Making Goat Feta

My friend Brenda has 3 goats, two girls and a boy, and she gave me a gallon of goat milk to make cheese. I looked up some feta recipes on the internet and found a couple that I used.

The first step is the curding process. I used a liquid vegetable rennet, BUT my first mistake was overheating the milk! I was supposed to keep it at a constant 86F and I accidently heated to 110F. I also used a dehydrated then reconstituted buttermilk for the live enzyme cultures. Next time I'll use a different vegetarian live enzyme and won't heat it past 86F.

After the vegetable rennet curded the milk I hung the curds to extract the whey. In one recipe it stated to let the curds hang for 6-8hrs... in another it suggested they hang for 24hrs.

I let them hang for 7.5hrs. Next time I think I'll let them hang out awhile longer. After the whey has been extracted I covered the cheese with coarse salt and let it rest for 24hrs. Well the end result was a very salty very bland tasting feta. Next time I'll either marinate the cheese in herbed olive oil or I'll do the salt brine process which takes 4-6 months and will most likely result in a better tasting cheese.

I also made 4 loaves of whole wheat bread that day, and I'm happy to say they turned out deliciously! Yum! Nothing beats hot-out-of-the-oven fresh baked bread with a little cultured butter :-).