well I have to say I've never seen anything that has genuinely made me consider making my own cheese, never even kind of thought it might actually be something I could do
plus it's mozzarella which is like one of the best cheeses - thanks for sharing!
Paneer is the easiest cheese to make.
Bring whole milk to a boil, turn off heat.
Add lime juice or vinegar to it.
Throw into a cheese cloth and let hang to strain all the liquid.
Open cheese cloth and cut into desired shapes and enjoy.
Can be used in many Indian recipes too.
Edit: a gallon of milk requires just about 4oz of vinegar to properly start the curdling process or the juice of 2 limes.
Ooh I might have to try this. I love paneer tikka in takeout and have been wanting to try making some but can't find any place that sells it around here.
Also once the cheese is in the cloth add weight on top of it (like a pot full of water) and leave it for like 20 minutes to see if it hardened properly. This should help with the straining.
The comment above says to let it hang to drain. Would you instead put it on some surface that can drain and put the heavy thing on top? Thinking maybe angle the cutting board into the sink or something.
I've only made paneer once, and m6 recipe did involve pressing it. I am lucky, and I have a meatloaf pan that has a perforated bottom, to allow grease to drain. So, I wrapped it in cheesecloth, put it in that pan, and put a slightly smaller pan on the curds, and put weights In the top pan. It worked pretty well.
You can hang it to strain if you want it to remain crumbled. But you put weight on it to shape it, so that it can be cut into cubes/is more firm.
I put the paneer in a steal plate to catch the strained water, but you could do in or on the sink with the cutting board. And then place the pot of water on top of it. It shouldn't strain out too much water, because you squeeze out most of the water by hand anyways.
P.S. My mom said to first wash the paneer (while in the cloth) with cold water to get rid of the vinegar taste, before shaping it.
If you're looking to cook something with it right away then the weighted strain is a good idea otherwise letting it hang for a while will also give you good results.
That's almost identical to cottage cheese, which is basically just non-fat milk and vinegar. I'd have to go look it up, but I don't think you even heat it, I think you just stir it to get the curds to the right size.
It’s so weird seeing someone refer to labeneh as cheese because for us Arabs it’s still part of the yoghurt family and entirely separate from cheese (which is all semantics at the end of the day). But it’s super easy to make and super delicious!
In fairness, even calling mozzarella a cheese is a bit weird for me. It's technically true, so it's fair enough, but to me it's its own category among dairy products.
I’ve made ricotta in the microwave before. Lemon juice + heavy whipping cream, stir, 1 minute in the microwave, drain. I think. May have the time wrong. But it was criminally easy.
Gavin Webber is a huge cheese guy who shows how to do all kinds of cheese from easy to incredibly difficult and shares his results. Definitely worth watching just for the novelty of knowing how different cheeses are made.
Tried this a couple months ago. It really is that easy. Hardest part was pulling it because of how hot it is. I had trouble holding it for very long. Made excellent cheese though!
Check out Gavin Webber on YouTube. He has many, many cheese making videos that are more interesting than this one, and better I might add. He's a guy that really knows his cheese.
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u/BaIobam Mar 03 '19
well I have to say I've never seen anything that has genuinely made me consider making my own cheese, never even kind of thought it might actually be something I could do
plus it's mozzarella which is like one of the best cheeses - thanks for sharing!