FEED YOUR FETA URGE
In ragtag crumbles or genteel chunks, feta cheese provides a frisky flavor edge to dishes. Its salty, sour-sweet sharpness gives a classic Greek salad its signature taste. The perky cheese dates back thousands of years in Greece, where it’s made with goat’s milk or sheep’s milk. Today, in the U.S., it generally is made commercially with cow’s milk.
This rindless, bedsheet-white cheese is cured and stored in a brine made with salt and water or its own whey (the watery liquid that separates from the curd during the cheesemaking process). Brining stops the ripening process, keeping the cheese fresh and flavorful. Due to the salt content of the brine, this cheese acts as a salty element in recipes, something to keep in mind when adding salt to those concoctions.
At about 264 calories for a 3 ½-ounce serving (21 grams of fat), feta hovers midway between the higher-in-fat cheddars at about 403 calories and the low-in-fat, part-skim ricottas at about 138 calories. Feta can range in texture from soft to semidry, and “fetaphiles” differ in their preferences. Made in Bulgaria, France, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Romania and Italy, as well as Greece and the U.S., products vary in texture as well as saltiness and tartness.
Some cookbook authors call out a specific style of feta, noting that the French is mildly tangy and moister than Greek, sometimes adding that the Greek feta is saltier and drier, with a stronger flavor profile.
American feta, pleasantly pungent and moist, is available in supermarkets, packaged in airtight containers, either plain (crumbled or in a block) or combined with other flavorings, such as basil and tomato, or garlic and herbs.