In my former life, back when the government had money to spend on research, I was a scientist. A geneticist and a microbiologist to be exact. That tendency towards microbiology is strongly represented in my crafts as well, i.e. baking, brewing and cheese making. I bring a love of experimentation to crafting, and cooking lends itself well to controlled experimentation.

A couple of weeks ago I had some friends over for Indian food.  I made mattar paneer.  I have made paneer a long time ago (it was in fact the first cheese I ever made), but not since I started making cheese on a regular basis.  But back to this in a minute.

The next cheese I learned to make was “ricotta.”  I put that in parentheses, because it is technically not ricotta (neither is the cultured and preserved stuff you get at the grocery store for that matter.)  Ricotta means re-cooked and it is the cheese that you make from the whey from making cheese such as mozzarella.  In point of fact, after a little bit of research.  I cant’ find any cheese other than paneer that is made by simply adding and acid with no culture (usually buttermilk for fresh cheeses), or rennet.  Still, this cheese can be used in place of ricotta and is much more tasty.  Believe me, you’ll never want to buy store bought ricotta again.

I make this from a gallon of milk, but you can halve it.

• 1 gallon of milk (for taste, whole milk is best and gives the highest yield, but I have made it from 2% and 1% milk as well)
• 1 pint of cream (optional)(again, for best taste, include it, for the health conscious omit it)
• 14 Tablespoons of lemon juice (based on other recipes I have seen, this is a lot of lemon juice, but it does subtly flavor the cheese, so I like this much)

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a heavy, non reactive pot or preferably a double boiler.  (I also do this in slow cooker, but it takes much longer).
2. Slowly heat the mixture, using a thermometer, until the temperature reaches 180F.
3. Stir, making sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan.
4. Allow the mixture to continue to heat until the temperature reaches around 210F.  Don’t stir too much or the curd will break up.
5. When bubbles are just starting to rise out of the whey, (the cheese will have started to coagulate) slowly pour off the whey through a cheese cloth and strainer.
6. Let the cheese drain for 30 minutes.
7. Salt to taste and the cheese is ready to use.

The recipe is pretty straight forward.  The woman who taught me to make it is a wonderful cook, but she has a very different style from me.  She is very … precise.  I am very… not.  This is a definite disadvantage when making most cheeses which require precision.   (My first mozerella was a complete disaster because I wasn’t careful enough. )  Two years of making this cheese (including the fillings for 150 dozen ravioli last spring) has led me to realized that this recipe is more forgiving than most cheese recipes.  As long as you add enough acid, and don’t scorch the milk too bad, you will get something tasty.  Still it takes a long time (over an hour) to slowly heat the milk to temperature.

Back to paneer;  This cheese is a very similar recipe: milk, lemon juice, and heat.  But to make paneer, you first heat the milk to almost boiling, remove it from the heat and then add the lemon juice.  Let it set 5 minutes and drain.  This is much faster, <20 minutes.

This caused the scientist in me to wonder if the slow heating actually made a difference.  I was inclined to think, based on past experience that heating it slowly was going to make a slightly smoother, creamier cheese.  I have to say here, and you will see why in a little bit, that when I made the paneer for my friends, I failed to anticipate how quickly the milk would boil over, and I brought the milk to a very rapid boil before adding the lemon juice.  (It made a horrible mess)

To set up the experiment, I set up two pots with exactly the same amount of whole milk and cream.  The first one I brought to a gentle boil.  It gets very frothy just before it comes to a full boil.  Having learned from the past, I took it off the heat at this point.  I added the lemon juice and drained it.

For the second pot, I added the lemon juice at the beginning and heated it over low heat.  Unfortunately, I got squirreled as that was heating, and I lost track of time.  When I checked on it, it had gotten to a rapid boil.

Doesn’t look to appetizing does it.  Not daunted, I have done this many times,  I drained the cheese.

As you can see from the side by side pictures, there was no real difference in quantity, and the only difference seemed to be the texture.  But before we ascribe that texture difference to the rate at which the milk was brought to temperature or when the acid was added, remember my previous experience with bringing the paneer to a rapid boil?  I think that the final temperature has more to do with the texture than either the speed at which it is brought to that temperature or when the acid was added.  How developed you like your curd is a matter of preference and application.  It had no distinguishable effect on the flavor.  In the future.  I plan to take the short-cut (surprise) and bring the un-acidified milk to an almost boil before adding the lemon juice.  For me, this will reduce the likelihood of a squirrel attack, and since no curd develops before the acid is added, you don’t have to worry about whether you stir the milk.  This will result in less scorching.

Oh and the ricotta made an amazing calzone.

(As an aside, if you are interested in cheese making, I highly recomend David Fankhauser site at University of Cincinnati Clermont College.)