Morning all - depending where you are!
I've started my 1st batch of feta.
My question is about salt levels. I've seen recipes using 15% brine mix and worked out using the chart on here that 800ml (.8 liters) water needs 11g salt. I've put 400g of cheese in that.
The whey is being sucked out the curd and it's firmed up no end over night but...
Is that going to be enough available salt? With my poor science knowledge i assume the brine and cheese will eventually equalise out on the salt. 400g cheese and 800ml water is a 1:2 ratio so 1:2 of 11g salt is 3.6g for cheese and 7g for the brine..
Am i right? 3.6g of 400g is about 1% Way under what i need.
I've got a 2nd 400g cheese to 800ml brine going on at 22g salt or 30%.
Can anyone shed a little light on the process for me?
The reply:-
I'll try to help with a simple example:
When you prepare tea, 1 cup water + 2 ts of sugar or 6 cups water + 12 ts of sugar, the sugar percentage will stay the same. If you'll dip a cookie into the tea (regardless of the total quantity), the sweet liquid absorbed by the cookie will be affected only by the time you keep the cookie dipped.
The same rule applies for the cheese, the final saltiness (according to the brine strength) will be affected by the time you'll keep the cheese in the brine.
I store my Feta in a 10-15% salt brine.
My reply back:-
I see where your going but to me it doen't add up (to me).
I know that 15% is still 15% even if i'm making a swimming pool full.
The feta isn't absorbing the brine/sweet tea, just the salt/sugar. It's extracting the salt from the solution. If it was sucking up the liquid like a cookie then fine but if anything ther brine is sucking the whey from the cheese, diluting the brine even more.
If for example i want my 400g of feta drained and ready to eat with a salt level of 4% it would need 16g salt. My 15% brine only started with 11g!
