We asked three chefs to name their favorite feta—they all said the same thing

Chefs can’t agree on which supermarket feta to buy, but there’s a rule they say matters more than the brand.

Key Points

• There are plenty of great feta brands. Wherever you shop, seek out brined blocks over crumbles.
• European feta is mostly sheep’s milk, with up to 30% goat. Some great US brands use cow’s milk. 
• Hold on to the milky, saline brine! It can be used in marinades and salad dressings. 

In The Odyssey, an epic poem written around 3,000 years ago, the hero spies on the Cyclops as the monster makes cheese from the milk of sheep and goats, letting it drain in wicker baskets. The technique Homer described is still how traditional makers produce the salty, tangy cheese we know as feta.

In the EU, only versions made in mainland Greece and a single island can be labeled feta, and these cheeses must be composed of sheep’s milk with up to 30 percent goat’s milk.1 In the United States, though, anything goes. In American supermarkets, shoppers can find a staggering array of similar cheeses made with milk from sheep, cows or goats (or a combo), and these fetas might be produced domestically, or imported from Greece, France, Bulgaria or elsewhere. 

Some are sold in zingy brine, others vacuum-packed, pre-crumbled or whipped. So what’s the best type to buy? We asked three chefs. While they disagreed on brands, they all agreed that one particular type of feta is superior. 

Chef’s Favorite Kind of Feta

We asked three chefs to name their favorite feta brands, and their answers were literally all over the map: one prefers Bulgarian feta, another buys an American brand, and all of them mentioned different Greek makers. One thing they agreed on: buy feta in brine-soaked blocks, and crumble, cube or whip it as you use it.

Chef, culinary tour guide and actor Erica Wides says, “feta is always in my fridge,” but she’s not a fan of shrink-wrapped bricks. “[If they’re] not in brine, they’re just not as good,” she explained.

Cara Tobin, chef-owner of Honey Road and The Grey Jay, two Eastern Mediterranean restaurants in Burlington, Vermont agrees. “I never buy crumbled feta,” she said. “Always blocks.” 

Why Chefs Love Block Feta in Brine

It’s Creamy

The primary reason chefs prefer block feta is that the brine keeps the cheese moist, protecting its creaminess. As soon as it’s crumbled, with more surface area, all of those surfaces begin to dry out.

In addition, crumbled commercial cheeses are often mixed with anti-caking agents, which can give the cheese a chalky, grainy character. Brine also extends the cheese’s shelf life, allowing it to stay good in the fridge for several weeks. Crumbles have a shorter shelf life.

It’s Versatile

“My earliest memory [of feta] is helping my mom make spanakopita as a child,” Pelley said. “I used to help her crumble the feta into the mixture of spinach, eggs, leeks and herbs,” recalls Chef Brendan Pelley, Culinary Director for Xenia Greek Hospitality and owner of Kri Kri Grill. 

At the grocery store, Pelley buys blocks of a Greek feta from Dodoni. They smoke it, use it in egg dishes, add it to “probably 100 different pies” and even mix it into ice cream. 

Home cooks can benefit from similar versatility. Brined feta blocks can be used whole, cut into chunks, crumbled or whipped, depending on what diverse recipes require, ensuring that the cheese has the ideal texture for whatever the cook might want to make.

The Brine is a Bonus Ingredient

Wides has another reason for choosing the blocks—she uses the brine as a separate ingredient from the cheese. She saves the salty, milky liquid and uses it in salad dressings, as a marinade for chicken or for thinning out yogurt into a tangy sauce. 

Another Feta Factor Chefs Consider

More than the brand, another factor chefs consider when buying feta is the type of milk used to make it. Different milks yield feta with different flavor and texture profiles. 

Sheep’s milk imparts a rich, tangy flavor to feta, and can sometimes lean grassy or gamey. Milk from sheep and goats makes for striking, bright white cheese that may be creamy, custardy and crumbly. 

Cow’s milk feta, on the other hand, can have a golden tint. It’s less fatty and milder tasting than fetas made with a combination of sheep and goat’s milk. Due to its lower fat content, chefs say cow’s milk feta is more dense and sliceable, rather than creamy and crumbly. Sometimes, this gives the cheese a bit of a springy (or even rubbery) quality. 

For some applications, this firmer texture is desirable.  At The Grey Jay, Tobin uses feta as a Bloody Mary garnish. Soft Bulgarian feta doesn’t like to stay on skewers, so they opt for firmer cow’s milk feta from Maplebrook Farm.

For times when you want firm pieces of feta rather than crumbles, like when it’s being threaded on toothpicks, cow’s milk feta can be a solid choice. For classic Mediterranean flavor, seek out brands made primarily with sheep milk. 

Top Feta Picks

• Tobin and Wides like Bulgarian feta made from sheep’s milk, but aren’t loyal to a specific brand. 
• Pelley buys Dodoni Greek Feta, which they say is “high-quality, creamy and mild.” The brand is widely available at grocery stores including Costco, Sprouts, Kroger, and more. 
• Tobin’s pick, Maplebrook Whole-Milk Feta, is made in Vermont and has won numerous national awards. It’s available at Whole Foods, and can be shipped anywhere in the country.
• These chefs also recommend trying out local, domestic fetas to find something you enjoy, it doesn’t need to be Greek. Pelley once took a road trip centered around trying sheep and goat fetas from small farms, and was “amazed by the range of flavors and textures.” 

Our Expert Take

The professional chefs we spoke with didn’t agree on a single brand—there are excellent European sheep’s milk fetas available across grocery stores and specialty food shops. Most importantly, they say, buy brined feta in blocks, and crumble or whip it as needed. While sheep’s milk feta is the European standard, there are great brands of cow’s milk feta on the market, and they have their place (especially in cases where a firm, mild-but-briny cheese is required). However, the color, texture and flavor of the cow’s milk version will differ from the traditional, tangy and creamy style that has been beloved since the time of the Odyssey.

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