MAKING PANIR (PANEER) CHEESE

[brassylassy]

If you ever wondered why Little Miss Muffet was eating curds and whey, look no further….
Here’s an easy and rewarding recipe for making a simple cheese known as Paneer or Panir (cottage cheese).

There are literally 100’s of ways to use panir cheese. This protein-rich food can be eaten fresh on bread with a drizzle of olive oil and herbs or cubed and crumbed and made into a delicious curry. Its uses are limitless.
To make panir, bring 3.5 litres full cream milk to the boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add approx 75 ml lemon juice or vinegar stirring in the same direction for approx 15 seconds revealing the curds and whey (if it doesn’t separate, just add a bit more lemon juice). Place a muslin or cheesecloth lined colander over a large bowl and pour in the curds and whey. Let the curds cool a bit and then gather the cloth together and tie with some kitchen twine. Squeeze lightly over the remaining whey. I then tie the bundle to a door knob on the kitchen cupboard and place a bowl underneath to catch any draining whey. After 3 hours, it’s ready! Do not throw out the whey….it is full of goodness and is a great addition to soups, pasta or curries.



Here is one of my favourite Panir recipes….
PANIR CUTLETS
Heat 1 tbsp ghee or butter over a medium heat, adding 1 cup (225 ml) milk, 1 cup (175 g) panir, 100 g semolina, 1 finely chopped onion, finely chopped chilli (optional), 1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves and a half teaspoon salt. Stir constantly, cooking until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan (usually only a few minutes). Spread the mixture (about 1.5 cm or ¾ inch layer) into a greased banking tin. Cut into 2.5cm or 1 inch squares, placing the dish into the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours. Make a batter with 2 tbsp plain flour and ½ cup milk and dip each square then roll in breadcrumbs. Heat oil and fry the cutlets 2-3 minutes until golden brown.
You can either serve with chutney or cook into a vegetable curry….yummy!!!

[minnie]

Hi Lynda,

Thank you so much for putting this on the forum, I'm sure going to make this.

Vicki

[Shadowgirlau]

Sounds very easy and something worth trying. Now is the milk used fresh from the cow or can it be made using bought full cream?

Kathleen

[Hayhay]

Does this need unhomogenised milk? Or will it work with homogenised?

[minnie]

Hi Hayley,

I'd hazard a guess here and say un-homogenised when Lynda said 'full cream milk'. Homogenisation breaks up the fat gobules in the milk to make then smaller and mix within the milk so you don't get cream rising to the top.

Sort of destroys the 'structure' of the milk, which for cheesemaking is important.

I know there are people making cheese with homogenised milk, they add something to the milk to help it... and there are some that make cheese with powdered milk. Frankly if you can only use powdered milk for cheese what's the point? You're better off just buying it... sad I know but...


On a side issue I saw paneer cheese in the supermarket the other day, I'll make it though.

Vicki

[Hayhay]

Thanks that's what I suspected......

I did buy some calcium chloride to un-unhomogenise milk....jsut seems such a waste to homogenise it then have to -de-homogenise it again!

I really need a friend with a cow....or goat.

[minnie]

Sadly, yes you do.

The difference after pasteurisation and homgoensation wreaks havoc on the milk structure.

DH accidently overheated the milk last week that I wanted cream from, for icecream. So when it came to separating, it didn't... he just about pastuerised it... no icecream, will have to wait for next milk.

We especially noticed the texture and flavour of the cheese made from unpasteurised milk, absolutely superb.


Vicki

[iwannabeapirate]

I am certainly no great cheese maker, but I would be surprised if you had trouble getting shop bought milk to separate into simple curds and whey.
The basic chemistry is that proteins have charges that repel each other, like magnets if you put the wrongs ends together. pH (lemon juice is the acid) alters the charge, and at a certain pH they have no nett charge at all, so they are no longer repelled. That is when they stick together and form curds. Not all proteins happen to coagulate at acid pH, so they stay soluble in the whey - hence the term "whey protein". I love a bit of chemistry in the kitchen

Re: homogenisation, the formation of curds is driven by protein coagulation, so the cream should not interfere much one way or the other. Probably even skim milk would work.

