Made Feta for the first time

[Kittyfeet]

This past weekend was an adventure in feta! I used 2 gallons of whole milk from some grocery store brand. I figure why use the ultra fancypants stuff on a first batch in case something goes terribly wrong.

The whole process took a few days (I started on Sunday and finished up Wednesday), but it's just a few minutes of work each day.

We sampled a piece and it tastes just like feta. I'm really impressed at the process, and how hands off it is for the most part. There is just over 1 pound of cheese after all the whey drained and the curd dried out sufficiently. Next time I'll do more gallons so I have some to give away

Basic curd making:

After hanging about 12 hours:

After cutting. These cured for about 3 days and lost about a pound of whey weight.

And here they are tonight! I'm going to put the brine in when it's cooled down, and then ignore them for about a month.

 

[AkTom]

Looking good. If my wife wasn’t sensitive to dairy, I’d be making some.

 

[bernardsmith]

Looks good but I am surprised that you got only 1 lb of cheese from 2 gallons of milk. I generally get about 1.25 lbs of cheese from a single gallon.

 

[Kittyfeet]

Yeah, that surprised me as well. When I first weighed it after hanging, it was about 2 lb 7 oz. After letting it sit for 3 days it really condensed and seemed to lose a ton of whey. But the texture is really good, so no complaints there.

Also the type of milk I used could be a factor. I'd be interested to see if raw milk vs whole milk gives more final product.