How to Make Paneer, Homemade Paneer Recipe - Edible Garden (2024)

FAQs

Which vinegar is best for making paneer? ›

Add about 2 to 3 teaspoons of white vinegar or apple cider vinegar in 1 litre milk. With vinegar the milk curdles faster and quicker. Curd or yogurt: Fresh curd will give you more softer and moist paneer. You could add about 3 to 4 tablespoons of fresh curd or yogurt when making paneer recipe with 1 litre milk.

Shop-bought paneer is normally denser, chewier and makes a squeaky sound as you bite into it. On the other hand, homemade paneer tends to have a somewhat crumbly texture and tastes so much fresher! As I said, I almost always used ready-made paneer for cooking in India.

Similarly adding too much of lemon juice or vinegar will make the paneer harder & grainier. So begin by adding only a little and add more as needed until it curdles. Once the milk curdles completely, turn off the stove and avoid cooking further to prevent the paneer from turning hard.

The lemon juice, vinegar and citric acid can coagulate the milk without rennet but frequently work best with hot milk.

Paneer is an Indian cheese that's made from curdled milk and some sort of fruit or vegetable acid like lemon juice. There are some distinct traits that make Paneer the cheese that it is: It's an unaged cheese.

Although many Indians translate "paneer" into "cottage cheese", cottage cheese is made using rennet extracted from the stomach of ruminants, and cow's skim milk. Queso blanco or queso fresco are often recommended as substitutes in the Americas and Spain as they are more commercially available in many American markets.

Homemade Paneer (Fresh Indian Cottage Cheese) Recipe video above. Homemade paneer is far superior to store bought. It's softer and creamier, and has much better flavour.

Paneer is a good source of protein, especially for vegetarians. It contains all nine essential amino acids that are required for the proper functioning of the body. Furthermore, compared to other cheese it is a healthier option and can be consumed regularly.

Paneer is a non-melting cheese. Since paneer is made using heat and acid, instead of rennet, to curdle the milk, it changes the way the milk proteins are bound together. When paneer is heated, it doesn't melt, but holds its shape, allowing it to be simmered, fried or grilled without liquefying.

Is it better to fry or boil paneer? ›

Do you have to fry the paneer? Absolutely not! The thing is, raw paneer has a tendency to fall apart when added to a sauce. By frying the cubed paneer, you create a crispy crust to the cheese which helps it retain its shape when cooked into a hot curry sauce.

Heating dries up the moisture content in the paneer and it makes it hard and rubbery.

Top tip: If you find your paneer can get a bit dry or chewy when fried or cooked, you can soak it in water for 10 minutes so it retains more moisture while cooking.

White vinegar - this kind of vinegar comes from grain-based ethanol or acetic acid, which is diluted with water. It has a strong flavour and is a popular part of Indian cuisine. White vinegar also makes a great all-purpose cleaner!

I often use lemon juice to curdle the milk but white vinegar works just as well.

Distilled white vinegar and white wine vinegar are the two most common types of vinegar used to make homemade soft cheeses like cottage cheese or Farmer's cheese. They both make an excellent cheese though each will produce subtle differences in flavor and texture to the homemade cheese.

What you'll need: Whole or 2-percent milk and fresh lemon juice or white distilled vinegar. Why it works: Buttermilk brings its tangy flavor and acidic makeup to recipes, important in baking when you're using baking soda as a leavener, which needs acid to activate it. Here, you're creating an acidic dairy mixture.