This week in experimental archaeology, we made cheese. My group made paneer, which was different from the other cheeses because we had to bring our milk to a boiling point before we could proceed with any further steps. We stirred the milk constantly and monitored how it heated over the course of 45 minutes. We found that the milk heater consistently until we were waiting for it to boil, and then the heating slowed down.
Temperature of Milk
| 5 minutes | 35°C |
| 15 minutes | 60°C |
| 25 minutes | 81°C |
| 35 minutes | 93°C |
| 45 minutes | 100°C |
Once the milk reached a boiling point, we took the pot off of the heat and added the lemon juice. We waited for five minutes for curds to form before draining the curds from the whey. At this point we had 2497g of whey and 567g of curds. We lost some of the whey when we drained the curds, which likely affected the yield we got. We also were able to eat some of the curds before the final weighing, which may have lowered the final amount we got, 347g. The cheese was already firm on the day we made it, so I doubt that it lost 220g while draining overnight.
That’s such a cool and creative image Margaret! Congrats on the paneer!