Pecorino Romano is made from whole sheep’s milk curdled with lamb’s rennet. There are other Pecorino Romano type cheeses such as Pecorino Siciliano and Sardo. Romano may also be made from cow or goat’s milk. Italian Romano is ripened for at least 8 months and contains at least 36 percent fat in the dry matter. The surface of this cheese is usually darkened with special clays mixed with tallow or oil.

Romano in the US may be prepared from cow, sheep, or goat milk or from mixtures of two or all of these milks. It is cured not less than 5 months. It may not contain more than 34 percent moisture nor less than 38 percent fat in the dry matter.

For 100 lb. cow’s and goat’s milk:
Use whole raw sheep or goat milk or cow milk standardized to 2.8-3.0 % fat. The evening cow milk can be skimmed by hand and mixed with the morning's whole milk or whole cow milk can be skimmed using a cream separator.

Heat milk to 92-94 F.
Add starter culture:
For DVS use 2.5 DCU (1/4 tsp.) CHOOZIT TA062 + 1DCU CHOOZIT LB340 for 100 lb. milk
or
For bulk starter use 0.5 lb. ABIASA Thermo B for 100 lb. milk

(Double the amount of starter culture for pasteurized milk)

Add Lipase enzyme if picante flavor is desired, up to 9 grams (2 tsp.) per 100 lb. milk; 0.5 tsp per 100 lb. milk should be enough.
Ripen milk for 30 min.
Add 9 ml single strength rennet for 100 lb. of milk.
Check for flocculation, which is the first sign of milk gelling into curd (should be 12-15 minutes), and multiply this time by 2 to get the time to wait from adding rennet to cutting, e.g. 12 min. x 2 = 24 min. The curd should be rather soft at cutting.
Cut the curd into particles the size of wheat kernels. After cutting, agitate the curd gently for 10 min.

Heat the curds and whey while stirring as follows:
1 F in 5 min.
2-3 F in the next 5 min.
1 F per 2 min. until the final cook temp of 116-118° F is reached.
Total heating time is approx. 50 min.. The curds are cooked at 116-118° F until firm.
After the curds are firmed and no longer stick together, allow the curds to settle to the bottom of the vat.
The curds are pushed to the back of the vat to form a pack of curds that is approx. 8 inches deep. This pack is pressed by hand so that the curds knit together into a cake. After the cake is made the whey should be drained until there is still 2 inches above the curd. The whey should test .18-.20% titratable acidity (pH 6.00) when it is time to drain.
The curd is cut into large pieces the size of a whole cheese, which is placed into the cloth-lined or basket-style hoops. This is done in the vat so the curd stays warm and knits together well.

After 20 minutes the hoops are stacked two high and after 20 more min. the order is reversed. Then, the wheels of cheese are removed from the hoops and the cloths are removed and reversed on the cheese. The cheeses are placed back in the hoops and pressed for 30 minutes before reversing the order of the stack. This process is repeated until uniform shaped wheels with smooth rinds are formed. Take the cloths off the cheese and soak in salt brine. Reverse the cheeses in the cloths again and leave overnight without pressure.
The following morning the cheeses are removed from the hoops.

Brine at 50-55 °F in a saturated salt brine (80-96% saturation or 20-24% salt) for 3-4 hours per pound at. Remove from the brine. Place wheels on open shelves in the brine room and turn the cheese every day until the rinds are dry and hardened without cracking.
After salting, age the cheese at 50-55 F and 80-85% RH . The cheeses are turned and oiled periodically to prevent mold growth. When mold does appear, the cheeses should be scrubbed clean with saturated salt brine or water (works better for retarding blue mold growth), dried and oiled again. A minimum of 5 months curing is required. Romano was traditionally coated with olive oil containing a black pigment such as clay. I have used finely ground vegetable ash as a pigment.