Feta Cheese

Recipe By: New England Cheese Making Supply Company
Serves: 1 pound
Start to Finish: 8.5 hours + brining for 12 hours + stabilizing for 2 days

Ingredients:

1 gallon whole milk (goat or cow’s milk will work)
1 packet of mesophilic direct set culture (Starter Culture)
½ rennet tablet, crushed and dissolved in ¼ cup cool water
Optional ¼ tsp calcium chloride
Cheese salt for brining

Directions:

1. Heat milk slowly to 86 degree F (use indirect heat by immersing your milk pot in a larger pot of hot water).
2. Add starter culture and gently stir.
3. Hold at 86 degrees F for 1 hour.
4. Dissolve rennet in cool water and add to milk.
5. Stir gently for 1 minute.
6. Let milk sit undisturbed for 30 min at 86 degrees F.
7. The curd is sufficiently firm when it begins separating from the edge of the pot and a finger inserted makes a clean break. (It will feel like firm yogurt.)
8. Cut the curds into ½ inch cubes.
9. Let rest for 10 minutes.
10. Stir curd gently and raise temperature to 95 degrees over 1 hour, stirring every 10 minutes.
11. After 1 hour of slow heating, drain whey by pouring through a cheesecloth-lined colander.
12. Let curds drain for 4 hours at room temperate.
13. Cut into blocks and rotate.
14. Drain for another 30 minutes.
15. Submerge in brine solution (2 TBSP non-iodized salt, 2 cups cool water, ¼ tsp calcium chloride, 1/8 tsp white vinegar) for 10 – 12 hours.
16. Remove cheese from brine and let stabilized for 1 – 2 days at room temperate.
17. Eat within 10 days or store at 48 – 56 degrees F for several months.