A Feta Story
A Feta Story
As a child, I remember how much I
loved going to the Long Beach Greek store with my mom, grandma and
great-aunt. We always bought feta and, of course, we had
to try it first. Mr. P. would give us samples
to try before buying. He would always
slice off a very nice piece for me to try and wait for my nod of approval. I felt so grown-up. Mom would drive into Long Beach almost every
week from Orange County to go to the Greek store because our local big box
grocery stores didn’t carry many ethnic items, such as feta, at that time. This
was the 1960’s. Now you find feta everywhere which is a good thing, at least
for me, since our local Greek store unfortunately closed many years ago.
Today, everyone is familiar with
serving a green salad with feta sprinkled on top of it. When airlines use to serve you a meal as part
of a regular economy ticket, I remember returning from a work trip in the
1980’s and mentioning to my mother about how feta must now be famous because it
was served on my green salad. I explained that it’s called a “Greek salad”
expounding on how good it tasted. This was when people would complain about
airline food the same way we still complain about hospital food.
Traditionally, a Greek salad is a mixture of tomatoes and
cucumbers (without any lettuce) known as a village salad (horiatiki salata). Personally, I think the best part to this
salad is the chunky pieces of feta placed on top sprinkled with a bit of olive
oil and oregano. Crumbling feta on top of your salad is very good, too,
My Mom was surprised to hear about
how ubiquitous feta had become, although,
she was not too surprised. We loved eating
feta, cut it into 2 by 4-inch chunks, served with my grandma’s and great-aunt’s
fantastic home-made bread and Kalamata olives. Sometimes, they even made us
home-made French fries.
The translation of feta means “slice” and dates back to
the 1,600’s when feta was cut into slices for storing in wood barrels. This way
of making artisanal feta is still practiced today in parts of Greece such as Thessaly,
Epirus, Thrace, Macedonia, the Peloponnese and the island of Lesvos, where the sheep
and goats graze freely on rocky terrains.
In 2002 Greece received product
designation of origin (PDO) status from the European Union, EU, with the strict
requirement of at least 70% sheep’s milk and no more than 30% goat milk. Personally, I like
the extra zing of eating feta packaged in brine. Besides the source of milk
used to make the feta, how and where it is made, along with how it is aged, is
important to determine its PDO status.
Today you can find all types of feta.
For example, French feta or Bulgarian feta. Even Costco and Trader Joe’s sells
feta. Most likely they are with different ratios of cow or sheep and must but
must be named something other than Greek feta. Costco feta goes by the name
Organic Feta and is 100% sheep milk. Trader Joe’s feta is named Trader Joe’s
Authentic Greek feta. It is made from sheep milk and imported from Greece.
However, Trader Joe’s Crumbled Feta hails from Wisconsin.
Unlike Swiss cheese which was
originally known as Emmentaler cheese or American cheese which is not really cheese,
feta has always been known as feta and is really a Greek cheese going way back
in time to the 8th century B.C. when Polyphemos, the one-eyed
cyclops in Homer’s Odyssey, is mentioned to have made feta.
It is wonderful that feta is now so
easily accessible because it is my favorite breakfast - a piece of bread with a
chunk of feta drizzled with a little olive oil on top and a sprinkle of oregano.
The only thing that would my breakfast even better would be a side of my
grandma’s home-made French fries.
Feta Tips
1. Feta is a matter of taste. Besides Greek, there is Bulgarian, French and even US made feta. The composition of sheep, goat or cow milk may differ.
2. I keep my feta in the original brine it comes in. It is eaten so quickly in our household, we don't have a need to extend its shelf life. However, if you do please take a look at America's Test Kitchen recommendations at: a https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/7637-how-to-tell-when-feta-is-bad
3. Pre-crumbled feta is quite convenient, but crumbling a block of feta is much better tasting. Pre-crumbled feta contains additional ingredients to prevent, for example, caking by including powdered cellulose or mold with natamycin. Personally, I much prefer the taste using block feta when making spanakopita.
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