Monday, September 27, 2010

I'm a Feta Fanatic!

Attention! I'm bringing randomness back to Jake's Random Ramblings.

So, a few months ago my wife and I went out to supper and I ordered a pasta dish with Feta Cheese. I've never been an adventurous cheese eater, though I've always loved cheese. Up until a few months ago, parmesan was probably fanciest cheese I've ever eaten. But, now that I've tried the Greek Feta Cheese, I'm hooked and will look for more exciting cheese adventures. As they say, Feta is Fantastic (ok, well they may not say that, but I just did).

Here are some feta facts for all my fellow feta fanatics...note I found most of this at Wikipedia, but they are usually at least semi-correct, so I'm running with it:

1) From food.com: Feta cheese is a cheese made from goat's or sheep's milk which is dry and crumbly with a tangy taste.

2) From wikipedia: Feta is a white cheese with small holes, a compact touch, few cuts, and no skin. Being soft or sometimes semi-hard, feta is usually formed into square cakes. Its flavor is tangy and salty, ranging from mild to sharp. Its maximum moisture is 56%, its minimum fat content in dry matter is 43%, and its pH usually ranges from 4.4 to 4.6.

3) From wikipedia: After a long legal battle with Denmark, which produced a cheese under the same name using artificially blanched cow's milk, the term "feta" has been a protected designation origin (PDO) since July 2002, which limits the term within the European Union to feta made exclusively of sheep's/goat's milk in Greece. According to the Commission, the biodiversity of the land coupled with the special breeds of sheep and goats used for milk is what gives feta cheese a specific aroma and flavor.

So far, I've only eaten the flavorful feta in pastas, but I can imagine that it would be excellent on salads, and I'm really tempted to add it to lasagna in small amounts, since too much of it would overpower the other cheeses.

Here's hoping you have some fabulous feta forays in your future.

2 comments:

Nuke said...

Back when the Hy-vee over on Edgewood had a decent cheese counter, we would pickup several every few weeks and try them out (very small samples, cuz they get expensive quickly). It's a fun thing to do if you can find a place with a good selection. My all-time favorite is Fontina, which really isn't that exciting as feta.

Nice use of alliteration there at the end, by the way. ;)

mediocre coffee said...

Sometime take your wife to the Vernon Inn (The Greek Place) on Mt. Vernon road. They have a goat cheese that they set on fire before serving. It is fun to watch and delicious to eat!