8/19/20
Making Robiola cheese. Using 2 gallons of strauss whole non homogenized. Bought 4 half gallons yesterday Tuesday August 18. Expiration date is Sept 1.
I am learning to take the butter off the top. So good with my toast. Now I skim the smaller butter pieces off after pouring the milk in the pot.
First mistake: Did not add the calcium chloride because although it was in the list of ingredients, it was not in the directions and I missed it.
Second mistake, i doubled the recipe so i added two packets of buttermilk culture then aftward read the questions and answers which said to only use 1 ½ packets
Added culture and let sit for 4 ½ hours. Added 8 drops of rennet and waited 30 minutes. After 30 minutes checked and complete liquid. No curd formation. Complete failure.
What can i do now. I thought about adding the calcium chloride now to see if that would help but accidentally added 3 tsp of citric acid. After that mistake I'm deciding to try mozzarella so i am warming up the curds to 110 degrees f
Finished it like mozzarella. Stretched it best i could then put it to drain in the baskets i had ready for the robiola.
https://cheesemaking.com/collections/recipes/products/robiola-cheese-making-recipe
Ok, this turned out pretty good. I drained one and pressed the other. I think I liked the drained one better. It was stringy and also melted very well.
Well, the funny thing about a robiola is that it is a lactic set cheese. As the milk acidifies, it actually releases calcium phosphate from the casein micelles (bundles of milk protein). If you had waited long enough, it would have coagulated just fine. That's why "quick" mozzarella sets without calcium chloride. It just would have taken another 4-8 hours probably. Also, the amount of cutlure you add to it is almost irrelevant because you are letting it sit for so long. The more culture you add, the faster it will acidify, but the culture doubles in an hour or so anyway, so it doesn't really make that much difference for a lactic set cheese.
But well done with the pivot! It doesn't matter how it works out as long as you get yummy cheese :-)
Thank you so much! Such great information. I will try again and wait longer.
Completely agree with Mike. The lactic coagulated cheeses I've made often have taken much longer to firm up than what is stated in the recipes, sometimes up to 12 hours.
-L
It worked! Thank you! I waited about 12 hours and it coagulated beautifully.
Great! A cheese for you (thumbs up -- sometimes abbreviated AC4U) ;D