Paneer and ricotta: the two cheeses that need nothing
I started with paneer because it needs no culture, no rennet, no mould and no waiting. Milk, heat, acid, a cloth. The first attempt used four litres of whole milk, brought slowly to just under the boil, around 90 °C on the sink thermometer, with constant stirring to stop it catching. Then off the heat, and 60 ml of lemon juice stirred in. Within thirty seconds the milk split into white curds and thin, greenish whey, which is one of the more satisfying things I have seen happen in a saucepan.
I let it stand for ten minutes, then poured it through a colander lined with a clean tea towel, gathered the corners, rinsed the curd briefly under the cold tap to take the lemon edge off, and squeezed. For a firm block I wrapped the cloth tight, put it on a plate, put another plate on top and a full kettle on that, and left it for an hour. The block weighed 640 g, firm enough to cube and fry without falling apart, with a clean, milky taste. Four litres of milk, one block of paneer the size of a paperback.
The second attempt was a lesson. I bought the long-life milk because it was what the corner shop had. It curdled, after a fashion, but into something fine and grainy that would not hold together under any amount of pressing, and the yield was barely half. The high heat used to make that milk keep for months changes the proteins, and they will not knit into curd. Fresh pasteurised milk, the ordinary kind in the fridge aisle, every time since.
Ricotta from the leftover whey was the other experiment, and I did it because every book says you can. Reheat the whey to about 90 °C, add a splash more acid, wait for a thin scum of fine curd to rise, skim it off into a cloth. From eight litres of whey, collected over two batches, I got 180 g of ricotta. It was delicate and lovely on toast and it took an hour of hovering over a pot. I will do it again when I have whey and time, and not otherwise.
Both cheeses were eaten within four days. Nothing aged, nothing pressed for longer than an hour, nothing that needed the hallway fridge, which at this point was still just a hallway fridge.