Homemade Cheese Without Rennet

This is an easy recipe for 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.

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.

If you like paneer or wish to see paneer recipes, see here my posts on how to roast paneer in the oven or this easy quick paneer curry recipe.

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 Homemade Cheese Without Rennet

We use to make the following ingredients to make this simple, easy & delicious homemade cheese without rennet.

Ingredients to make homemade cheese without rennet

6 cups whole milk

4 tablespoons lemon juice filtered

salt as needed

Step By Step 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 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).

Paneer is a very popular cheese made without rennet and it is very widely used in Indian vegetarian cuisine.

You can see some easy paneer recipes here.

Paneer Recipes:

easy matar paneer

how to roast paneer in oven

paneer stir fry with carrots

paneer masala rice

palak paneer restaurant style recipe

roasted masala paneer

Below you can get the recipe for homemade cheese without rennet in detail.

Recipe For Homemade Cheese Without Rennet

This recipe for homemade cheese without rennet makes about 1 cup homemade cheese which is quite similar in taste to homemade mozzarella cheese without rennet, but lacks the elasticity of mozzarella cheese. This homemade cheese can be sprinkled, melted and used in recipes like homemade cheese pizza.

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Course: Snack

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Servings: 16 tablespoons

Calories: 57kcal

Author: Recipe Garden

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.

Notes

If you want to add this cheese to add as a topping for your pizza, which will melt and blend with the pizza, you can follow the below instructions.

Just add a couple of tablespoons of melted butter to the homemade cheese and blend in in the food processor until you get a smooth silky texture for the cheese.

Now transfer the mixture to a food container and keep it refrigerated which will help with firming the texture of the cheese.

You may also transfer this mixture to a freezer safe container and keep in the freezer for a couple of hours if you wish to slice the cheese.

Once the cheese mixture is refrigerated for few hours in the fridge, the cheese would have set and will have a nice lightly firm texture, you can either slice or crumble the mixture to add into your foods, after removing from the food container.

To add this to a pizza topping, gently crumble it using your hands into small pieces, and sprinkle it over the pizza. I baked a thin crust homemade pizza with this homemade cheese topping in a preheated oven at 500 degree Fahrenheit for about 10 to 12 minutes and the pizza sprinkled with this homemade cheese turned out delicious.

Nutrition

Calories: 57kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 9mg | Sodium: 39mg | Potassium: 125mg | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 148IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 103mg | Iron: 1mg