How To Make Romano Cheese || Bandage-Wrapped

[@edgarroste7855]

Hi Jennifer. I recently retired and stumbled across cheese making after a family reunion in Norway. I learned my grandmother’s cousin (Synnove Finden) was a famous cheesemaker. I have made five so far but tasted none yet (they are still aging). The anticipation is killing me. Anyway love your videos. Very helpful and encouraging. A couple questions. When you use water do you use chlorinated tap water? You seem to make many very large cheeses. I presume thats because you have a cow. Sadly, can’t get raw milk up here in Canada. Yikes. What do you do with all this cheese? Lastly, is there a single book on cheese making you would recommend. Or just keep watching KZbin videos?😊. Cheers

[@jmilkslinger]

How fun to have cheesemaking in your family history! Answers: 1. Our water is unchlorinated well water. 2. Yes, we have a family milk cows. Emma had a calf a couple months ago, and Charlotte is due to freshen any minute! 3. Eat it, share it, barter it! 4. KZbin videos are fabulous, but I use these two books a lot: Home Cheese Making Book: amzn.to/3E0YoAd (Amazon) Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking: amzn.to/3WRTRI5 (Amazon)

[@edgarroste7855]

Thanks for your prompt reply and the recommendations.

[@TheRealLiamLarnach]

Jennifer you are a legend, i've worked as a chef for 10 years, recently switched to marketing, photography and other bits and bobs. the past few months i've found my love for cooking once again and wanted to get into cheese, you've inspired me through your videos. can't wait to see more of them, and make cheese of my own

[@jmilkslinger]

Yay! You gotta try it!

[@sambrooks6213]

I’d love to see your take on making mead also! I’m sure they’d be just as great as your cheese videos!

[@madaxe79]

Ok... I just found my calling in life... Romano Cheese from sheep or goats milk... Pecorino Romano, I’ll use it o make a creamy sauce from the starchy pasta water, With freshly cracked pepper... I think I’ll name it some Italian, like “cheese and pepper” or translated to Italian: Cacio E Pepe... Just joking, I’ve been making cacio e pepe for years, my family is from the mid north of Italy, I just wanted to kick it up a notch by making my own pecorino Romano cheese... thank you, you’ve helped me a lot... soon, I will make my own cacio e pepe from my own sheep’s milk, and my own home grown pasta...

[@athenaformosa799]

Love seeing your children tasting the cheese

[@daVinciJane]

I’m so glad I found you! I’m really enjoying your videos and I feel like you do things the way I would 🤣 I’m a newbie cheezer and loving your instructions. Thanks!

[@bluebonnetbendhomestead]

I think a really good idea for a video would be to talk about temps for aging and how they effect the cheese but also how to store a cheese based on whether you like the flavor exactly as it is or if you want it to sharpen a bit

[@jmilkslinger]

The aging temps get deep into the science, I think, so I'm not sure how much use I'd be there. I think it's more the length of aging time that tends to impact the sharpness of the cheese: longer aging = a sharper cheese.

[@pimmento1]

Its beautiful...

[@sherylh4780]

I very much enjoyed your video. You are nicely animated in your demonstrations.

[@rodrigomengali8271]

Your channel is sooo good! You're doing a great job!

[@jmilkslinger]

Thank you!❤

[@zak_87]

One note about the lipase, the fat in the cheese naturally goes rancid if the cheese is aged for too long (6 months +) with or without lipase. The lipase of course amplifies that. You can still use lipase for aged cheeses like parmigiano reggiano, but the fat % should be no more than 2.2% (a mix of skimmed and whole milk) and also no more than 1/8 tsp per 2 gallons of milk. It still develops a good flavor without feeling the rancid fat flavor. About the use of the calcium chloride, it's not necessary (but of course won't harm the cheese) if you use UHT cream, because the fat molecules don't get damaged at this high temperatures unlike protein molecules.

[@jmilkslinger]

I love your comments because I always learn from you! How do you know so much about cheese?!

[@zak_87]

@jenniferjomurch Haha i learn mostly from your videos 😄 Honestly, I'm new in cheese making and my little knowledge is from multiple sources + my small experience. But i learned a lot from this channel, and i particularly love your videos because you include the aging phase (which is in my opinion the most interesting part) and many other channels don't do it. And i envy you for having a cow, and using raw milk 😄, which means the quality is the best, which i can never have with store bought milk. I also didn't know about clabber before watching your videos, and you have a great courage to use especially for long aged cheeses! Your natural rind cheeses are the best !

