Monday, September 24, 2012

More Feta please

So for those of you who won't be making cheese yourself but would still like to have a little look into some of the steps - here are some photos of my new BIG batch of Feta. It was such a success with the family that I decided to give 8 leters a go (what would fit in my biggest pot). I only made 3 leters last week.
Milk heated to 37 C and then add prepared starer (I did that the night before so that it set overnight) and rennet. Keep at 37 C for 60 - 80 minutes to set. My chilly bin works well as a warming area too. I kept the water at 37 and so it worked really well.
Then cut the curd and leave for another 2 hours (in the warm chilly bin at 37 C). I use a drying rack (well - we cut one in half so that it would fit) to make the horizontal cuts so you end up with little cubes.
After the two hours you separate the curds and the whey. Whey is great to use in any recipe you would use water. Our breads are extra nice when we have whey in the house. :-)
Place the curds into "hoops". I used all the Easiyo containers I have - placed on cloth on those plastic baby plate holders. That way the whey can drain out nicely through the holes (and the plates can be sterilised in the dishwasher).
These need to then be turned 3 or 4 times. They quickly form their shape - so I just take them out and turn them around. I leave them overnight in the chilly bin with a mug of hot water.
And then for a week in brine. In the morning I weigh the cheese so that I know how much brine to make and then they sit in the fridge - with little children eagerly counting down the days. :-)
When I made my first batch of 3 leters I had already taken a good amount of cream off the milk. I ended up with 400g from the 3 leters of "low cream" milk. This time I used it will all the cream in and my 8 leters yielded 1,4kg of cheese. I was VERY pleased. And so is the rest of the family.

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