See if this link helps you any... -Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Still Tasty - Fetta Cheese in Brine - opened

That is one totally cool site Grainlady! Thanks! You can freeze eggs. Huh, whoda thunk it?

Yes, I too have a very old piece of feta in brine, about 5 years old. I've stopped my husband from throwing it away numerous times. We've had this cheese since before we bought this house. You ask yourself, why do you keep a piece of cheese you haven't had a desire to eat in 5 years? I donno, but I have a new recipe and I'm going to use it tomorrow night.

5 years? Is it still white? Must be heavily salted/preserved. I cannot imagine it has the proper taste and texture of feta.

Feta last no time in this house. I opened a block in brine last week and it is near gone. To keep it fresh and not developing a slime surface, you should put in into a fresh brine....lots of salt in clean warm water to disolve, chill, then cover you feta block with brine in a glass lidded container. Without a salty brine it loses that good texture. Edible for a while but no longer tastes the same.

Yeah it was a little smelly, but perfectly fine otherwise. It never did have a crumbly texture.

I've had feta go bad, as in smell to high heaven and grow mould. There is definitely a shelf life to feta.

Yes, I have had packaged feta go bad, moldy. I hated to toss it, but was too busy to remember to use it, so another few weeks in the fridge would not improve it. Sometimes when I venture into city-land, I stop at a section of Watertown and stock up on Middle Eastern goodies. I like the French feta as a sometimes alternative treat.

I had a package of goat cheese in the cellar fridge that I kept forgetting to use. MONTHS. Maybe 6 months. It didn't have any off notes, but my imagination got the better of me and as it was only $5 worth, I experimented and rubbed it onto the bark of a large red maple (Q. rubra). Darn if my buddy the catbird didn't think it was just the berries. That catbird and I have sort of a friendship. She comes over to visit when I'm outside in a hammock or chair. I go out of view, catbird repostitions herself so that she can see me and talk away. I put oldish berries, melon and grape jelly out for her. Her favorites are the grape jelly cups and the chevre sur la bark.

lorel*, you are a brave one.

Pre-packed feta will turn on you because it is not in the brine. If it is in the brine, it keeps forever. Feta is a salty cheese and so is the preserving brine.

Peppi, that's really good to know. We don't use it up all that quickly, but I make sure that it's always covered in brine.

Some cheeses are aged in brine....Emmenthaler for one .
And some cheeses are intended to develop mold....blue cheese and Brie for2 examples> The feta in brine won't taste the same as it did when fresh after keeping it for 5 months, because the same thing will have happened to it as happens to a Swiss cheese bobbing in a brine tank.