Re: pasteurisation, it may well alter protein structure a little, but not enough to stop it coagulating under acid conditions. Either way, this recipie starts with boiling. Pasteurisation is only heating to 80 C for 2 seconds (or 60 C for 30 min.)

Not making an apologetic for homegenisation and pasteurisation here, but it probably won't effect this one. If you can't get raw milk and want to add a little bit of life and enzymes back into it, get hold of some kefir grains and let them digest it for a little while after boiling (or, let them sit long enough to make their own acids, which will coagulate the milk without lemon juice).

[Hayhay]

Oh of course! I was completely overlooking the lemon juice acting as an acid.....

Thanks for your science explanation!

[Hayhay]

ANOTHER QUESTION!

Do you think that when making the 30 minute mozzarella that the citric acid would work as the 'de-homogeniser'? Or should I still add some calcium chloride just to be safe......

[iwannabeapirate]

It's quite possbile that a change in pH could help to dehomogenise, but it's not something I know enough about to tell off the top.

It does seem that you can do it with plain homogenised milk (though some swear by the raw product). I have done it with shop milk, but it wasn't great mozzarella either!!

This reliable source that shows that it can work with unhomogenised milk: (http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Ch ... rican.html).

As does this research:
Title: Effect of homogenization on some properties of Mozzarella cheese.
Abstract:
Mozzarella cheese was made from homogenized milk (at 25 kg/cm2 pressure at 60°C) and unhomogenized buffaloes', cows' milk and its mixture (1:1). Obtained cheeses were examined when fresh and during storage period at 5±1°C for 6 weeks for its chemical, rheological and organoleptic properties. The cows' milk Mozzarella cheese tended to be softer, more flexible and contained slightly higher levels of moisture, fat, and salt contents whereas buffaloes' milk Mozzarella cheese had higher protein content. The rheological properties of cows' milk Mozzarella cheeses were better, during different ripening intervals when compared with buffaloes' milk or its mixture with cow's milk (1:1). Homogenized milk cheeses had lower rheological property values in all treatments than those made by the traditional method but improved during storage. The microstructure of cheeses varied according to the milk type and milk homogenization. Sensory evaluation showed that traditional cows' milk cheese gained the highest score among different treatments.

My 2 cents worth anyway, no doubt someone here has more experience to offer.

[minnie]

I think the the Rikki Carroll recipe for 30 min mozzarella done using the microwave looks better than the Biologist/Chemist.

Allow to set for one to two hours, undisturbed, until a clean break forms.

This is a long time if you're going to do a 'microwave cheese and use homogenised milk', which at the end of the day is only okay to use for pizza or a toasted sandwich, it's certainly not the same as doing a 'good mozzarella'.

If homogenisation is the 'smashing' up of the fat gobules to mix through the milk (remember cream rising to the top of the milk, for those of us who remember milk in glass bottles with cream at the top), how do you 'dehomogenise' milk? Would that be gathering the fat gobules together again?

Just not sure what dehomogenising is?

I'd buy 'full cream' milk for cheesemaking rather than homogenised, but it's certainly each persons preference.

Vicki

[Hayhay]

Thanks for the science info, very interesting!

Minnie - dehomogenising is a term i made up for turning homogenised milk back into unhomogenised milk....ie reversing the process

Well, today a friend brought over 10 litres of fresh cows milk straight from the vat - and I tell ya I've never made such good cheese! It was so creamy and here's something interesting - the quantity it made was significantly more than the quanitities I've made with the same recipe, using milk bought from the store.

Also we made paneer and it seems regular shop bought homogenised milk does absolutely fine. I think you must be right in that the lemon juice (or vinegar) is enough acid to dehomogenise the particles. Though fresh milk would probably create a better quality and quantity.

