My son gave me the perfect gift for my birthday. A cheese making kit.
I mentioned in the previous post that we had been busy recently so I have only just made my first batch of cheese – my birthday was in December.
The kit comes with instructions for making Marinated Feta and Queso Fresco. I decided to give marinated feta a try as it stores for longer than the queso fresco. There are only the two of us at home and we can only eat a certain amount of cheese and I don’t want to waste it.
The process was a bit fiddly but I need to keep in mind that this was my first try. I felt a bit unsure of myself but when the product was bottled I was delighted with the result.
You start with 4 litres of milk which is a lot. The pot I started off with was too small
and I transferred the milk to another pot before continuing.
You add rennet and citric acid when the milk reaches 95degrees, this produces the curds.
After resting for a period the curds are then drained in muslin over the sink.
the drained curds are then put in the mould in the cheese container. A weight is put on top. I had to improvise with the weight and will use a different weight next time.
After resting for a period the cheese is taken out and cut into half inch cubes.
You can see from that picture that the edges of the mould are a bit crumbly as it was not compacted sufficiently. I will fix that with the next batch I do.
The cut cheese is then returned to the cheese container which has a brine solution in it. After resting for a period in the brine the cheese is then drained and dried and packed into a sterilised jar.
Chopped fresh herbs were added and then canola oil which will give the final result of marinated feta after one week.
Gippsland Granny 
You will let us know how the cheese is won’t you? I am most interested to hear about the taste!
Best wishes, Jay x
I am certainly looking forward to tasting it. I will let you know how it is.
Looks good, but is that all the cheese you got from 4 litres of milk?
Yes, it doesn’t look much but it is in a 750 ml container.
That looks really professional. Where do you by rennet and citric acid from?
oops, I mean buy
You can get both at health food shops and I know you can get citric acid at the supermarket as I have used it previously when making lemon cordial. Not sure if you can get rennet from the supermarket. My rennet tablets came with the kit.