This is an easy recipe for crumbly homemade cheese without rennet. Following this homemade cheese recipe without rennet, you can easily and quickly make homemade cheese with very simple ingredients. This homemade cheese has similarities to cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and Indian paneer cheese but it may not be exactly the same. The texture of this cheese is soft and you can easily make homemade crumble cheese or crumbly cheese to add into your salads, making it a great substitute for crumbled feta cheese in salads like watermelon salads. Try this out in your home if you are interested and let me know what you think!
In India, fresh cheese is often made at home without rennet and it is known as paneer. The making of paneer includes few more steps, which I haven't followed here. This homemade cheese is even more easy to make. However, the initial steps are just like making paneer and the taste is quite similar to mozzarella cheese in my opinion.
texture of homemade cheese without rennet
The texture of this homemade cheese without rennet is quite similar to mozzarella cheese but I can't claim it to be exactly as mozzarella cheese. This homemade cheese without rennet is delicious but it won't stretch like mozzarella cheese. The texture is also quite similar to cottage cheese, but it is not runny in texture like cottage cheese, but this more firm in texture but still very soft too. Also it has similarity to ricotta cheese in texture and taste, but ricotta cheese is more creamy in texture and slightly different. However, if you are looking for a simple and easy homemade cheese which is delicious, follow the directions here to make your own simple and easy delicious homemade cheese.
You can make some slight modifications to the cheese you make, which I will explain here, to make it more creamy and melting, so you can even use this as a delicious creamy cheese topping for pizzas. I actually made this homemade cheese without rennet to use as a topping for the homemade pizza, as I was out of stock for store bought mozzarella cheese. It worked very well over the pizza as the pizza with this cheese turned out to be very delicious and my kids loved it! While making the homemade cheese which needs filtering, you may find it helpful to use a strainer lined with cheese cloth or you may just use a fine mesh strainer.
The below image shows fresh homemade cheese after the filtering process.
You can easily crumble the above shown fresh cheese and sprinkle it over salads or any dish as you wish. If you want a more stable and firm texture or if you want to add this to pizza topping, I recommend processing this in a food processor along with some melted butter and freezing or refrigerating, which can be used later, as shown in pictures below. The first picture shows the fresh cheese mixed with melted butter and getting processed in a food processor.
But this step is not necessary.
You can just use the homemade fresh cheese as it is or you can store in refrigerator for later use. The processed cheese is then transferred to a freezer safe box and kept in freezer for a couple of hours which will make it more stable and firm in texture (or you can just refrigerate for few more ours). As I mentioned, this step is not really necessary especially if you are just looking to make fresh cheese to be used in salads or any dish that just needs homemade fresh cheese.
The cheese can be crumbled or grated and used in recipes like homemade pizza.
The ingredients and process is very similar to the making of homemade paneer (traditional Indian style cheese) although the process is not exactly the same and the results are quite different.
So here is how you can make this easy and simple homemade cheese without rennet following this recipe for homemade cheese without rennet. After the recipe for the cheese is done, I will also explain how to modify it so as to use it as pizza topping.
Homemade thin crust pizza(recipe here) topped with this homemade cheese turned out delicious. The cheese has melted and the top is slightly browned and it was delicious. The cheese topping may not look exactly like the store bought variety, but this is homemade cheese without rennet and it is easy to make and delicious too, even the kids loved it. If you have any more tips or suggestions on making homemade cheese without rennet, please feel free to share your suggestions in the comment section.
how to make crumble cheese without rennet?
We use to make the following ingredients to make this simple, easy & delicious homemade cheese without rennet.
ingredients to make homemade crumbly cheese without rennet
- 6 cups whole milk
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice filtered
- salt as needed
step by step instructions to make crumble cheese without rennet
- Heat the milk in a saucepan and stirring continuously, keeping in medium to high heat.
- As the milk becomes hot and frothy (before it boils), add the filtered lemon juice, stir the contents and reduce the heat slightly.
- Keep stirring and cook the contents, as the milk curdles because of the addition of lemon juice which is citric in nature. If the milk is not curdling, you may add a little more lemon juice as needed.
- As the milk curdles very well, remove the curdled milk from the hot stove and keep it for cooling down a bit.
- As the milk cools down a little, the curdling will be almost done, and you can filter out the remaining water (which is the whey) which can be discarded or you can use it as a broth or any recipes where it works.
- We only need the curdled solid parts to make the cheese.
- Now filter the curdled milk through a good strainer. As I mentioned earlier in the post, you may also use a strainer lined with cheese cloth, if you have a cheese cloth at home. If not you may just use a fine mesh strainer.
- The curdled milk that is retained in the strainer is what we need to make the homemade cheese.
- Keep the contents in the strainer for few minutes until it cools down and almost all water is filtered out.
- Gently press the curdled contents in the strainer (once it is cool enough) so that any remaining water content will get filtered out.
- Now you have got the homemade cheese inside the strainer, gently transfer it to a microwave safe bowl. I do not recommend using a plastic bowl for microwaving as some plastics may have a tendency to melt.
- Add in the salt and you can mix with a spoon to blend in the salt evenly. The cheese will be crumbly in texture but it is delicious!
