How to Make Paneer at Home with Spoiled Milk

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.

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.

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.

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