The Feta Flop (or how NOT to make Feta)

So I decided to make cheese...great idea right? So ummm...
I was going to make feta! I would be the Queen Cheese of the century (or at least the day). Brilliant, Genius, Light-Bulb, Brainstorm! yeah right.

First Lesson Learned of the day: Start off with soft molded cheeses and THEN work your way uphill. (So, uh, I read this 5 hours after I had started the process).

So here is the process....(UH, can I just say that this is rather embarrassing for me?)...

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I went armed into the kitchen -(my machine gun on my shoulder (JK))- with…3 cheese books.

First step: I chose a recipe…I knew that I want to do feta…but which one? The mild, sharp, marinated, how much of this stuff did I really want to make?!?!
I finally chose a Mild Feta Cheese recipe that made the smallest amount (in case of a disaster (first smart move) *clapping*.

THEN, I gathered up my partners in cheese-crime;


Milk, Buttermilk, Liquid Rennet, Water, and Kosher Salt, thermometer  a double broiler, cheese-spoon, cheesecloth, knife, and 1 glass dish.

                                                            I was ready, (or was I?)!

I filled one half of the double broiler with just enough water to cover the bottom of the next pot. Then I filled the top pot with milk and turned on the stove.

I was having major problems with my thermometer…MAJOR…he -(of course it’s a he)- just didn’t want to start!

“MMMMOOOOMMMMM what’s wrong with our new thermometer?” “ It’s not turning on!"   Uh, does it even have a battery?” …“ I put it in”…. *sounds of me opening up the thermometer* …probing around with my finger… “is this thing chargeable?” “no why?” “it must have evaporated. “are you sure?” “My finger is half-way in it, nothing is there.” *Mom takes thermometer* yeah you’re right, let me go get the other one we got. *Mom comes back with package*. Well there is a battery in this one. I had better go out to the garbage and get this one’s package…

Well to make a long story short, she found his battery in the package that had been thrown in the garbage can. It was fixed… (this took about 2 min.)...


Second step: Figure out how to use this thing before my milk passes the right temperature.

I had to put in the battery twice...the first time I had put it in wrong. It kept working the opposite from what the directions said. Finally, I put them aside and tried using my brain. It worked (amazing)!

YIKES!!! It was 5 degrees past what it was supposed to be! WAHHHH! Wait was I

supposed to have it on F or C?  *calling Mom* then *calling Papa on cell phone*                               Whew! It was on C and past the temp, but when it was on F it was fine : )   Turns out we needed to use F.

Got it to the right temp and turned off the stove-top and added the buttermilk.

Let set for 1hour. Thats one thing with cheese you have to be patient ! So I let it set.
Then I poured in the veggie rennet and water...

I had to turn on the stove and then I stirred –GENTLY- for 1 minutes.

Wait, what was happening? It was getting hard to stir!! I came out of my day-dream and looked down... Cheese was being formed before my very eyes!

 

Neat, huh? 

Then I had to let it set for another hour. This time it was a little harder to leave it all alone  : )

An hour later I opened the dish and looked down…where was my beautiful cheese?!??!?!

(poking around)

Sunk to the bottom of the deep… its not supposed to do that. I am still reading up on it, and I think that it had something to do with the rennet.

I cut the cheese into curds (it is really hard ot cut something you can't see) and then turned on the stove and I stirred and stirred, for 15 min. My arm was fried.

I poured the cheese into a colander that was covered in cheesecloth. To drain out the whey, which went to some hungry plants (and weeds).

Then I tied it up and let it drip.

For 5 hours. Then I cut it up into slices and laid it in the glass dish, sprinkled it with salt and then tasted some... This was the big moment, when I found out I had done something wrong....IT WAS SQUEAKING!It had a consistency like, well...rubber :O It tasted fine though (to me).

Its aging right now so we shall see what it tastes like after a few days (if it hasn't turned into stone yet). So instead of becoming the Queen Cheese, I became the Mouse Queen. SQUEAK….yes it tastes ok : )

Wish me luck on my next cheesy adventure, which should be soon!


Sincerely,


The Mouse Queen

Blurry pic of my cheese aging....