A feta-style cheese is one of the most achievable things a home cheesemaker can make, because everything that gives it character comes from technique rather than time: set the milk, cut and drain the curds, press them lightly, then salt them in brine. There is no ageing cave, no wax, no months of waiting. A batch you set in the morning can be crumbling over a salad by the weekend, salty and tangy and immeasurably better than the plastic tub version.
It also teaches two skills that unlock a lot of other cheeses: pressing curds under a weight, and salting in brine rather than by hand. Here is how a feta-style cheese works and where the pitfalls hide.
What is feta, and why do we say feta-style?
Real feta is a protected name. Only cheese made in specific regions of Greece, from sheep's milk or a sheep and goat's milk blend, and brined in the traditional way, may be sold as feta. Everything else, however good, is a feta-style or Greek-style white cheese, which is why you see those words on perfectly respectable supermarket blocks.
What you are recreating at home is the character rather than the certificate: a firm, white, crumbly cheese with a clean lactic tang and a salty finish, one that holds its shape in a salad but breaks under a fork. Cow's milk gives a milder, slightly sweeter result than the Greek original, while goat's milk moves closer, with more of that farmyard sharpness.
Our Cheese of the World Kit supplies the specialist parts you cannot buy on a normal shop, the rennet, citric acid, cheese salt and cheesecloth, along with a recipe booklet that runs roughly from easiest to hardest so your confidence builds cheese by cheese. The larger kits also bring a thermometer and moulds. The rennet is vegetarian, so the finished cheeses are vegetarian too, and the kit is gluten free. You add the milk, a large stainless steel pan and a slotted spoon.
How does a feta-style cheese actually come together?
The sequence is the same one behind almost every fresh cheese, with a little more discipline at the draining stage.
- Warm the milk gently to the temperature your recipe gives, in a stainless steel pan. Cast iron, aluminium and copper all react with the acid and can spoil both the flavour and the colour of your cheese.
- Add the rennet, dissolved in cool non chlorinated water. Cooled boiled or bottled water is ideal, because chlorine straight from the tap can weaken it. Mix it fresh just before use and stir it gently but thoroughly through the milk.
- Wait for the clean break. Dip a clean knife or finger into the set milk at an angle and lift. If the curd splits cleanly and the whey filling the gap is clear rather than milky, it is ready to cut. Still soft and cloudy? Give it a few more minutes.
- Cut the curds into even cubes of about one to two centimetres, let them rest a few minutes to firm up, then stir very gently. Over-stirring breaks them too small and you lose cheese into the whey.
- Drain and press. Line a colander with the cheesecloth, pour in the curds, let the whey run off, then gather the cloth and press under a weight. The heavier and longer the press, the firmer and drier the finished cheese.
- Brine it. Cut the pressed block into cubes or slabs and let them sit in salted water. This is where feta gets its flavour and its keeping quality.
Follow the quantities and temperatures in your recipe booklet rather than eyeballing them. Cheese is one of the few kitchen crafts where a few degrees genuinely shows up in the result.
What milk should you use?
Fresh, full fat, pasteurised cow's milk from any supermarket works beautifully. For a sharper, more authentic result use goat's milk, but be warned that it forms much smaller, softer curds, so it can look like a failure when it is behaving perfectly. Be patient and drain slowly.
The one rule that matters more than any other: never use UHT or ultra pasteurised milk. The processing changes the proteins so the milk simply will not curdle, and it is behind almost every message we get that starts "my cheese would not set". Skip lactose free milk too, which will not behave either.
If a batch does refuse to set, the cause is nearly always UHT milk, the wrong temperature when the rennet went in, or rennet that was old or mixed with chlorinated tap water.
How salty should the brine be, and for how long?
Salting is what separates a feta-style cheese from a plain pressed curd. Halloumi and feta-style cheeses are brined in salt water rather than having salt sprinkled through the curds, which seasons them evenly and firms the outside of the block.
Use the strength and timings your recipe gives, and taste a corner partway through rather than waiting until the end. If a previous batch came out too salty, brine for less time next time. One housekeeping note: brine is single use, so discard it after each batch.
If your cheese falls apart entirely, the usual causes are too much acid or curds cut too small and drained too hard. Rubbery cheese is the opposite problem, overheated or overworked curds. Gentle handling wins in both directions.
How do you store and eat it?
These are fresh cheeses rather than aged ones, so eat them within the time given in your recipe, typically a few days to a week, sealed in the fridge. Keeping the cubes in a little brine or in olive oil with herbs keeps them moist and makes a rather good gift jar.
Then use it generously. Crumbled over tomatoes with olive oil and oregano is the obvious home, but it is just as good baked whole with peppers and honey, folded through a warm grain salad, scattered on roasted squash, or pressed into a spinach and filo pie.
And do not pour the whey away. Cool it and add it to smoothies, swap it for water in bread and baking, or use it as the base of a surprisingly rich stock.
Once pressing and brining have clicked, the rest of the Cheese of the World Kit opens up, because the same two skills sit underneath halloumi, paneer and the other pressed styles. The kit ingredients keep a long time once opened, so batches can be spread across weeks.
Feta-style cheese FAQs
Can I make feta-style cheese with normal supermarket milk?
Yes. Fresh full fat pasteurised milk works well. The only milks to avoid entirely are UHT, ultra pasteurised and lactose free, none of which will curdle properly.
Is homemade feta-style cheese vegetarian?
Yes. Our cheese kits use vegetarian rennet, so the cheeses they make are vegetarian, although since you add the milk they are of course not dairy free.
Why has my cheese come out too salty?
It spent too long in the brine. Brine for less time next batch and taste a corner partway through, and remember to make fresh brine each time rather than reusing it.
How long does it keep?
A few days to a week in a sealed container in the fridge, following the time given in your recipe. Storing the cubes in a little brine or oil helps keep them in good condition.
Can I make hard aged cheeses with the same kit?
No. The kits make fresh cheeses, which is the right place for every cheesemaker to begin. Master those and you will have the fundamentals that the aged styles are built on.
Ready to press your first block? Browse our cheese making kits and start with milk from the corner shop.
