Homemade Feta Cheese

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Homemade feta cheese is easier to make than you might think! It takes some time but I’ll show you how to make a large batch of feta and preserve it so you only need to do this every few months if you want a constant supply of feta in your fridge. I am making this feta cheese with store-bought milk but you can do the same exact process with raw milk.


If you’ve been following my blog for a while you know that I am from Israel.

If you are new here, well, first, welcome! Second, it’s important that you know that I am from Israel and it’s also important that you know that an Israeli cannot exist without feta cheese. 

It’s just not possible. It’s like an American without a hamburger… Doesn’t make sense, right? Right. 

Homemade Feta Cheese…

Homemade feta cheese is easier to make than you think! In this step by step picture tutorial, I'll show you how to make a large batch of feta cheese... 
#homemadefetacheese #fetacheeserecipe #howtomakefetacheese #makingfetacheese #freezingfetacheese

So I moved here to the U.S. back in 2005 and right away, within a few short weeks I noticed two problems with this wonderful place that I call home that really puts it at serious danger for all kinds of bad things if you ask me. 

The first thing is that a mysterious someone is cutting the leaves off the tops of the celery before selling it at the grocery store. Who is cruel enough to do something like that is beyond me!

Do you know how many fabulous things you can do with the tops of the celery? Do you know how healthy and tasty they are? 

The second thing that I noticed shortly after I landed here is the availability (or none thereof) and quality of feta cheese.

People, the $1200 plane ticket to Israel is worth it just for the feta cheese. Trust me and get that ticket! It will change your life forever. 

So I am still hard in search of the someone who has the audacity to cut off the tops of celery all over America, but the feta cheese situation ends right here and now cause I am going to show you how to make your own!

Making feta cheese at home takes just a little bit of cheese-making knowledge and a gathering of some basic supplies and ingredients. Once you have everything you need it’s a walk in the park. 

I’ll show you how to make enough cheese that you can freeze some of it.

Feta cheese freezes with no problem and is just as tasty after you thaw it as it is the day you make it. If you make a large batch and freeze some of your feta, you’ll only need to do this once in a while in order to have a constant supply of feta. 

This is also one of my favorite ways to process and preserve my raw goat milk. Another one of my favorite ways is this super easy raw goat cheese recipe and this soft cheese from goat milk and I also like canning my milk sometimes.

Supplies You’ll Need to Make Feta Cheese…

Gathering the equipment we need to make homemade feta cheese.

Let’s talk supplies for a moment, shall we? Here is what you need…

A large stainless steel pot – we are going to process two gallons of milk here so you’ll need a pot that is large enough to hold that amount.

It has to be either stainless steel or enamel because aluminum will leach into your cheese.

Heating milk to the right temperature is the most important part of cheese-making, therefore, many places will tell you to use a double boiler system or to purchase a cheese vat which is a special pot for cheese-making.

You can create your own double boiler by placing a pot within a pot or you can go ahead and purchase the cheese vat, but I found that if I turn the heat to medium on my stove and make sure to stir the milk it does great in a regular pot. 

Measuring spoons – we are going to use 1/8 of a teaspoon and 1 teaspoon and also

Measuring cups – we are going to use the 1/2 cup. 

Cheese thermometer – when you purchase a cheese-making thermometer, make sure the range of temperatures is between 80F to 200F at least.

Once you get into cheese-making you’ll want to try and make other kinds of cheeses so that thermometer should be useful for you beyond the feta. It’s really helpful if you can clip the thermometer to the pot.

A stainless steel skimmer – we will need this to stir the milk.

A curd knife – we will need a curd knife to cut the curds. This can be just a simple icing spatula or even a large kitchen knife. 

A colander –  you’ll need a large colander that can catch all the curds. 

Cheesecloth – let me tell you a secret…

You don’t really need a fancy cheesecloth! Your local Walmart sells a pack of five or so flour sack tea towels for something around $5. I am linking to a “proper” cheesecloth in case you are not sure what a cheesecloth is.

The flour sack towels that I get at my local Walmart work better than a cheesecloth in my opinion and they are so cheap! It’s really all you need. 

A bowl – to catch the whey. I use the largest from this set.  

A cutting board – I used my wooden one.