[@johnjoyce5441]

I love your energy.

[@mariomene2051]

These videos are informative.

[@mauriciocorrales3727]

Amo sus videos ❤🎉 señora Jennifer

[@jmilkslinger]

Gracias!

[@amybisbee]

Thanks!

[@jmilkslinger]

Thank you!

[@himanshu11496]

Cute.

[@AhmedMAbdo-bn6rg]

ALSLAMO ALYKOM ,FROM CAIRO ,EGYPT .

[@amandaw30]

I have some questions for you if you don't mind....I love how you make cheesemaking feel so approachable at the home level! Do you sanitize your cheese making stuff before starting? When we had one cow I used to boil everything on a day that I wanted to make cheese, before going out to milk. My big pot would have a few inches of water and I would put my mold, cheese cloth, curd knife, spoon and strainer all in the pot to boil together. Now we just got two cows and milking is still feeling very overwhelming and I never can seem to time it right to do that. Or if I do it will be a day the cow was caked in poop and I don't like using that milk in cheese just as a precaution. I have also always used the milk right as it comes in for cheese making, afraid that if I used day old milk it might be more likely to be contaminated. Am I overdoing the cleanliness, because I am making myself crazy?! We machine milk. Everything gets sanitized before I start but I do have to pour off milk into a separate pail in the barn, between cows. My milk is usually pretty clean. Maybe a couple specks of dust on the filter but never any hay or manure or anything like that. How clean are you milk filters for milk you use for cheese? I have this huge fear of contaminating a cheese (although I've never made anything that looks contaminated!) but I think my over abundance of caution is making cheese making impractical. Help?!? What is reasonable cleanliness for the home cheesemaker?

[@jmilkslinger]

Excellent questions, all of them! (I think I need to do a video on this topic.) First, remember that people have been making cheese for centuries --- without running water, electricity, refrigeration, etc. Second, try to find mentors who model the type of practicality you're comfortable with. Someone who has inspired me is Kate from Venison for Dinner. Cheesemaking is a way of life for her, something that happens in the midst of five children, dogs, muddy weather, etc. She hand milks and her milk filters are janky --- and her cheeses are FINE. Third, get informed on the science of milk, but choose your sources carefully. Read authors who are careful and intelligent, but don't do things per government restrictions. Don't listen to fear-based instruction --- listen instead to the actual science, and to the people who are doing the hard, practical work of feeding their loved ones with the food they make with their own hands. Our culture is terrified of germs and has lost the ability to distinguish between good dirt and truly dangerous stuff. When we get milk out of a poop-smeared animal, we naturally have an enormous ick reaction, which is normal but also not necessarily something that should stop us from getting and using the milk. As for what I do, if I'm making cheese regularly, I don't wash anything before hand. I may rinse things off with hot water to remove bits of dust. I often spray utensils with my vinegar/water solution. I wipe stuff with paper towels (because our hand towels get used for everything and aren't very clean). I don't boil/sterilize anything, but I'm not against it, either. It's whatever you need to do to feel comfortable! I use milk that's 1-5 days old for cheesemaking, more or less. Older milk is for mozzarella or yogurt. Hmmm, I think I just wrote the script for a furture KZbin video... 😂

[@amandaw30]

@@jmilkslinger Thank you!! This is very helpful and I fully support this idea for a future video lol. There are so few people showing the nitty gritty details....and I can tell you that googling milk filters comes up pretty sparse haha. I guess the number of people searching for used milk filter pictures is pretty low ;-)

[@alhachlibou3lam94]

جبن رائع وجميل

[@bronzetab]

Whey to go! I think it is okay for me to pun as you said "you *caved* in". I get so much from hearing how you think about the process. Trying to understand cooking the curds is very hard for me and watching what you do and say was very helpful. Things like the curds not being shiny. As for the temp, I know in some cheeses that the higher temp kills off some of the mesophiic culture. Maybe? Also, I recently had made a larger cheese for me 7 pounds instead of 4 pounds and found that when I tried it the center was not salty enough. The difference between the taste near the outside and the middle was very noticeable. I later read that the formula for time to brine is thickness x weight = hours. So the time my 7 pound 5 inch tall cheese time should have been 35 hours NOT 28. I *guess* that thickness is refers to the smallest dimension (5 inches tall x 8 wide is 5). And is there a factor for density? So weight * size * density factor? Thanks for this video and congratulations!

