Made my first batch of Feta about a week ago. It turned out great. I followed the recipe in Ricki C’s book. I didn’t brine the cheese though. It said that if you’re not using farm fresh goats milk the cheese may deteriorate in the brine. I used pasteurized goat milk. Has anyone had issues with their feta falling apart in the brine? I think I read that you can add some cal chloride to the solution to help prevent it…..

One of the ways of reducing the desintagrtion of the cheese is adding CaCl to the brine, it prevents the leaching of Calcium.
Olive oil is also popular to preserve the Feta, make sure u have the desired salt on the cheese and then jar it.

CaCl is not enough , u must make the brine acidic,  the brine should be as acid as much as cheese, so for home cheesemakers, use the same cheese whey as brine (it has Calcium and acid) so no need for CaCl and acid. just keep in mind that u should save the whey and holdit in closed container beside the cheese while it is in room temp, so both will reach the same acid (same temp , time) , so when it come to brine time in fridge, add salt to whey, put ur feta inside the brine-whey and store in fridge.

cheers

Thanks for the info. I’ve considered getting a PH tester to monitor acidity levels at certain times in the process. Are there any acidity “benchmarks” a person can go by during the cheese making process or is it mainly trial and error?

of course there is benchmark , but it is related to each kind of cheese..
pH tester is very helpful and cheap (starting from 40$) , it will help you to achive more quality and closer to commercial characteristics

Have to be carfull on the “cheap” testers. The lady that bought her tester is not working right, it fluctuates wildly, told her to send it back. SO make sure u do research on the specific brand.

I’ve seen testers range in price from $50 up to $300. I think this like a lot of other things, you get what you pay for…

no, $50 work fine for cheese makers , u need just one decimal

example pH 5.1
you do not need pH 5.14

so buy the one of one digit after the dot

I noticed the “Hanna” brand seems pretty popular. Anyone know how long the electrodes last before needing replaced? I guess it probably depends on the tester you buy…..

and how well u look after it, the one I saw u have to keep the tip (ball) moist at all times.

I always get nervous buying items that I’m not really familiar with. I get the “analysis paralysis” and end up not getting anything. There’s the ‘ol OCD kicking in again as my wife would say. At some point I’ll just make a decision and go with one then hope for the best…..

LOL, maybe call your local water works and see what brand name they use, or maybe even a pharmacist.