Homemade cottage cheese, ricotta, paneer and mascarpone from ordinary milk

Milk protein — casein — curdles when acid (lemon juice, vinegar, kefir) or an enzyme (rennet) is added, especially with heat. It gathers into curds, and the liquid — whey — separates. Drain off the whey and you have cottage cheese or a soft cheese.

Every recipe in this article uses acid: no cultures or special equipment, just a pan, muslin and a colander.

The simplest method. 1 litre of 2.5–3.2% kefir gives 200–250 g of soft curd.

This no-heat method gives the softest, creamiest curd — almost like cream cheese.

Put a carton of kefir in the freezer for a day. Cut open the carton, take out the frozen block and put it in a muslin-lined colander over a bowl. Leave in the fridge for 12–24 hours — as the kefir thaws, the whey drains and the softest curd is left in the muslin.

1 litre gives 250–300 g. It's ideal for desserts, creams and breakfasts with berries, but too wet for syrniki.

Italian ricotta was originally made from whey, but a homemade version from milk and cream is even softer.

Paneer is an unsalted Indian cheese that doesn't melt when fried. It holds its shape in cubes in a curry and browns beautifully. Adyghe cheese from the Caucasus is made almost the same way.

Bring 2 litres of 3.2% milk to the boil. Take off the heat, add 4–5 tbsp lemon juice and stir — the milk curdles at once into large curds and the whey turns clear. If the whey is cloudy, add another spoon of juice.

Drain through muslin, rinse with cold water to remove the sour taste and squeeze. Shape into a flat 2–3 cm square and press under a weight — a pan of water, say — for 1–2 hours. 2 litres gives 300–350 g.

Mascarpone: heat 500 ml 33% cream to 85 °C over a bain-marie, add 1 tbsp lemon juice and stir for 5 minutes — the cream thickens but doesn't split into curds. Cool, tip into a muslin-lined sieve and leave in the fridge overnight. You get about 350 g of thick cream — for tiramisu and cheesecake.

Labneh is a Middle Eastern yoghurt cheese. Mix 500 g Greek or natural yoghurt with ½ tsp salt, spoon into muslin and hang over a bowl in the fridge for 12–24 hours. The longer, the firmer: after a day you can roll labneh into balls and cover them with olive oil and herbs.

Homemade curd is wetter than shop-bought. For syrniki and bakes, squeeze it harder or hang it overnight — excess moisture makes syrniki spread and needs more flour.

For creams and delicate bakes, push the curd through a sieve or blend it — it turns as smooth as cream cheese.

Keep homemade curd and cheeses in a sealed container in the fridge: curd and ricotta 3–4 days, paneer up to 5 days in water changed daily, mascarpone 3–4 days.

A good cheese board has 3–5 cheeses with different textures and flavours. Serve them from mild and soft to aged and strong.

Cheese is alive: it needs to breathe. Wrapped tightly in cling film it sweats and picks up an unpleasant smell. Better to wrap it in baking paper or wax paper, then loosely in a bag.

Keep cheese in the warmest part of the fridge — the vegetable drawer. Hard cheeses keep 3–4 weeks, semi-hard 2–3 weeks, soft up to a week once opened.

Mould on hard cheese can be cut off with a 1–2 cm margin — the rest is safe. Throw away mouldy soft cheese, curd or grated cheese entirely: in them the mould spreads deep.