A knife – to cut the ball of cheese.

A 9 x 13 inch casserole dish – to place the cheese in when we salt it and age it in the fridge.

Ingredients You’ll Need For Homemade Feta Cheese…

Milking the goats.

Milk – we are going to need 2 gallons of milk, but it doesn’t matter if it’s cow’s milk or goat’s milk and it doesn’t matter if it’s raw or from the store, it’s still going to be the same recipe and process.

In this tutorial, I am going to use two gallons of store bought 2% cow’s milk. 

Calcium Chloride – you will need calcium chloride ONLY if you are using store-bought milk because it has been processed (pasteurized and homogenized) and it won’t give a good set without the addition of calcium chloride. 

DVI Feta culture – I use a feta culture but you can also use mesophilic culture.

Rennet – I use animal rennet but there is also plant based rennet available. 

**My calcium chloride, feta culture, and rennet were purchased from Hoeggers Supply Company (you can also find some of the supplies there) but you can also find them on Amazon. 

Make sure to keep your rennet and calcium chloride in the fridge and the culture in the freezer and they should last for a long time.

Kosher salt – we are going to need to salt this cheese, of course! You can use cheese salt or just kosher salt from the grocery store. Don’t use regular table salt because it has iodine in it and will color your cheese blue.

For a comprehensive list of cheesemaking equipment and ingredients, make sure to visit my cheesemaking equipment post.

Ok, we are ready to go through this feta cheese tutorial. You’ll find all the steps below, however, if you want to have a better understanding of the cheesemaking process, please visit my How to Make Cheese at Home post.

Heating the Milk… 

Heating the milk.

Start by adding the milk to the pot and setting it on the stove top. Turn the heat to medium and heat your milk to 86 F. 

Mixing the milk.

Make sure to use your slotted spoon to stir the milk constantly so the bottom doesn’t burn.

This is not the time to go do the dishes, stay with your milk, stir it and watch that thermometer. A lot of cheese-making failures are a result of heating the milk too much (don’t ask me how I know this please!). 

Adding Calcium Chloride and Feta Culture…

Adding calcium chloride to the milk.

Once the milk reached 86F. Remove the pot from the heat. Add one teaspoon of calcium chloride to your 1/2 cup measuring cup and fill the rest of the cup with water.

Add this to the milk and stir…

Adding the culture.

Then, sprinkle 1/8 teaspoon of the feta culture on top of the milk…

Mixing the milk.

And use your slotted spoon to mix it in well. 

Covering the pot.

Cover the pot and let the milk rest for 1 hour. During this hour, we want to try to keep the temperature at 86 F 

It’s best to do this in a warm house. If your house is cool, just get ready to wrap the pot with a fuzzy blanket or set it in a sink full of warm water in order to keep the temperature.  

Adding Rennet…

Adding rennet.

After an hour, when you uncover the pot, it will look like nothing happened.

The milk will look just as it looked before and that’s fine. Add a teaspoon of liquid rennet to your 1/2 cup measuring cup, fill the rest with water, stir, and add this to the milk. 

Immediately, stir the milk with the slotted spoon to mix the rennet in well.

Before you cover the pot again, make sure to use your thermometer to check the temperature of the milk. Again, we want to keep it at 86 F (or very close to it) which is not hard to do if your house is warm.

If the temperature is low, fill your sink with hot water and carefully set your pot inside the sink.

Ok, so once you checked the temperature, cover the pot again and let it rest for another hour. 

Cutting the Curds…

Milk is coagulating.

When you come back to your milk after an hour, it should look like this. The milk has completely coagulated and set because of the rennet. 

Starting to cut the curds.

Grab your icing spatula and let’s cut those curds! We start by cutting vertically. Make sure you reach all the way down to the bottom of the pot and space your cuts about 1 inch apart…

Cutting the curds.

Next, we cut at a 90-degree angle to form 1 inch squares on the top surface (again, make sure that your knife goes all the way down to the bottom of the pot).

Cutting the curds on an angle.

 Lastly, hold your knife at a 45-degree angle and make sideways cuts.

Curds separating from whey.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. Once you cut your curds, cover the pot and let the curds rest for 5 minutes. 

