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Cheese from South Asia

Paneerपनीर

Paneer is not fermented. Hot milk is curdled with citric acid or another food acid, and the curd is pressed in muslin into a firm block, so no microbes take part. It is shown here as a contrast to cheeses that bacteria sour.

Recipe

Paneer, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Sonja Pauen - Stanhopea, CC BY 2.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceLaboratory makes; one study heated an 8 l blend of milk and date extract (80:20) and set it with 2 % citric acid (Qureshi et al. 2019).
Whole milk8 l (one study's batch, a blend of milk and date extract)Cow or buffalo milk or a mix of the two; one study used goat and buffalo milk 60:40[kumar2014][qureshi2019][umaraw2022]
Citric acid1–2 % solutionLactic or tartaric acid, sour whey or alum are also used[qureshi2019][umaraw2022][amini2019]
Starternone; acid and heat set the curd

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.4 h – 2.5 h

Start
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82–95 °C

What changes: Milk is heated close to boiling, which kills its microbes

Step 1 of 5
Heat the milk
Time
5 min
Reported
Temperature
82–95 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: hot milk.

Flavour
cooked milk
Texture
Not documented
Colour
white

Microbes at work in this step

heat kills most milk microbes

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Paneer is not fermented. Hot milk is curdled with citric acid or another food acid, and the curd is pressed in muslin into a firm block, so no microbes take part. It is shown here as a contrast to cheeses that bacteria sour. Made in 5 steps over 2.4 h – 2.5 h. The longest step, chill in cold water, takes 2 h (Umaraw P 2022).

Key numbers
Main step2 hReported[umaraw2022]Chill in cold water
Temperature82–95 °CReported[qureshi2019][amini2019][umaraw2022]Heat the milk

What makes this one different

Paneer is curdled by hot milk and acid, not by starter bacteria or rennet, so it is not a fermented food. It is not ripened, but its pH falls in storage, which one study puts down to indigenous microorganisms making acid, so it is kept cold from the start.

Related ferments

Safety

Paneer keeps about a day at room temperature in the tropics and spoils through growth of microbes on its surface (Kumar et al. 2014). Coliforms, yeasts and moulds die when the milk is heated but can get back in after making, and fungus appeared on paneer after 12 days at 5 °C in one study. The NHS lists paneer among pasteurised soft cheeses that are safe to eat in pregnancy.

Hazards the sources name: Coliforms, yeasts and moulds are killed by heating milk at 82 °C for 5 min but can get back into paneer after making.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The earliest reference that resembles paneer, in the Kusana and Saka Satavahana periods (AD 75-300), describes a solid mass made from heated milk and curd. The review of Kumar et al. says paneer was first introduced to India by Afghan and Iranian travellers, and that milk was earlier set with heat and sour milk or with plant coagulants such as the bark of Palasa. In 1971 Bhattacharya and colleagues standardised a pilot-plant method (milk heated at 82 °C for 5 min, cooled to 70 °C and set with 1 % citric acid), and the Bureau of Indian Standards published a paneer specification (IS 10484) in 1983.

  1. [qureshi2019] Qureshi T.M., Amjad A., Nadeem M. et al. 2019, Antioxidant potential of a soft cheese (paneer) supplemented with the extracts of date (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars and its whey, Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences, doi:10.5713/ajas.18.0750paper
  2. [umaraw2022] Umaraw P., Verma A.K., Singh V.P., Fahim A. 2022, Effect of turmeric and aloe vera extract on shelf-life of goat and buffalo admixture milk paneer during refrigeration storage, Foods 11(23):3870, doi:10.3390/foods11233870paper
  3. [amini2019] Amini R.K., Islam M.Z., Kitamura Y., Kokawa M. 2019, Utilization of fermented rice milk as a novel coagulant for development of paneer (soft cheese), Foods 8(8):339, doi:10.3390/foods8080339paper
  4. [kumar2014] Kumar S., Rai D.C., Niranjan K., Bhat Z.F. 2014, Paneer, an Indian soft cheese variant, a review, Journal of Food Science and Technology 51(5):821-831, doi:10.1007/s13197-011-0567-xpaper
  5. [nhs-preg] NHS (UK), Foods to avoid in pregnancy (cheese section)gov