I made Feta for the first time last week.  Worked out well but used 12% brine and very salty.  It has been in brine now for 5 days and outside is becoming a bit mushy - I was thinking of trying Rich’s suggestion of air drying in the refrigerator for a while - but I’m not sure for how long and if the same problem will arise when I return it to the brine.  Also what is the least % brine that is safe for storing the Feta in for a month or so?

Brine is usualy a saturated solution of salt water. 2LB salt to 4L or water. However I thingk it changes as to company to company.

http://danlac.com/news/cheese-salting

Thanks for the link will print up and read with a nice cup of coffee.

Peta…..
Feta is one cheese that I have not yet attempted. It is one of the only cheeses that I do not really care for (other than limburger…..yuck).
I do have an older brother who absolutely loves Feta so before too long I’m going to be forced to make him one. Because of that I will be watching this thread in hopes of not having the same problems when I finally do break down and attempt one.
Good luck on a workable solution.
Dave

Fetas come in many flavors, dont toss it till u have tried at least 8 dif types LOL Their are some that are very mild like cream cheese. Its usual the mas produced ones that are overly strong.

Thanks for the encouragement.  I might try it again but today I’m back to Camembert in the hope of overcoming the shortfalls of the last batch.  I’ll be experimenting with a few varieties of cheeses before I know which ones work well but in terms of results and reward for the effort.  Next time
round I’m going to give a Blue a go.  I’ll keep you posted.

Peta - 04 December 2008 05:52 AM

I made Feta for the first time last week.  Worked out well but used 12% brine and very salty.  It has been in brine now for 5 days and outside is becoming a bit mushy - I was thinking of trying Rich’s suggestion of air drying in the refrigerator for a while - but I’m not sure for how long and if the same problem will arise when I return it to the brine.  Also what is the least % brine that is safe for storing the Feta in for a month or so?

with all my respect to other replies, ur problem is that ur brine contain no acid, so the cheese has been dissolved and became mushy

for u, if u have an pH meter, add citric acid or lemon juice to ur brine until pH4.6
if u do not , and the best practice is to use they whey which u collected it from same cheese, and left outside in close jar to acidifed while the cheese is in mold
add salt to this whey and put ur feta in it, and u will have 100 healthy feta

good luck

Thanks Nabil,

I don’t have a PH Meter but I do intend to get one.  I didn’t use the whey just water but I will try that method next time.  I am going to try adding some lemon juice at this late stage as it might prevent further softening and I’m sure it won’t do it any harm.  Do you know what the best % is for the salt/water or whey.  I found 120 gm salt to 880 ml water was too salty.

Peta,
Although I know next to nothing about making feta cheese, I will say that Nabil is right on the money about using the whey as your brine solution.
I read an earlier post he made concerning this issue so I tried it on one of my provolones….
I had always had a problem with my provolones melting while in the brine solution for a two day period but when I used the whey to make my brine, this was not an issue at all.
Now having said that I will tell you a little story that shows I’m somewhat of a bonehead.
After having tried this about a month ago and seeing fantastic results, I proceeded to make a nice provolone the past weekend. I had probably the best curd I’ve ever seen with this particular recipe and the smell and texture simply could not have been better.
Well when it came time to brine my little masterpieces I absent-mindedly mixed up a water and salt solution and carefully placed the cheese into it. I then forgot about it for about a day and a half.
Well when I went in to give the balls a roll sure enough they had melted quite a lot and the perfect shape of my cheese looked pretty nasty. I then rememberd what I had done the last time and felt like kicking myself.
My lesson in all of this:  ALWAYS…..ALWAYS…..ALWAYS, check your cheesemaking log BEFORE making any cheese. I had this little trick well documented but I had become over confident with this cheese that I failed to give it a quick once over.
Nabil had given some very good, solid advice and because I tried to cut corners I did not get the benefit of this advice.
Brining in the whey will always be much better than water. They whey matches the acidity of the cheese you have made and will not leach the cheese in any way shape or form.
Thanks to Nabil for the suggestion.
Dave

Oh, and Rich…..
I guess this means I have to take Provolone off of my “down pat” list.

Thanks everyone - I’ll let you know when I’ve “got it down pat” and I’ll be using Nabil’s suggestions along the “whey” (sorry).  I intend starting a log of what I’m doing so I can keep track of where I’m going wrong/right - but the first step is to get a pH meter.  I made some Camembert on Thursday - so far so good - looking and smelling great.

Now that I think of it, I had the same problem with a Haloumi I made a few months ago - it got too salty, so I changed to a less salty brine which was made with water.  That cured the over-saltiness, but the chunks became mushy.  I had to air dry them to get back to the firm texture I wanted.  Had I used the whey, it may not have happened at all.