Mixing the Curds…

Mixing the curds.

After 5 minutes, mix the curds with your slotted spoon…

Mixing the curds.

Be gentle and slow here! Your movement should be from the bottom of the pot to the top, and in circles. We want to break those squares that we made after cutting the curds.

Curds are starting to separate from the whey.

After a couple of minutes, you’ll have something that looks like the picture above. Smaller pieces of curds swimming in their whey. Cover the pot and let the curds rest for 5 more minutes.

Whey above the curds.

When you uncover the pot you’ll notice that all the curds sunk to the bottom.

Get your slotted spoon and stir again, slow and gentle to prevent the curds from sticking together. Then cover the pot and let the curds rest for an additional 5 minutes.

Uncover the pot one last time and stir the curds again. So we stirred the curds 3 times in 5 minutes intervals over 15 minutes. This allowed the curds to extract as much whey without sticking together. 

Hanging the Curds…

The curds are ready for hanging at this point and we need to transfer them from the pot to the cheesecloth (or flour sack in this case…). 

You can catch the whey and make ricotta cheese from the whey, you can use it to substitute water in recipes (it’s great in bread recipes) or give it to the animals… There are many uses for whey.  

If you want to collect it, place your colander inside a large bowl. If you don’t want to collect it you can place your colander inside the sink and let the whey go down the drain.

Lining a colander with cheesecloth.

Line your colander with the cheesecloth or flour sack…

Transferring the curds to a cheesecloth.

Grab your pot of curds and transfer them to the colander. This can be a messy business with whey splashing all over but it is what it is…

Curds are hanging.

Once all of your curds are in the colander, collect the corners of the flour sack and use a string (I use yarn) to tie the sack together.

Then use a hook to hang it on one of your kitchen cabinets (you don’t have to use a hook, of course, it just makes it easier…).

Draining the Curds…

Make sure to place a large bowl under your hanging bag to catch all the whey that is dripping out. 

Whey is draining from the hanging cheese.

Let this hang overnight. I usually start making my feta cheese around 6 pm, this way, before I go to sleep I hang the bag and it has a whole night to get rid of the whey.

Cheese is ready in the cheesecloth.

When you wake up in the morning, your bag is going to be half the size you left it the night before. Almost all the whey is gone and it’s now a solid cheese!

Cutting and Salting Homemade Feta Cheese…

Taking the cheese out of the cheesecloth.

Take your bag down from the cabinet and set it on a cutting board. Gently, open and uncovers your beautiful ball of cheese. 

I always need to take a moment here and just stand and look at it in amazement, it’s like collecting eggs from the chicken coop, it never gets old!

Slicing homemade feta cheese.

Remove the flour sack (you can wash it and reuse it or just wash it and use it as a kitchen towel) and set your ball of cheese on the cutting board…

Slicing the ball of feta cheese.

Use a large kitchen knife to cut the cheese into 1 inch thick slabs…

Adding salt to the container before adding the feta cheese.

Take a 9×13 cake pan or casserole dish and cover the bottom with some kosher salt, about 2 tablespoons or so…

Homemade feta cheese in a container.

Take your slabs of cheese and set them in one layer in the dish…

Salted feta cheese.

Then sprinkle some more kosher salt on the top of each slab. Cover the dish with a plastic wrap and place it in the fridge. 

Curing Homemade Feta Cheese…

Whey is coming out of homemade feta cheese.

The salt will dry the cheese and more whey will come out. After a few hours, take your cheese out of the fridge, gently tilt the dish to dump the whey, salt the top of the cheese, turn each slab and salt the other side. 

We are going to let the cheese cure in the fridge for 24 hours. During those 24 hours get rid of the whey and salt the cheese two or three times. 

Try to not get carried away with the salt, each time, just salt lightly. But also don’t worry about the cheese being too salty.

If later you find that it’s too salty for you, you can just wash it with cold water before you eat it to get rid of some of the salt.

Serving Homemade Feta Cheese…

Ready to serve homemade feta cheese.