[@jmilkslinger]

I did not know that brining included a formula for thickness!!! Thank you for sharing this! (It may explain why I often brine for longer and it doesn't seem to harm the cheese at all --- maybe it actually NEEDS it!)

[@cydrych]

The boy got his hairs did, looks good. Not as good as this cheese though, this one will definitely be going on the “to make” list. Thanks again for another great video.

[@irinadimulescu7331]

Jennifer, you are an inspiration! I think you convinced me to try to make a cloth-wrapped cheese. I have a question for you. For Buttercheese you recommended Geothricum addition to add more depth to the taste of the cheese. I am about to do a butter cheese soon, for my over the winter stock of cheeses. I don't know what this Romano tastes like, but it is a thermophilic cheese. Do you think that adding Geothricum to this one too would bring an improvement? I am thinking that if I make the Buttercheese I can make a Romano too.

[@jmilkslinger]

I am not sure Geotrichum would work with Romano because normally Geotrichum is added to mesophilic cheeses. I do know, though, that you could use geotrichum to wash the rind of a Romano, if you want to make a washed-rind Romano which could be pretty cool...

[@rodrigomengali8271]

Me again.... can you share the link for your presser? thanks xxx

[@jmilkslinger]

Cheese Press: bit.ly/3BjMSP1 (New England Cheesemaking) (Usually all the links to cheesemaking tools and ingredients are in the description box below the video.)

[@pimmento1]

I used a rock out of my yard, we have volcanic rock here. Just sterilised and boiled a couple. I have now been offered some weights so that's a happy thing.

[@Alexander-uj5pb]

👍👍😀

[@thelittlethingskate9567]

Hi Jennifer! I have a question for you. The last 3 cheeses I’ve made have been a disaster. It’s the same problem every time - the curd just never sets. With the first two failures, flocculation took fooooreeeeever. Then, after calculating coagulation time accordingly, when it was time to cut and stir the curds, they just disintegrated. I put my hand in and lifted it up, and the curds just shattered into pieces smaller than rice. I bought new culture (MA11) and new rennet. Last night, after milking the goats, I started a batch of chèvre with the new ingredients. My chèvre is usually set and ready to drain at about 12 hours. This morning, at about 13 hours, the cheese hadn’t set at all. It’s like a pot of undercooked pudding. Also, I usually snack on the delicious sweet curds as I’m cooking them. With these last 3 cheeses, they just do not taste good. So the problem must be with my milk. I’ve noticed lately a much higher cream content. Could that be the culprit? (I can’t skim out the additional cream, since it’s naturally homogenized goat milk vs skimmable cow milk.)

[@jmilkslinger]

I doubt it's the fat, but I've never worked with goats milk so I can't really say. What kind of rennet are you using? Since it's fresh culture and rennet, and you're using raw goats milk, and since you've made cheese successfully before, my next best guess is that there's an infection or contamination in the source itself: the goats. But I really have no idea! Are you familiar with the Biegel Family? www.youtube.com/@fourseasonsnorth/videos They make TONS of cheese from their goats and would probably be a much better resource.

[@weegie2818]

Hi Jennifer, what are you using to prep/sterilize your equipment?

[@jmilkslinger]

White vinegar and water (1:1)

[@weegie2818]

@@jmilkslinger Thank you. Just found your channel and enjoying your approach to cheese making.

[@jmilkslinger]

@@weegie2818 Thank you, and welcome!

[@kathybolger3939]

Hi how often in the fridge was this Cheese turned what temperature was is stored at, and when it goes mouldy on the outside foes that taint other cheese in the fridge?

[@jmilkslinger]

I turned it every week or so. It was stored at 55 degrees. And no, the mold didn't transfer to other cheeses, at least not that I noticed!

[@kathybolger3939]

@@jmilkslinger thank you do you store your Cheddars and gudas in the same fridge or is it better to have different tempature fridges for each cheese

[@jmilkslinger]

@@kathybolger3939 All the same fridge/cheese cave! When I have cheeses that require a different temp, I either ignore it (because I have limited options), or I might use the fridge for colder temps or room temp for warmer temps. In the winter, we close off a downstairs bedroom and open the windows and keep that room at about 60, so then I can age cheeses at cooler temps. It's all very imperfect.... (I do have a couple dual-zone wine fridges, but they're small so I only use those temps for short, finicky projects, like white-mold cheeses and such...)

