Paneer

Some of my neighbors went on vacation this week and gave us a gallon of whole milk and some eggs, since they would not be using them. Besides our fridge being overrun with eggs this Easter, we were excited to get the milk. I've been wanting to make cheese for a long time and have just not gotten around to it. I really want to try mozzarella, but I have yet to order some rennet. So when we got this milk (which was close to its expiration date) I thought it would be perfect for experimenting, since it was free and all that.

I looked up some recipes online and found this one on how to make paneer, an Indian cheese. It seemed easy to make and I could use lemon juice instead of rennet. First I poured the whole gallon into my stock pot and started heating it up.

I had read somewhere that the temperature needs to be 185 F for the curds to separate from the whey, so I tried to bring the milk to that temperature. (I held my meat thermometer in there to check it.) I stirred as it was heating up so the milk wouldn't burn on the bottom. When it started boiling I added the lemon juice and water. (I had mixed 1/2 c of lemon juice with 1 c of water previously) As the curds and whey started separating, I turned off the heat.

After some trial and error with the lemon juice, (I ended up adding more because it wasn't separating) the curds sank to the bottom of the pan. I didn't realize they would be so small and grainy. I had assumed they would be big chunks, so that was a learning experience for me. My pot of milk ended up looking like this.

I then poured everything into a strainer lined with a couple layers of cheesecloth.


Once that was done, I was left with a bowl of curds...

...and a bowl of whey.

I learned a while back that you DO NOT throw away the whey. When Craig had tried making cheese earlier, we saved the whey and I used it in the place of buttermilk to make buttermilk waffles. I didn't notice a difference in the flavor, but I was proud that I used it. I had also heard that you can use it as plant food, so that's what I did this time. I took it out to my "garden" (I use that term loosely) and watered my plants with it. It might just be my imagination, but I swear the next day our cherry tree suddenly had a bunch of leaves on it. Or maybe that was because it's spring. I choose to believe it was the whey.

Back to the cheese. I took the curds and placed them in the cheesecloth in another strainer and rinsed them with water.

I think this is supposed to rinse off all the lemon juice. I don't think I did this part very well because the end result had a lemony flavor. After I rinsed, I tried to squeeze all the water out.

After I got most of the water out, I had a nice round ball of cheese. I was surprised by it's consistency, since it was ricotta-like. I suppose I expected it to be like mozzarella. I even thought I could melt the cheese and stretch it to make it like mozzarella, but that didn't work. It just made the cheese really hot. I ended up just wrapping the ball in saran wrap and stuck it in the fridge.

Looks kind of like cauliflower, huh? I didn't want it to go to waste, so I put it in some lasagne for dinner. I liked the way it tasted in there, but Craig said there was too much cheese in there. I didn't know there was such a thing as too much cheese. Maybe after this experience I'll order that rennet and start making some fancier cheeses. Have any of you made cheese? Do you have any tips for me?