Hindu: cheese and tradition
Paneer and chhena in temple sweets and prasad, and the question of vegetarian rennet.
In Hindu homes and temples, milk is held in deep regard, and the cow is honoured by many. Fresh cheese made from milk, paneer and chhena, belongs to festival food, temple sweets and everyday vegetarian cooking. Many Hindus who keep a vegetarian diet ask how a cheese was set: paneer and chhena are curdled with acid and contain no animal rennet, while many European cheeses are made with rennet from calves. Practice varies widely by region, community and family.
Milk, the cow and offering
Milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar make panchamrita, the five nectars used to bathe sacred images in many temples and then shared as prasad. Krishna is remembered as a cowherd who loved butter, and milk sweets fill festival offerings. Many families offer sweets of chhena or khoa before eating them. In Odisha, rasagola is linked by tradition with the Jagannath temple at Puri, where it is offered on Niladri Bije, the day Jagannath returns to the temple after the Rath Yatra.
The rennet question
Most traditional European cheeses are set with rennet, an enzyme taken from the stomach of young calves, kids or lambs. For many Hindus who avoid meat, a cheese made with animal rennet is not vegetarian. Indian cheeses are generally set with acid, as paneer and chhena are, or with vegetarian rennet from microbes or plants. In India, packaged food carries a green mark for vegetarian and a brown mark for non-vegetarian, and an imported cheese made with animal rennet should carry the brown one.
Fasts, feasts and Diwali
On many vrat days, grains are set aside but milk products are allowed, so paneer cooked with rock salt and cumin, and milk sweets, become fasting food. Diwali, the festival of lights, is the great season for sweets, and boxes of sandesh, rasgulla, kalakand and barfi pass between families, friends and colleagues. In Bengal, Durga Puja brings the same abundance of chhena sweets, and sweet shops work through the night to meet the demand.
Worth knowing
- Paneer: Acid-set cheese of the vegetarian kitchen
- Chhena: Fresh curd for temple and festival sweets
- Rasgulla: Offered at Puri on Niladri Bije
- Sandesh: Bengali sweet for Durga Puja and Diwali
- Kalakand: Milk and chhena sweet for Diwali
- Chhena poda: Odisha's baked cheese sweet
- Panchamrita: The five nectars of temple worship
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
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Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Paneer: Sonja Pauen - Stanhopea, CC BY 2.0 de, source
- Chhena: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, source