Feta and my Frustration

[Sarah]

Okay,
Maybe cheese and my frustration would be a better title. Can anyone tell me a good way to crumble cheese? Feta's just the latest disaster. It either ends up stuck to everything in sight (read: ME), or I cube it to save myself the heartache. Any suggestions?

Sarah

[emilycat]

Uh, I don't really have a problem with the mess -- licking my fingers off is a great clean-up method http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

[pmmahan]

I crumble it with a fork!

[funnybone]

Although not as good (in my opinion) you can already buy it precrumbled and save the time and mess.

[Searcher]

I used to have a problem crumbling blue cheese but a friend told me to stick it in the freezer to firm it up some and it grated or crumbled beautifully. Not for long, just until it looses some of it's "stickiness".

[AndreaU]

Sarah, sounds like you're a bit "feta-up" with the whole thing! (Booooooo http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/tongue.gif) Seriously though, I usually use a fork to break up feta. Or, if worse comes to worse, buy the pre-crumbled stuff.

[Luiza]

Sarah, I loved your title. Sounds like a bestseller!

Fresh feta cheese will stick, because a lot of the liquid is still in it. You could buy the cheese several days in advance, take it out of the liquid and let it sit in the fridge. It will crumble better and stick less.

I always have a huge stash of feta cheese in the fridge (that's what I get for living with a Greek! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif ), and I crumbled it at various stages of its life. The method that worked the best when the feta is fresh is to put it on a cutting board and cut thin slices with a bread knife, then chop these slices a bit. The feta will break down further when you stir it in, so there is no need to get religious about the last step. The cheese is easily scraped off the board. For the knife I apply Emilycat's cleaning method (very, very carefully) http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

For the hard cheeses, I just grate them. One side of my grater makes crumbles as opposed to shreds.

Hope this helps.

Luiza

[JHolcomb]

I have no problem with the finger crumble method, especially when I have garlic on my hands too. Yum. Not exactly sanitary, but a delicious food preparation method.

[emilycat]

Awww, sanitary, schmanitary...just don't tell your guests http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/tongue.gif

[Lynn B]

I don't have anything profound http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif to add to this post, as usual, it's all been covered nicely!

But I just had to say that this thread is cracking me up!!!!!

Lynn

[GayeC]

I also crumble it with a fork -- sort of "shave" it off.