No, paneer doesn’t melt. Not in a pan, not on a grill, not under one either. And once you know that, a whole world of cooking opens up.
Most cheese melts because of how it’s made, using rennet and time, which breaks the proteins down into something that goes soft and stretchy under heat. Paneer skips all of that. It’s a fresh cheese, made quickly by heating milk and setting it with something acidic, so the protein structure stays tight and holds its shape no matter how hot the pan gets.
That’s not a downside, it’s the whole point. You can fry paneer until it’s golden and crisp on the outside without losing a single cube into the sauce. Skewer it and put it straight on the barbecue. Cube it into a salad while it’s still warm from the pan. Drop it into a curry twenty minutes before serving and it’ll still be there, holding its shape, twenty minutes later.
Most people only ever meet paneer in a curry, which is a shame, because that structure is exactly why it works so well in places curry never goes: a wrap, a traybake, a fry-up, straight off the grill with a squeeze of lemon. We started All The Aunties because we wanted paneer to earn a place in British kitchens well beyond the curry house, and its refusal to melt is a big part of why it can.
We make ours fresh, in the UK, from British milk, because freshness is what keeps that texture at its best, a paneer that’s sat around too long can turn tough rather than staying firm. It’s just the three of us, Jack, Riya and me, working closely with our manufacturing partner to keep every batch consistent, so what lands on the shelf behaves the way paneer should.
You’ll find us in Tesco, Ocado and Sainsbury’s, and a growing number of independents too.
Got a paneer question of your own? Send it to hello@alltheaunties.co.uk, we read every one.
