Operation “feta” is a Go!

Who would have ever thought that making cheese would be so much work? In cheeses defense, in my particular case, it really isn’t the cheeses fault. Our kitchen was a few days behind in the cleaning department, so it took me about two hours of solid cleaning before I felt the whole place was commercial kitchen caliber spotless enough to get the milk on the stove and warmed up to the 86 degrees required… I’ve managed to start in the middle of the story; let me back track a bit. This morning the mail woman delivered the package I had been waiting for from Hoegger’s Goat Supply –this package included new milk filters, cheese cloth, and the cultures I needed to make my very first batch of feta, ever. We have been saving the milk from the saanan every milking for the past three days, so we had three and a half gallons of filtered –clean- milk taking up a lot of room in our fridge, and I was anxious to start experimenting, but I neglected to order a cheese thermometer when I placed the rest of my order because I figured I could buy a thermometer anywhere, so why pay extra for shipping and handling? And then I neglected to go anywhere else, so this morning I found myself running into town to hunt down a thermometer. I purchased a real nice one; it is all digital so after the economic collapse and batteries become scarce, my thermometer will no longer work.

Okay, now I’m back on track… So, I brought the milk up to the required 86 degrees, then added the cultures, let it sit for an hour, then brought it back up to 86 degrees (it had only dropped one degree in that entire hour). 

Then I added to rennet in order to induce coagulation. One hour later I cut up the curd (it was awesome!) and then stirred it every five minutes for fifteen minutes. (I know the picture isn’t the greatest… but, in my defense, taking a picture of milk curdling is a lot like trying to take a picture of paint drying; it’s just not that photogenic).

 I then poured it into the cheese cloth and strained it, and then hung it up to drip for six hours… and that is as far as I am right now. 

At midnight I will be able to take it down and slice the ball into thirds and then start the salting process… I will continue the cheese adventure update tomorrow when I have more to share; I’m pretty much at a standstill for the evening. But, for the record –this is just something that needs said- I think this is super awesome!