese. Any chance you could post the recipe for making it? Would love to give this a try…

    Reply
  5. Gavin says

    April 17, 2009 at 12:36

    Hi Anke. Have a look at this post for the recipe and procedure.
    http://greeningofgavin.blogspot.com/2009/02/homemade-feta-or-gromit-i-found-cheese.html

    Gav

    Reply
  6. Anke says

    April 18, 2009 at 00:01

    Thank you Gavin for your help!

    Reply
  7. ://: Heni ://: says

    June 30, 2009 at 04:32

    I just recently started cheesemaking. Still bit difficult for me but a great challenge. Love your blog – you inspire me!

    Reply

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About Gavin Webber

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An Ordinary Australian Man Who Has A Green Epiphany Whilst Watching A Documentary, Gets a Hybrid Car, Plants A Large Organic Vegetable Garden, Goes Totally Solar, Lowers Consumption, Feeds Composts Bins and Worms, Harvests Rainwater, Raises Chickens, Makes Cheese and Soap, and Eats Locally. All In The Effort To Reduce Our Family's Carbon Footprint So We Can Start Making A Difference For Our Children & Future Generations To Come.

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