- Microwave in high for about 1 minute or another 1 more minute, as it will help improve the texture of the cheese. If you think the cheese looks fine without microwaving, you may skip this step to microwave the cheese.
- Now if you are looking to make cheese to add to salads, you can simply add this delicious cheese just by crumbling it and sprinkling on salads which will be a delicious addition to your salads.
- As I told earlier, the process of making this cheese is similar to making Indian cheese paneer (though making paneer needs some additional steps).
Below you can get the recipe for homemade cheese without rennet in detail.
Homemade Crumble Cheese Without Rennet
Ingredients
- 6 cups whole milk
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice filtered
- salt as needed
Instructions
- Heat the milk in a saucepan and stirring continuously, keeping in medium to high heat.
- As the milk becomes hot and frothy (before it boils), add the filtered lemon juice, stir the contents and reduce the heat slightly.
- Keep stirring and cook the contents, as the milk curdles because of the addition of lemon juice which is citric in nature. If the milk is not curdling, you may add a little more lemon juice as needed.
- As the milk curdles very well, remove the curdled milk from the hot stove and keep it for cooling down a bit.
- As the milk cools down a little, the curdling will be almost done, and you can filter out the remaining water (which is the whey) which can be discarded or you can use it as a broth or any recipes where it works. We only need the curdled solid parts to make the cheese.
- Now filter the curdled milk through a good strainer. As I mentioned earlier in the post, you may also use a strainer lined with cheese cloth, if you have a cheese cloth at home. If not you may just use a fine mesh strainer.
- The curdled milk that is retained in the strainer is what we need to make the homemade cheese.
- Keep the contents in the strainer for few minutes until it cools down and almost all water is filtered out.
- Gently press the curdled contents in the strainer (once it is cool enough) so that any remaining water content will get filtered out.
- Now you have got the homemade cheese inside the strainer, gently transfer it to a microwave safe bowl. I do not recommend using a plastic bowl for microwaving as some plastics may have a tendency to melt.
- Add in the salt and you can mix with a spoon to blend in the salt evenly. The cheese will be crumbly in texture but that's delicious.
- Microwave in high for about 1 minute or another 1 more minute, as it will help improve the texture of the cheese. If you think the cheese looks fine without microwaving, you may skip this step to microwave the cheese.
- Now if you are looking to make cheese to add to salads, you can simply add this delicious cheese just by crumbling it and sprinkling on salads which will be a delicious addition to your salads.
Gloria
I will try it today.... sounds great... thank you
Will keep you posted..🎵💃🏿
Recipe Garden
Hi Gloria, Sure please let me know if you try it. Thank you 🙂
Anonymous
Sounds easy thank you I will try it
Recipe Garden
Sure, hope you like it 🙂
Anonymous
This is ra recipe for ricotta cheese. I make it al the time. Yum!
Recipe Garden
Its delicous! Thank you for stopping by 🙂
Anonymous
can we make this with non dairy milk? looks great
Recipe Garden
Hi, thank you! I haven't tried it with any non dairy milk, so I am not very sure. If I try, I will update it in the post! This cheese has a texture similar to cottage cheese, ricotta etc and it's almost half way through the making of Indian style cheese paneer. To replace paneer with vegan options, usually tofu is used. I have found a recipe online that uses cashew milk to make cashew ricotta but it's a different process. You can find it here: https://www.yumsome.com/no-tofu-cashew-ricotta/ Hope you find it helpful!
ESB
Everything is goo except the link for the Whole Milk - it's ultra pasteurized
I've tried Organic Whole Milk from Trader Joe's many times and it doesn't curdle (or creates very little curd) no matter how much lemon juice I add. I'm planning to try Fresh (Raw) Mil from the local Farmer Markets...Unless you have suggestions... Thanks
Recipe Garden
Thank you for the feedback! You can use any milk that you prefer, just use whole milk for best results. Thanks again.
Joy
It turned out great like real cheese. I used skim milk and after it was placed in the microwave, it was stick and I folded it to a circle like real cheese. Thank you
Recipe Garden
Hi Joy, I am so glad it turned out great for you! Thank you so much for letting me know!
Clong
Of all the cheese recipes i have read i think this seems to be the nost simple recipe to do thanks a lot i will surely try..and let u know how did it go...
Recipe Garden
Thank you 🙂 Hope you like it!
Marvelous
Can I use this cheese for my pizza
Recipe Garden
I like to use it for a different texture sometimes! The texture is kind of different from the cheese that melts and it's similar to ricotta, cottage cheese etc, so it is upto you 🙂
Karla
can you keep this cheese in the freezer? I'd like to make some as we just started milking an dnow have a ton of milk. we want to be abel to have cheese store ahead for winter.
Recipe Garden
Hi Karla, I am sorry but I don't have much experience with freezing this cheese on large batches so I can't really advise you on this. I usually make small batches and I mostly use it quicky. However, it is possible to freeze the cheese for longer periods of time (if done properly using fresh milk) though I haven't stored this for more than few days time. I have used store bought frozen paneer (Indian cheese) which is similar to this one so I believe it is possible to freeze for longer time even though I haven't tried myself. I recommend refering to articles that discuss freezing of cheese and try with small batches before trying to make large batches, to be safe. Hope this helps. Thank you!