Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

feta the best known of Greek cheeses, is now also made in other countries and continents (e.g. Denmark, America, Australia). The home region of feta includes Bulgaria as well as Greece, and some people think that Bulgarian ewe’s milk feta is the best of all.

Feta is traditionally made from sheep’s milk or sheep’s and goat’s milk mixed, but cow’s milk is now often used. It is made in large blocks which are salted, sliced, and salted again, and packed into containers in which the cheese matures for about a month in the salty whey. The taste is sharp and, of course, salty. Teleme, made in several Balkan countries, is very similar.