Effect of incorporation of lemongrass extract and lemongrass oil on the sensory, physico-chemical and textural profile of paneer

© Abstract : Paneer represents a variety of Indian soft cheese, highly nutritious and wholesome, used as a base material for the preparation of a large number of culinary dishes. Due to the ever growing demand of paneer by varied health conscious consumers, it is necessary to develop value added varieties of paneer . Lemongrass is an aromatic perennial tall tropical grass and yields an aromatic oil consisting citral as its major component. This study evaluated the effect of addition of natural lemongrass extract and oil on the sensory, physico-chemical and textural profile of paneer . Lemongrass leaves and oil were incorporated of the following ways : i) cut and crushed leaves into milk @ 0, 2, 4 and 6% (w/v) ii) cut and crushed leaves into the coagulant (citric acid) solution @ 20% (w/v); iii) Extraction of lemongrass leaves in potable water followed by heat concentration and dipping of paneer blocks in the concentrate; iv) Addition of lemongrass oil into milk used for paneer preparation as well as into the coagulant solution (citric acid) at various levels (0, 0.015, 0.02 and 0.025%). The samples with lemongrass extract as well as oil obtained satisfactory sensory scores. On the basis of sensory scores, it was found that the addition of lemongrass leaves in cut form into milk was found to be the optimized step in the process of lemongrass flavoured paneer manufacture. The textural and physico-chemical properties of paneer were altered only to a small extent with increased level of addition of lemongrass into paneer . It is concluded from the present study, that lemongrass has improved the flavour and sensory attributes of paneer and holds the potential for development of value added dairy