How to make paneer

Why it does not melt

Most cheeses are set with rennet, which cuts the casein proteins in a way that leaves them able to flow and stretch when heated. Paneer is set with acid, which makes the casein clump tightly and irreversibly.

That is why paneer holds its shape in a hot curry where cheddar would dissolve, and why it can be cubed and fried until browned. It is a structural consequence of how it was made rather than a quality of the milk.

Ricotta, queso fresco, chhena and several other fresh cheeses are made the same way and share the same behaviour.

The method

Twenty minutes of work, an hour of pressing. FoodHQ does not publish salt percentages, pH figures or keeping times for home fermenting. Those are safety numbers, they are set by a food safety authority rather than by a cookery writer, and the right ones depend on what you are fermenting and where you are. In the UK the Food Standards Agency is the authority — use a recipe from it or from another body with the same standing, and treat this page as the explanation of why that recipe is shaped the way it is.

1. Bring full-fat milk to the boil in a heavy pan, stirring so it does not catch. Watch it — it rises fast.
2. Take it off the heat and let it settle for a minute.
3. Add acid a little at a time, stirring gently — lemon juice, vinegar or whey from a previous batch all work.
4. Within a minute the milk should split into white curds and clear greenish whey. If it is still milky, add a little more acid.
5. Stop as soon as the whey runs clear. Too much acid gives a rubbery, sour paneer.
6. Pour through a muslin-lined sieve, then rinse the curds under cold water to remove the acid taste.
7. Gather the muslin, twist to squeeze out the whey, then press under a weight — a pan of water on a board — for half an hour to an hour depending on how firm you want it.

Using it, and the whey

• Cubed and fried until golden, then added to a curry at the end so it keeps its edges.
• Palak paneer, matar paneer, paneer butter masala — the standard uses.
• Grilled or skewered, marinated in yoghurt and spices first, as paneer tikka.
• Crumbled into a bhurji, scrambled with onion, tomato and spices.
• Soaked in hot salted water after frying, which keeps it soft rather than letting it firm up.
• Chhena, the unpressed curd, which is the base of Bengali sweets like rasgulla and sandesh.
• The whey in bread dough, in a dal, or to cook rice. It is protein-rich and slightly acidic.

What changes the result

Milk

Full-fat gives a tender paneer. Skimmed gives a hard, dry one. UHT milk often refuses to split cleanly.

Acid

Lemon juice is mildest, vinegar sharper, whey from a previous batch gentlest of all.

How much acid

Only as much as it takes for the whey to run clear. Excess gives rubberiness and a sour edge.

Pressing

Half an hour for a soft crumbly paneer; an hour or more under a heavier weight for something firm enough to cube and fry.

Yield

A litre of milk gives roughly a hundred and fifty to two hundred grams of paneer.

Common questions