The next morning your feta cheese is ready to eat! There are so many things you can do with feta cheese…

You can add it to sandwiches, casseroles (like this healthy zucchini casserole), pasta sauce…

But my favorite thing is just to stick it in every salad. It will go so well with this Mediterranean egg salad, or this beet salad, or those garlic beans

Also, there is nothing like feta cheese and a perfectly cut sweet watermelon in the summer! Sweet and salty, dry and juicy… It’s a perfect combination.  

Freezing Homemade Feta Cheese…

Getting ready to freeze feta cheese.

Before we are done here, let me just say that we just made a large batch of feta cheese.

There is no need to leave all of it in the fridge unless you are having company and you know that you are going to use all of it in the next 10 days or so. 

There are a couple of ways to preserve feta cheese…

You can cut your cheese into cubes, pack them in a jar and top it with olive oil. Go ahead and add rosemary and garlic in the oil and it will season your cheese as well.

It’s so tasty and as long as the cheese is under the oil and you keep everything clean, you can leave your jars at room temperature. 

Another way to preserve your feta cheese (and a cheaper way since olive oil is expensive…) is to freeze it. 

I have a Nesco food vacuum sealer and I use these vacuum bags. I place a couple of slabs of cheese in a bag, then fold a sheet of paper towel and stick it inside the bag between the cheese and the top of the bag. 

Freezing homemade feta cheese.

Then, when I vacuum the bag, all the moisture that is pulled out of the cheese is caught in the paper towel and doesn’t interfere with the sealing process. 

For the life of me, I can’t remember where I learned this trick but it’s one you must know if you vacuum food for freezing. 

Make sure to label your bag and it is ready for the freezer! It should last in the freezer for a long time. When you want to use your cheese just thaw it and use it. It will be just as fresh and tasty. 


I hope this was a clear tutorial. Don’t get overwhelmed by the steps, there are a few of them but they are very simple. After you make feta a couple of times this will be easy peasy. 

If you liked this post, make sure to check these as well…

Homemade Crockpot Yogurt From Store-Bought Milk

Pumpkin and Feta Salad

Spinach Patties Recipe (you can use this feta in them!)

Homemade Feta Cheese

Homemade Feta Cheese

Yield: 20 servings
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Prep Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Hanging Time: 12 hours
Total Time: 14 hours 40 minutes

Delicious homemade feta cheese recipe. Learn how to make feta cheese at home.

Ingredients

  • 2 gallons of milk (whatever milk you'd like to use)
  • 1 teaspoon calcium chloride diluted in 1/2 cup of water (only if you are using store-bought milk).
  • 1/8 teaspoon feta culture or mesophilic cheese culture
  • 1 teaspoon rennet diluted in 1/2 cup water
  • Kosher salt

Instructions

  1. Add milk to a large pot and set on the stove top. Turn stove top to medium heat and heat your milk to 86F. Make sure to stir constantly so the milk doesn't burn.
  2. Once the milk reaches 86F, remove the pot from the heat and add the diluted calcium chloride. Stir it in with a slotted spoon.
  3. Sprinkle the cheese culture on the milk and use the slotted spoon to mix it in well.
  4. Cover your pot and let the milk rest for an hour while keeping the temperature at 86F.
  5. Uncover your pot and add the diluted rennet, stir the rennet in immediately with the slotted spoon.
  6. Cover your pot and let it rest for another hour.
  7. After an hour your milk should be completely coagulated and it's time to cut the curds. Cut them with a large knife or a large icing spatula vertically and then at a 90 degree angle to form squares on the surface of the curds. Than cut the curds at a 45-degree angle.
  8. Cover your pot and let the curds rest for 5 minutes.
  9. in the next 15 minutes, uncover and stir the curds three times at an interval of five minutes between each stirring. Make sure to stir from the bottom to the top and around the pot.
  10. Set a large colander in your sink and line it with cheesecloth or flour sack. Transfer your curds into the colander and give the whey a couple of minutes to drain.
  11. Collect the sides of the cheesecloth or flour sack and tie them with a string to form a bag. Hang your bag on a kitchen cabinet. Place a bowl under the bag to catch the whey and leave your bag hanging overnight.
  12. In the morning, set your bag on a cutting board. Open the bag and gently remove it, set your ball of cheese on the cutting board.
  13. Use a large kitchen knife to cut the ball into 1 inch thick slabs of cheese.
  14. Sprinkle two or three tablespoons of kosher salt on the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Set your slabs of cheese in one layer in the pan and sprinkle another thin layer of salt on top of the slabs. Cover the dish with a plastic wrap and set in the fridge for 24 hours.
  15. During those 24 hours, take the pan out a couple of times, get rid of the whey and lightly salt the cheese from both sides again.
  16. After 24 hours, your cheese is ready to eat!

