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How to Make Paneer at Home with Spoiled Milk

Nidhi Nangia
By Nidhi Nangia. Updated: February 23, 2021
How to Make Paneer at Home with Spoiled Milk

What do you do when your milk gets spoiled? Do you just throw it away? This is bad. One important tip is to make paneer out of it. Indian cottage cheese or paneer is healthy and full of benefits, and can be very easily made out of spoiled milk. You may even curdle your milk and make your own paneer at home, as store-bought paneer is expensive. In this oneHOWTO article, we are going to see how to make paneer at home with spoiled milk.

You'll need:
  • Spoiled milk
  • 2 tbsp Lemon or vinegar
  • Water
You may also be interested in: How To Make Paneer With Vinegar

Why make paneer at home?

Store-bought paneer contains citric acid and other additives that are not good for your health. At home, you can curdle the milk using lemon juice or vinegar which is safe and healthy. In addition, the quality of home-made paneer is much better than store-bought paneer. Making paneer at home also allows you to utilize something that you have spoiled in your kitchen. You are saved from throwing the spoiled milk in the bin. Making paneer with spoiled milk is a great way of putting spoiled milk to great use.

How long after milk is spoiled can we make paneer?

Using spoiled milk is a great way to prevent wastage of food. However, we still need to be careful. When milk spoils, it will split into the curds and whey. It might smell a little off, but this is normal. Although we can use spoiled or split milk to make paneer at home, we shouldn't us rancid milk. This is milk that has developed bacteria and can cause a health risk if we eat it. If using spoiled milk to make paneer, only use it 2-3 days after it has split.

How to Make Paneer at Home with Spoiled Milk - How long after milk is spoiled can we make paneer?

Step by step instructions to make paneer

To make paneer at home with spoiled milk, you will need only a couple of ingredients, which are 1 ½ liters of full fat milk and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Once you have collected the ingredients, follow these steps :

  1. To make paneer with spoiled milk, make milk in a pan and bring it to a boil on medium flame. If you are using very cold milk like refrigerated one, then start boiling it on low flame until it becomes warm, and then turn on the flame a little to reach medium heat. If you boil refrigerated milk at high flame, it may give a strange smell to your paneer.
  2. Once your milk has come to a good boil, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to it. You may also use vinegar or curd to it, but using lemon juice yields the softest of paneer.
  3. As soon as the milk starts curdling, turn off the flame. If curdling does not happen within a few seconds, add a little more of lemon juice to it. Make sure that the milk has started curdling before turning off the flame.
  4. If you continue cooking it for longer, your paneer may become grainy and hard. You can add a full bowl of ice cubes to stop the cooking process. Leave it for a minute and allow it to rest.
  5. Set a colander on top of a pot, and layer a thin muslin cloth or cotton cloth over it. A thin piece of cloth like a handkerchief will work well too. As we used lemon juice to curdle the milk, the paneer will need to be rinsed under water to remove lemon smell. But if you used curd instead, there is no need for rinsing.
  6. Drain off the water completely form the paneer, and squeeze off any excess.
  7. Keep the cloth in a plate that has holes in it. A rice cooker steam basket is an ideal tool to do that. You must also have a plate with holes that came with your pressure cooker. Place a heavy thing on the paneer and let it sit for an hour.
  8. Now you can cut the paneer into cubes and refrigerator for later use.

Once you have made your paneer, click here to know How To Keep Paneer Soft While Cooking so you can use it in your favorite curry.

How to Make Paneer at Home with Spoiled Milk - Step by step instructions to make paneer

If you want to read similar articles to How to Make Paneer at Home with Spoiled Milk, we recommend you visit our Recipes category.

Write a comment

What did you think of this article?
6 comments
Rating:
Sid
Is there anything we can do with rancid milk or do I just have to throw it away?
OneHowTo Editor
If it is rancid, best to throw it away to be on the safe side.
Rating:
sindhu
If milk curdles without any vinegar, lemon or curd, is it still safe to make paneer out of it?
OneHowTo Editor
Hi Sindhu,

When the milk is spoiled, it will split. This can be used to make paneer, but you may need to add a little more acid if it does not curdle properly. However, do not use rancid milk. Only use spoiled milk 2-3 days after it has split.
Rating:
Annie
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I love to make mattar paneer and palak paneer. I am on self-isolation because of the pandemic, and cannot go to my usual Indian shop to buy paneer. I followed your recipe, made my own paneer, and I will now be cooking my favorite dishes this weekend.
Rating:
Dylan Fogarty
Is there any way to salvage if the milk curdles before coming to a full boil?
OneHowTo Editor
Hi Dylan,

We are not quite sure what you mean. The milk will star start separating as it warms up, so it may happen a bit before the full boil. Bring it to the full boil so that the curds and whey can be separated as thoroughly as possible. Does this answer your question? If not, let us know and we can clarify more.
Rating:
Sage
Thank you for this easy recipe.
OneHowTo Editor
You are very welcome, Sage!
Rating:
suneetha
You are mentioning add full fat milk and add vinegar or lemon juice, but when its spoilt already why are we adding it!! Or are you saying, that we need to boil the spoilt milk again!!! thanks
OneHowTo Editor
You will still need to add the vinegar or lemon juice to get the curds right for your paneer.
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