How to Make Homemade Feta Cheese

Let's face it, there is Feta and there is Feta. The solid white blocks store-bought bears little resemblance with the soft, crumbly and tasty cheese, one gets in Greece or in specialist shops. 

With the lockdown one thing is certain, our days of enjoying foreign food in situs have been put on hold. So at Pebble Soup HQ, we have decided to 're-create'. A couple of weeks back, I was pairing Portuguese wine. This week, I expanded my cheese-making repertoire.

What is Feta and How Should it Look Like?

Feta is a cheese matured in brine (that's the technical term for very salty water). It's made from a mixture of sheep and goat milk. Unless you are in a 'sheep region', ewe milk is near impossible to get. Therefore either go all goat-milk or half-half goat and unhomogenised cow's milk, the choice is yours. Ideally, you'll want to achieve that grainy appearance, you see in Greek salads or in pastries such as Spanakopita. 

Is Feta Easy to Make?

Not exactly, only because making feta at home takes a long time. On the other hand, you don't have to be present, all of the time, so the 'doing bit' is easy,  the process less so. of course, there are easier options to choose from, such as Ricotta or Labne, but in my opinion, if you nail Feta, you are ready to make any other cheeses (within reason).

What will you need?

Thermometer

Large slotted spoon

Large deep pan with lid

Plastic boards

Colander

Glass bowl

Long sharp knife 

Only 5 Ingredients

1 litre of unhomogenised cow's milk

1 litre of goat's milk

1 tablespoon of plain full-fat bio live yoghurt

1/4 rennet tablet

1 sterile cheesecloth or muslin 

2 teaspoons of salt

But around 15 steps so please read through before starting

1. Boil 50 ml of water and dissolve 1/4 rennet tablet. Make sure it is fully dissolved so it will involve a bit of stirring.
2. Mix the yoghurt with 50ml of cow's milk, leave this to rest on the kitchen top.
3. In the saucepan, combine both milk and bring the temperature to 32C on medium heat.
4. When the temperature has reached 32C, cover with the lead and leave to rest for an hour.
5. After an hour, if the temperature has dropped, gently bring it back to 32C, then stir the rennet solution in, very slowly. Use up and down motion rather than round and round. Do so for only a couple of second
6. Put the lid on and leave it to rest for 12 hours.
7. Hold the knife at an angle and cut cubes of about 1.5 cms. Leave the curds to rest for 14 minutes
8. Now, you are going to collect the cubes in the muslin. First, line the colander with the muslin, if you wish to keep the whey (great fertiliser for veggies) set the colander on the top of a large bowl. Very gently pour the curds and the lot in the colander
9. Gather up the corners of the muslin to create a bag and let the whey drain over a sink or over a bowl for 36 hours
10. Halfway through flip the curds.
11. That's it, you are almost done. Open the bag and gently cut the large curds. 
12. Sprinkle the salt making sure that it is distributed through.
13. Now create a square parcel, place it on the board, place the other board over and place a heavy object on the top (a saucepan filled with water will do)
14. Let this press in a cool place for 12 hours, open the muslin and cut the cheese into squares.
15. You can eat the feta now or store it in the fridge in an airtight container for a couple of days.
16. If you still have some after that time you can store your feta cubes in a jar submerged with olive oil and herbs.

 

Homemade Goat Cheese

At Pebble Soup HQ, we started to make our own goat cheese. It's not complicated, I would go as far as saying that with a good goat's milk, and a few tips, this disappearing ancient craft, could be easily revived, in your own kitchen.

At first, it was trial and error but a visit to a goat-farm put me right. There I learnt that the key is the goat's milk. Unpasteurised is best unless your immune system is deficient or you are pregnant. However raw milk is not easy to source, and for this reason, pasteurised full-fat goat milk will do. The keyword is full fat, anything but whole milk won't do.

My next point is almost as important as the first. Hygiene: everything, including your hands, has to be squeaky clean, soaked in boiling water, obviously not your mitts.

Things you'll need which you might not already have:

a jam/dairy thermometer, one which clips by the side of the pan, at least know how to recognise when the turning off the heat point is, a cheesecloth or muslin (I get mine from the chemist) and last but not least citric acid.

Firm and Crumbly Goat's cheese

Ingredients:

4 pints whole goat's milk

1tsp citric acid

1 to 2 tsp salt

optional herbs or flavouring

Method:

Dissolve 1tsp of citric acid in 50 ml of water and leave this to cool to room temperature.

Pour the milk into a large pan, clip the thermometer to the pan and heat slowly to 190F/88C. Stir frequently. Turn the heat to low but don't remove the pan from the heat source. Before the foam subsides drizzle in the citric acid solution. Stir and cook for 30 seconds.

Now remove from the heat and continue to stir until you can see the curds.

Line a colander with the cheesecloth. Slowly pour in the curds and drain for 10 minutes. At this stage mix in the salt and any herbs or flavourings if desired.

Gather the cheese into a mound. Fold the cheesecloth corners and press very very very gently. Add a heavyweight or a pan full of water over the cloth and let it drain for at least an hour.

Mould your cheese into any shape you fancy and use immediately or leave it to chill in the fridge in a clean airtight container for up to a week.

Here is a recipe I made using the homemade goat cheese: Borek

St Agur and Parsley Sauce

I first arrived in London roughly at the same time as Raymond Blanc emigrated to England. I grant it to you, emigrating the same year is a tenuous connection. However, when I was asked to write about one of Chef Blanc's St Agur Blue recipes I couldn't resist. On reflection, it might have been the opportunity to cook with St Agur which made me come out of blog-posting retirement. Whichever of the two, I am glad I did.

St Agur looks a little like Roquefort with its coloured mould veins, though the end product is far less salty and much creamier. It comes from the same area, L' Auvergne, the Velay mountains to be precise. But, if Roquefort goes back to 1411, cheese lovers had to wait for a little over 550 years to enjoy St Agur. This relatively new cheese was developed in 1988 a little after Raymond and I moved to England.

Cooking with blue cheese is not easy, one has to judge perfectly how much to add to the dish or the cheese will quickly overcome the other flavours. I thought a versatile Parsley Sauce would be a good bet for those who would like to jazz up their menu. Sorry, Raymond, your recipe was a tat too strong for our taste but it's easy to tweak.

For the vegetarian version think endives, as the slightly bitter taste will be mellowed by the strong flavour of the cheese

Here we go, and as a treat, I have added some of Chef Raymond Blanc's other suggestions

St Agur and Parsley sauce

Ingredients:

25g butter, unsalted

25g plain flour

250ml whole milk

100g St Agur Blue Cheese (personally I would go for 70g and add more if necessary)

1 bunch parsley chopped finely

Method:

Melt the butter in a saucepan, 

Remove from the heat and stir in the flour, add the milk and whisk until the butter and flour have evenly dispersed.

Back on the heat and bring to boil, stirring all the time

Simmer for 2 minutes 

Take off the heat, whisk in the St Agur blue cheese and chopped parsley and place in a sauceboat ready to serve with ham.

More recipes on Pebble Soup with Blue Cheese
Pork Burger with Blue Cheese 

Disclaimer: I was contacted by St Agur's PR to review the recipes. I received samples for the trial, no money was exchanged, views are my own.