Notes

To preserve your cheese, you can cut some of it into cubs, add the cheese cubs to a jar and cover them with olive oil. Feel free to add garlic cloves, rosemary, thyme... Or any other seasonings you'd like. You can leave the jar in room temperature.

The other option is to freeze some of your cheese. I use a vacuum sealer to do that and I show in the post how I do it.

With both methods, the cheese should last for months.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 20 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 206Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 33mgSodium: 243mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 14g

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54 Comments

  1. Thank you so much for this recipe! I followed it, and it turned out wonderfully. I do have a couple of questions… why do a lot of recipes suggest a brine? Is that an option for storing in the fridge or is an airtight container better? Lastly, some recipes I saw recommended letting the cheese sit in a brine for 5 days or one even said 30 for raw milk feta. Why would this be? Your recipe says 24 hours and I agree at this point it tastes and delicious and ready to eat! Made me wonder why so many others had long wait times.

    1. Placing it in the brine is just another way of storring the cheese. Some say that it keeps longer that way and some also say that it keep the salty flavor of the cheese. For us it’s good enough without the brine and we eat it so fast that I don’t really need help in extending it’s fridge life. The brine is an option, but not necessary.

  2. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you — oh, have I said thank you yet?

    I have studied, read books, tried, and failed for five years to make cheese, any cheese, and no matter who I’ve listened to, everything was a failure. I have been to so many stores, hoping their milk would make the difference. Nothing worked. I gave up. And then I came across your site, and I figured, heck, some Israeli girl who grew up making cheese should know how to make cheese, right? I was right.

    And nobody ever mentioned calcium chloride, not even once. I made feta cheese tonight following your recipe. It was so stressful waiting for the set. I didn’t even want to see it.

    But it worked…..I finally know how to make cheese. You have gained a huge fan in me. Again, thank you!!

    1. Awwww… you made my day <3 I'm so glad it worked!

  3. Hi Lee,
    Can you vacuum seal your feta and not freeze it. How long will it last in fridge that way. I milk goats so I have fresh milk daily. Thank You June

    1. Mmm… I think that it will last maybe three weeks in the fridge. Not sure tho.

  4. Thank you so much for your recipe! Very easy to understand! I have been driving for miles trying to find raw milk from cows, goats, anything and it’s so difficult. Other recipes say you have to use raw. I’m so glad you simplified everything. I’m running to the store to buy some milk and try this! No more looking for raw goat milk!

    1. You can totally use store-bought milk! Just remember that you are going to have to use calcium chloride to get it to set! If you can, come back and let me know how it turned out.

  5. Jim Litwin says:

    I sent you an email below in December about making a smaller batch of feta using only 1 gallon of milk. I wanted to know how much to reduce the other ingredients. Can you please respond. Thanks, love this feta.

    1. Oh, sorry. I don’t remember seeing an email. If you are using one gallon of milk, just cut all the rest of the ingredients in half too. It should work.

  6. Jim Litwin says:

    The recipe above uses 2 gallons of milk. If I want to only use 1 gallon of milk should I also reduce the other ingredients by half? Thanks!

    Milk – 1 gallon
    Calcium chloride – 1/2 teaspoon
    Culture – 1/16 teaspoon
    Rennet – 1/2 teaspoon

  7. Jim Litwin says:

    In the recipe you say to add 1 teaspoon of calcium chloride but up with the photos you say to add a tablespoon.

    1. Oh sorry about that and thanks for letting me know! I’m changing it right now. It’s a teaspoon. One teaspoon of calcium chloride diluted in 1/2 cup of water.

  8. Thank you for inspiring me to make feta! We don’t have any cows or goats so I just bought milk at the store. My daughter that it was fun to cut them stir the curds. It turned out great! You instructions where amazing.

    1. Yay! You just made my day. So happy you liked it!

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