# Problems with paneer



## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

I am trying to make paneer, and some weird things are happening! The recipe is very basic -- boil whole milk, add lemon. Drain, salt and press curds. So I boil the milk and add lemon, but all I get are a few VERY fine, silky curds (when pressed it acts a lot like cream cheese) and what looks like milk, not whey. Out of frustration I boiled the "whey" again and added more lemon, and lo and behold, LOTS of curds. Firmer texture. Now the leftover whey looks like whey, watery and yellowish. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong? Nothing I've read says that you have to process it TWICE. :help: :baby04: Still using store milk, but that shouldn't make a difference, should it???


----------



## Lannie (Jan 11, 2004)

I used to make this with store milk years ago, but I used vinegar. I know the lemon juice doesn't curdle as powerfully because I've been using lemon juice to curdle milk for a bread recipe, and it just doesn't do it the same. For a couple of weeks I had to get milk at the store, and the lemon juice did the same thing for me as what you described. I could have tried using more lemon juice, but I just used the vinegar instead, and it curdled just fine.

Maybe you could try it using apple cider vinegar instead of lemon juice. That's how I make my panir, and it works great. There's no vinegar taste or smell left in the cheese when it's done, so you don't need to worry about that. It all goes out in the whey.

~Lannie


----------



## JHinCA (Sep 20, 2003)

I have had good luck using this method:

http://fiascofarm.com/dairy/quesoblanco.htm

HTH

Jean


----------



## marusempai (Sep 16, 2007)

Dang, I can't believe I didn't find that... I look on fias co farms' cheesemaking page all the time! I will try it with vinegar next time. Thanks!


----------

