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[intro video]
>> ELLA: Hi guys. It’s Ella from MakeCheese.ca, here to help you find your inner cheesemaker.
Today we are going to be making the famous, the fabulous, the fantastic, the drum roll
[drum roll]
We’re going to make feta.
I’m really excited. I want you to be ready and all set, so a helpful list can be found
below. And also, to get everything you need, check out the PDF recipe.
>> NARRATOR: Now that you’ve got the proper equipment and milk, you can start making feta.
Begin by putting your heat on a low to medium setting so that the milk heats up gradually.
I would recommend taking your milk out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you begin
so the milk has a chance to warm up and doesn’t get too shocked by the temperature change.
In this video, I will be making cow feta and have purchased a higher fat milk - homogenized
3.25% - to get a better flavour and a higher yield.
Next, you need to gradually heat up your milk until it gets to 93 degrees fahrenheit or
33 degrees Celsius. This should take about five minutes.
Once your milk has achieved the desired temperature, it is now ready to have the culture added.
You can put in a pinch or an eighth of a teaspoon.
The reason we add culture is to ripen the milk, which in turn gives the feta its flavor.
Make sure to stir the culture in gently until it has fully dissolved and is evenly distributed.
Next we’re going to add our calcium chloride. Calcium chloride is a salt solution used to
restore calcium balance lost in the pasteurization process when the milk is rapidly heated and
cooled.
We’re going to add a quarter a teaspoon of calcium chloride to a quarter cup of non-chlorinated
water. Then we’re going to add it to our milk, stir, and cover for an hour while the
culture and calcium chloride take effect.
While you are waiting for the milk, it is a good idea to prepare the rennet in advance.
Cut your tablet into four equal pieces along the perforated line and add a quarter tablet
to a quarter cup of non-chlorinated water and stir. Keep in mind it won’t fully dissolve.
It’s good idea to prepare your rennet early so it has time to release its active ingredients.
Rennet is an enzyme that essentially brings the milk solids together to form a mass of
curd. And it, therefore, separates out the liquid whey.
Rennet is originally found in the lining of a calf’s stomach, but the rennet we use
is a vegetable rennet.
As your adding your liquid rennet, you want to make sure that you get all of the pieces
of the rennet out, so dip it back into the milk and pour the leftover bits back in the
milk.
You want to give it a good stir and then cover. And after an hour, you’ll have found that
you have now made a curd mass.
After an hour, you’ll find that your milk has turned into one solid mass.
Congratulations, you have just made curd.
The next step is to cut the curd. Essentially, we are cutting the curd so we can release
the whey and form an even stronger mass of curd.
We want to cut the curd into a grid, and we want to do this over a period of five minutes.
So, for example: you want to make a cut, wait for 30 seconds, and then make another cut.
And this will just help to release the whey from the curd mass.
Remember to make sure that your knife cuts reach all the way to the bottom of the pot.
Next, we’re going to prepare our cheese mold. You want to make sure that you get a
bowl that’s big enough to catch all of the whey that is going to drip from the curd and
then line your cheese mold with cheese cloth.
You can make your cheese cloth as thick as you like. And keep in mind that if you have
a fairly weak curd, then you might want to double up the cheese cloth so that it doesn’t
drip through.
Now we’re ready for stirring. We do this because we want to release the whey from the
curd.
You generally want to stir your curd for about 15 to 20 minutes. It really gives it a chance
to have the whey release from the curd and, eventually, you want it to settle to the bottom
of the pot, and you’ll see that the yellow whey will rise to the top.
As you can see, this is a fairly weak curd. And if you wanted to make it stronger, you
can put it back on a low temperature and stir for about 5 minutes. And what it’s going
to do is help the curd mass just to become that much stronger.
Now that your curd has settled to the bottom, it’s ready to be scooped into the cheese
mold. This is going to allow all of the excess whey to drain and essentially form your mass
of feta.
Depending on the type of milk you use, especially if you use goat’s milk, you might find that
you have excess curd that won’t fit into the cheese mold. Just wait a few minutes until
all of the whey drains from the mold and then put in the remaining cheese mold.
Once the curd has been fully transferred into the mold, pile the cheese cloth on top of
the cheese.
The whey is now going to drain for the next 12 or 24 hours. I often like to put a bit
of a weight on top of the cheese to help release the whey more quickly.
It’s also a good idea to flip the cheese within the first 2 hours a few times to evenly
distribute the whey being released.
After about 18 hours, your cheese should be a quite firm. If you desire a really dry feta,
then it would be a good idea to unwrap the cheese from the cheese cloth and lay it out
on a cutting board for an extra few hours to dry out.
Now that the cheese has reached its desired firmness, it’s ready for cutting and salting.
Sprinkle your cheese with coarse salt and store in the fridge for a few days in a loosely
covered container.
If you desire a strong feta, then follow the instructions on the recipe to make a brine.
Congratulations, you’ve just made feta.
[outro music]