And I am very excited, because as it turns out our friends neighbour is more than happy for us to get milk from him! Yay! And considering he is currently being paid 23c a litre from the dairy corp.....I think we're about to get some very cheap milk! Plus as a bonus he farms organically (but doesn't have certification.). Only trouble is its 2 and a bit hours away.....but we do have a deep freeze now...so maybe once a month we can get 100 litres or something!

Also learned something interesting from my friends.....shop bought milk is actually a processed product (you probably all know this)...milk goes to the factory, they split it into all its component parts, take old the 'golden' oil, then add it back together to get minimum requirements for the milk type. And we thought when we bought milk at the shop it REALLY was milk!

[minnie]

Hi Hayley,

Great that you are able to source out 'real' milk, that's the kind that has milk in it as my DH says.

Homogenisation is when they literally 'smash' a fat gobule into minute pieces, so from my understanding you can't 'reverse' the process. From the cheese links site they say (and other sites as well) that Calcium Chloride Solution is used in homogenised milk (i.e. store-bought milk) to assist in coagulation when using rennet. Not reverse the process. So by adding calcium choloride they make the milk work for them, but this isn't reversing the homogensation process.

From a google search about homogenisation there is a lot of information about health issues with homogenisation and links with heart problems... which some may find interesting.

Here's some interesting information on homogenisation:
http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu ... ation.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/022967.html
http://www.realmilk.com/homogenization.html

At the end of the day, most supermarkets have 'unhomogenised' milk these days and that's a better option for cheese if you don't have a source for 'real milk'. In saying this 'you will get' a passable result from certain cheeses with homogenised milk, but why bother when for the cost of the milk and time to make the 'passable' cheese you usually find it's more cost effective and superior product, to buy the cheese itself.

It's always worthwhile weighing up the cost + quality... not that I'm advocating the supermarket product but sometimes it's a better choice with some things.


Vicki

[Hayhay]

I so need to do a kitchen chemistry course

Blergh yucky reading really.......even more reason to get milk straight from the farmer.

We were buying unhomong milk but the company has now homogenised it (grrr APPARENTLY to consumer demand.....) and it was the only unhomog milk our supermarket sold. In despair I've been buying UHT for the last couple of months. So yes very extra excited to be able to source some directly!

Currently the farmer is getting, at best, 23cents a litre for his milk. Which is ridiculous; especially considering milk is now MORE expensive. Someones making a lot of money.

[Shadowgirlau]

There was a program on telly recently about the price difference between the farm gate and the supermarkets. Was quite intersting and showed where the money was going. However until the farmers get angry enough to do something about it the concenses was that it would stay the same.

I have read reports that some farmers are begining to take things into their own hands and process to sell direct from the farm. Need a lot more of them to do this though; and I can certainly understand how difficult it is for them to do this as it is a lot of extra work for them.

Kathleen

[minnie]

Hi Hayley,

UHT milk arrghhhh!

UHT is used to put a starter culture in, for use as a starter... because the milk is absolutely 'dead', nothing in it, it's been soooo highly processed.

A woman who owns a shop in Lismore told me ages back that her and her husband used to own a dairy and her kids spent the first years of their lives drinking milk straight from the cow.

When they sold and moved to town the kids called the homogenised milk 'bull's milk' because it didn't taste the same as what came out of the cow.

Don't know about kitchen chemistry, I'm no chemist but... breaking down what's in things and logically thinking it out is helpful... and a cheesemaking course is money well spent in my opinion.

Kathleen, interestingly a small jersey dairy has just been built near us, while so many are shutting down. There's so many things that dairy farmers have to work within and then on top to have the weather, as well as being a 7 day a week job 365 days per year, from usually 3am to 6pm... time is the thing. Some get more money per litre depending on the quality of the butterfat, mastitis etc, hence the guy near us going into jerseys.

It's hard as well that they can't legally sell milk to the public as well, that's something we should all be standing up for I guess.

Vicki