How to make feta-style cheese at home — a step-by-step guide to homemade brined feta, including curdling, draining, and brining.
Making feta-style cheese at home is rewarding — fresh, tangy, brined cheese for salads and cooking. It takes time (especially the brining), but the process is achievable. Here's how to make feta at home.
Homemade Brined Cheese
Making feta-style cheese at home is more involved than simple fresh cheeses, requiring cultures, rennet, and time for brining, but it's a satisfying project that yields fresh, tangy, brined cheese. (Authentic feta is a protected Greek cheese; homemade is a "feta-style" cheese, but delicious.) Homemade feta is great crumbled over salads and in cooking. The process involves curdling the milk, draining and salting the curds, and brining the cheese. Here's the basic method to make feta-style cheese at home, from milk to brined cheese.
What You Need
To make feta-style cheese, you need: milk (sheep's milk is traditional and most authentic, but goat's or cow's milk, or blends, work — use good, non-ultra-pasteurized milk), a starter culture (mesophilic), rennet (to coagulate), and salt (lots, for the brine). Equipment: a pot, a thermometer, a knife, a slotted spoon, cheesecloth, a mold or container, and a container for brining. The culture and rennet are key cheesemaking ingredients. So you need good milk, culture, rennet, and plenty of salt, plus basic equipment and a brining container. Sheep's milk gives the most authentic feta flavor, but cow's or goat's milk works too.
Curdling and Cutting
Warm the milk, add the starter culture, and let it ripen for a while (developing acidity and flavor). Then add diluted rennet and let the milk set into a curd (until a clean break forms). Cut the set curd into cubes to release whey, and let the curds rest. So culturing the milk, then curdling it with rennet and cutting the curd, creates the curds. The culturing develops feta's tangy flavor, while the rennet sets the curd. Cutting the curd releases whey and prepares it for draining. This start is similar to many cheeses, but the culturing and subsequent salting and brining shape it into feta.
Draining and Salting
Drain the curds from the whey (in cheesecloth or a mold), letting the whey run off and the curds firm up — feta curds are drained and lightly pressed (often just under their own weight or light pressing) into a block, not heavily pressed. Once drained into a firm block, cut the feta into chunks and salt them generously (dry-salting), which begins to flavor, firm, and preserve the cheese, drawing out more moisture. So draining the curds into a block and salting the chunks firms and seasons the feta. The generous salting is characteristic of feta and prepares it for brining. The cheese is now firm, salted chunks ready for the brine.
Brining
The defining step for feta is brining. Make a salt brine (saltwater solution), and submerge the salted feta chunks in it, then refrigerate. The feta cures and develops in the brine over days to weeks — the brine flavors, firms, preserves, and gives feta its characteristic salty tang and texture. The longer it brines, the saltier and firmer (and more developed) it becomes. So brining the feta is the curing step that gives it its salty, tangy, firm character — the essential feta finish. Feta is cured and stored in brine, so this step both makes and preserves it. After brining for a while, your feta is ready.
Using and Storing Your Feta
Your homemade feta-style cheese is ready to enjoy after brining — fresh, tangy, salty, and crumbly. Crumble it over Greek salad, roasted vegetables, and grain bowls; bake it (baked feta); or use it in spanakopita and other dishes. Keep it submerged in its brine in the fridge, where it will continue to develop and keep for weeks. If it's too salty, soak it briefly in water before using. So use your homemade feta crumbled over salads and in cooking, storing it in brine. Making feta at home takes time (especially brining), but the fresh, tangy result is a rewarding cheesemaking achievement.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you make feta at home?
Culture the milk, curdle it with rennet, cut and drain the curds into a block, cut and generously salt the chunks, then brine them in saltwater, refrigerated, for days to weeks to cure.
What milk is best for homemade feta?
Sheep's milk is traditional and most authentic, but goat's or cow's milk (or blends) work too. Use good, non-ultra-pasteurized milk for best results.
Why is feta brined?
Brining cures and preserves the feta, giving it its characteristic salty tang and firm texture. Feta is cured and stored in brine, so brining both makes and keeps the cheese.