I made paneer at home for the first time about four years ago, mostly to see whether the fuss was justified. It is justified, and I still buy it most of the time, and both of those things are true for reasons worth explaining.
The process is genuinely simple
Milk to a boil. Acid added until it separates. Strain through cloth. Press under a weight. That is the whole thing.
It takes about twenty minutes of attention plus half an hour of pressing, and the only equipment is a pot, a sieve and a piece of muslin.
The parts where people go wrong are few. Not letting the milk boil properly, so it separates incompletely. Adding too much acid at once, which makes the curds tough. And pressing either too little, which gives something that falls apart, or too much, which gives something rubbery.
What the homemade version is actually like
Softer. Noticeably so, in a way that changes what it is good for.
Shop paneer is pressed hard and firm, because it needs to survive transport, slicing and a long shelf life. That firmness is why it holds its shape in a gravy and why it can be cubed neatly.
Homemade, pressed for half an hour, is closer to a fresh cheese. It crumbles rather than cubes. It absorbs flavour much more readily. And it tastes of milk in a way the shop version generally does not.
Which means it is not a straight substitute. It is a different ingredient that happens to be made the same way.
Where the soft version is better
Anything where it is crumbled rather than cubed. Bhurji, stuffings, anything mixed through.
Anything eaten fresh with very little cooking, where the milky flavour is the point.
Anything where it needs to take on a marinade, since the softer texture absorbs and the firm block mostly does not.
Where shop paneer is better
Anything grilled or fried in cubes, where structural integrity is the requirement.
Anything in a gravy that simmers, where soft paneer disintegrates.
And anything on a Tuesday evening when you have not planned ahead, which is most cooking.
The acid you use changes it
More than I expected. I have tried lemon juice, vinegar, and whey saved from a previous batch.
Lemon leaves a faint citrus note that some people notice and some do not. It is clean and it is the easiest to get right.
Vinegar is more efficient — less of it separates the milk — and can leave a sharpness if you overshoot.
Whey from a previous batch is the traditional approach in several places and produces the mildest result, with a very slight tang. It requires having made paneer before, which is a chicken and egg problem for the first attempt.
Whichever you use, adding it gradually and stopping as soon as the whey runs clear produces a better texture than dumping it in.
The milk question
This is where most failures come from and it is not about the technique at all.
Ultra-heat-treated milk, the kind that keeps unrefrigerated for months, does not set properly. The proteins have been altered enough that the curds do not form the same way. You get a poor yield and a grainy texture.
Regular pasteurised milk works fine. Full fat gives a better result than reduced fat, substantially — the fat is a large part of what makes paneer pleasant.
Yield is roughly a fifth of the milk by weight, which is worth knowing before you start so the quantity does not surprise you.
The whey
You are left with a large quantity of liquid that most people pour away.
It is useful. Cooking dal or rice in it adds body. Kneading dough with it instead of water improves texture. It works in the pot for the next batch of paneer.
It also keeps for only a couple of days, and I have thrown away more of it than I have used, which is an honest admission about the gap between what is possible and what happens on a weeknight.
Whether to bother
My position after four years is that everybody should do it once, because you learn what paneer actually is and the shop version becomes legible.
Whether to keep doing it depends on what you cook. If you make crumbled preparations regularly, it is worth the twenty minutes and the difference is large. If you mostly make cubed paneer in gravy, the shop block is genuinely better suited and there is no virtue in the harder route.
I do it perhaps once a month, when I want the soft version specifically, and buy it the rest of the time without any guilt about it.
Keeping it
Fresh paneer does not keep the way the shop block does, which is worth planning around.
Two or three days in the fridge, submerged in water, changing the water daily. That submersion matters — left dry it develops a hard surface and picks up fridge smells.
It freezes reasonably well, though it firms up noticeably on thawing, which is either a problem or a convenient way to get a firmer product from a soft batch.
Given the short life, the practical approach is to make it on the day you intend to use it, which is also when it tastes best by a clear margin.