[@kathybolger3939]

@@jmilkslinger Thank you Jennifer its all perfectly imperfect and i can not wait to start

[@arletaarleta5332]

when you pack the pieces into a vacuum at what temperature do you still store them in a cheese cave or a regular fridge

[@jmilkslinger]

I store my vac-packed cheeses in a 55-degree cheesecave. (You can age in a fridge, though, too...)

[@arletaarleta5332]

I think that cheese in a vacuum doesn't ripen anymore because there is no air and I was wondering where it would be better to keep it after cutting and vacuuming, thanks for the answer 😊 your videos are great

[@jmilkslinger]

@@arletaarleta5332 While there won't be rind development or any mold growth, vac-packed cheeses do continue to ripen, age, and change over time. It's kinda amazing!

[@athenaformosa799]

I noticed when I add lipase to my cheese it tasted more acidic and the texture feels more crumbly. Not sure it’s me overcooking the curd or not letting out enough whey or the lipase culture

[@jmilkslinger]

I've never noticed a texture difference with lipase --- just the flavor difference.

[@joliving6837]

Ma'am can't we use yogurt as the culture only instead of rennet n clabber culture...

[@jmilkslinger]

You can use yogurt instead of the clabber culture (for thermophilic cheeses), but you can't replace the rennet with yogurt.

[@joliving6837]

@@jmilkslinger thk you...I make cottage cheese and now cheddar cheese at home...in case of latter I found this recipe on net used by many n for those who don't have access to cultures and rennet like myself. Turned out yummy...I use yogurt or lemon juice as the culture...clearly m limited in my cheese making because of availability of cultures...live in Karachi Pakistan and in my endeavor to make home cheese other than cottage which is very common in our households, I've been researching n hence follow you, Gavin n others...so looking out for ways to make different cheese with what is available...thk you again for your reply...

[@jmilkslinger]

@@joliving6837 I'm curious: Why is there such an inaccessibility to rennet? I know that when I lived in a very rural part of Nicaragua with minimal access to most things I take for granted here in the states, a lot of the women used dry rennet tablets for cheesemaking, or an actual piece of calf stomach that they used like a mother culture, soaking in a flask of whey....

[@joliving6837]

@@jmilkslinger ma'am in Karachi atleast home cheese is generally cottage...my mom, cousins, aunt's have made it for years...we get what are called cottage cheese moulds too...since the home method uses yogurt or lemon or vinegar n we use these items in our foods too its readily available...infact many make yogurt at home too... rennet is available at industrial level n we get a number of local and foreign cheese in the market. Other than cottage not many are into cheese making at home. I stumbled onto this easy method of making cheddar as I wanted to make cheese other than cottage on cheese n I was a major hit with my family...m just into the beginners category... furthermore, if I really were to look around to find rennet or cultures, they would be not only hard to find but also very costly if I were to find it...but have started following likes of yourself to understand more about cheese making at home by someone like myself...thank you...

[@joliving6837]

@@jmilkslinger furthermore, I would also like to use plant based rennet or cultures like yogurt or lemon...m sure if I were to travel up north n explore villages I will find cheese making using rennet the way you described but m in a large metropolitan city where m more accustomed to off the shelf products...

[@rignanroach1775]

If I had to guess I'd bet temp control at that early curd making stage gets you a more specific set of bacteria. Just guessing

[@JulianaSitioGratidao]

Que delicia😊

[@NickClark-hq5ck]

At least you and husband had a child that looks just like both of you.. you literally gave birth to your twins.

[@papasmurf9146]

Happy to hear you dislike lipase. I think it ruined every cheese I added it to. When you're first starting out with making something, you want a scientific recipe: add X amount, stir for X seconds, raise to X temperature. But some things (like cheese making) are definitely more organic. Switching the recipe over to "heat until this happens" is probably a more repeatable approach. Might still want to toss in "sign posts" like "after 30 minutes, start checking for this to happen." If you make that sort of recipe book (hint, hint), be sure to advertise it here.

[@amybisbee]

Thanks!

[@jmilkslinger]

Thank you!