From Artisan Cheese Making at Home, Chapter 2, page 68 or page 70
Was the give away our Feta and Halloumi making day at Smoky Valley Goat Cheese, or have we taken you by surprise?
I have been working like a fiend to get these two cheeses under my belt and have learned a great deal. Feta is easier to make. You can use goat, sheep or cow’s milk with this one, so everyone can participate! You will have to change the feta recipe if you are not using the goat milk as the enzymes in each is so different. If you are making cow or sheep feta, e-mail us and let us know how much milk you are planning to use and we will help you tweak your recipe!
I used all three milks with my Halloumi: sheep, cow and goat. I love my homemade halloumi.There are more traditional recipes out there, but give Mary’s a try as it is very straightforward. Read my two posts on making it first, as that will make a difference.
Now is the time to order your cultures, if you haven’t already. Ian has prepared a detailed list for you and you will save on postage if you order most of what you need. Order right away as it takes about 1o days!
The Task for this Cheesepalooza Challenge:
If you have made it before, we challenge you to please do it again, “Mary’s way”, link to your other feta or halloumi cheese making experiences, debriefing them all. If you don’t care to do this, just send me the link to your “old” post with the deets so I can include it in the round up. Hopefully, you will be motivated to attempt some of the alternate cheeses!
Let us know what you think. Which recipe works best for your palate and your locality?
This will be a good time for you to order everything you think you may need.
Read the recipe a few times, take lots of photos and notes as you go, and write about your experience.
IMPT: If you choose to use a different recipe, or process, please just explain why so we can learn together. I want to make more Halloumi, but using the more traditional method next time, and cow’s milk feta is also on my list for the future.
When you are finished:
Please send me the following deets once you are done, and the same deets when you post an optional recipe as I will also be posting a Chapter Two Optional Recipe Post.
- Name
- Post URL
- Where you are from
- photo
Optional Recipes to add value to your third month (if you choose):
Here are a couple of other recipes in Chapter two we suggest you explore and share through the month, if you want to make more than one of these recipes:
- Cotija
- Ricotta Slata
It is also a good time to make any other of the cheeses in this Chapter that you want to before we leave it. These are the last recipes we will be doing for Chapter Two. Please include simple Tasting Notes at the bottom of each post so we can have a frame of reference to understand your cheese a bit better:
Tasting Notes:
- Appearance:
- Nose (aroma):
- Overall Taste:
- Sweet to Salty:
- Mild (mellow) to Robust to Pungent (stinky):
- Mouth Feel: (gritty, sandy, chewy, greasy, gummy, etc.):
To read about each of our Feta or Halloumi Making Experiences:
- Valerie: Feta, Halloumi, Feta and Halloumi
- Addie: Feta and Halloumi
- Ian: Feta and Halloumi
- Deb: has been in the process of moving all month and had to bow out of this one. We missed her at our tasting, too!
Local Challenge Three and four Tasting: SAVE THE DATE
We will be hosting our third Tasting at the end of November on a week night. Date will be posted soon!
Ooh, decisions, decisions! I’ve made both of these before and love them both, it’s going to be a busy cheese making month!
Had halloumi for the first time last night & loved it! Excited for this month.
Should have my month two challenge post up tonight or tomorrow as well.
I’m so impressed with your “feta is easier to make!”
My two favorite cheeses in the whole world so I am so excited to try and make these myself now. Bit anxious too but I’ll dive into it and see where it leads me…:)
Hi! I am going to make the feta with cows milk, so please send me the info I need.
Hi Laurel,
I would follow the recipe for Feta, but you could double the mild lipase or use a strong lipase. It should turn out Feta-esk. It will miss the goatiness of normal feta. It should work out well.
Here is a recipe from John the creator of Cheeseforum.org that can be done in a day or so
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,27.msg30.html#msg30
This is another one from John and is a 3 day recipe that can be done with cow milk
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,57.msg117.html#msg117
Let me know if you need any more help.
If anyone needs any additional information please let me know. email me at treuer.ih@gmail.com
Ian
This will be fun. Not sure if it is cheating, but we made feta on the weekend and it seemed to go well, we will find out in a few days. We will make one more and instead of cutting into the cubes want to keep it in a larger piece. MK book is not clear but do we just dry salt for 24 hours and the put in light brine for 3 weeks?
Also looking forward to halloumi, which I do not think I have ever had. I have had lots of kefalotyri fried as saganaki but halloumi.
Hi Larry!
HalloumiI is significantly different in texture than the saganaki cheese! Can’t wait to see picks of your feta! Good for you!!
🙂
V
I have made Camembert and Saint Marcelin but have not tried Halloumi I love Halloumi The first time I had in a restaurant, grilled and served with seaweed salad
Nell,
I am also a Halloumi fan. Ours was incredible and kept a very long time. It isn’t something I often think of as it is not a cheese of my early eating culture, but when I had it in the fridge, we ate it often and everyone loves it. It is an easy process, but tricky to get down to a tender mass. I wanted to make it seasonally, but lost my cheese making partner and won’t make anything but fresh cheeses on my own. Made a Queso Fresco that was fantastic that will be out in the alivemagazine in October, but I cannot post the recipe for two years on my site. That was so easy, really lovely and a lot of fun. The alivemagazine is available in Health Food Stores across Western Canada and online, too, so google it come October and try that one next? Quark is amazing… so so many I love that are so easy.
Hugs and be cheesy!
Valerie
I have made fresh goat cheese but hav trouble finding goat milk. Here in New Jersey it is illegal to sell raw milk. I will look up that magazine!
I can’t get over how much cheese you’ve made. It’s incredible!
wow homemade haloumi cheese would be incredible to try!