Cheeses for Melting & Grilling

The Two Jobs of a Grilling Cheese

Cheese at the grill does one of two jobs, and the cheeses that do them well are mostly different cheeses. The first job is to be grilled directly: a thick slice set on the grates, seared until the outside browns, served as the main savory element on the plate. Caciocavallo, halloumi, and kasseri all handle this because they are pasta filata cheeses with enough structure and acid to brown rather than puddle when they hit the heat. A different group of cheeses melts smoothly onto something else off the grill: aged cheddar on a burger, Gruyère on a French onion-style steak melt, raclette scraped across a hot rib-eye, blue cheese over a porterhouse. This collection brings both groups together, since most cooks who heat a grill end up wanting one of each.

The difference comes down to melting point. A cheese with a high melting point holds its shape past the temperature at which a softer cheese would already be running off the burger and onto the coals. Stretched-curd cheeses like caciocavallo, halloumi, and provolone fall into this category because the curd has been worked into a structure that holds together under heat. Aged cheddar and Gruyère sit in the middle: they soften and melt cleanly but need a heat source above them rather than direct fire. Soft cheeses like Brie or fresh goat would collapse on the grates and need to be saved for a board.

Grill-Direct Cheeses: Caciocavallo, Halloumi, and the Pasta Filata Family

Caciocavallo is the southern Italian cheese that grills like halloumi but tastes richer and more aged. The name means "cheese on horseback," from the practice of tying two cheeses together with rope and laying them across a horizontal pole to age in pairs, the cheeses hanging down on each side like saddlebags. The cheese itself is pasta filata, made by the same stretched-curd method as mozzarella and provolone, but aged firmer and longer. Caciocavallo Silano DOP is the protected version from Calabria, Basilicata, Campania, and Molise. Sliced about half an inch thick, brushed lightly with oil, and set on a clean, hot grill, it develops a deep brown crust in three or four minutes a side without losing its shape, and the inside softens into something stringy and savory at once.

Halloumi is the better-known grilling cheese in the United States, the bright-white squeaky cheese from Cyprus made from a mixture of sheep's and goat's milk. The high melting point comes from a production step in which the curds are heated in hot whey before salting, which sets the protein structure so the cheese holds together under direct heat. Two or three minutes a side on a hot grill produces dark cross-hatch marks and a crisp exterior, and the cheese pairs especially well with watermelon, summer tomatoes, and mint. Kasseri is the Greek cousin, made primarily from sheep's milk with a small percentage of goat, and it is the cheese behind saganaki, the flame-finished tableside appetizer of Greek tavernas. Provolone Piccante, aged sharp, grills more like caciocavallo than mozzarella does, and Ricotta Salata, salted and pressed, holds up well for thicker grilled slices over salads. Store any cheese before grilling in the refrigerator, sealed against moisture; the Formaticum cheese storage bags are useful for keeping a partial wheel from drying out between cookouts.

Cheeses for Grilled Foods: Melts, Smashed Burgers, and Steak Toppers

The other half of the collection is the cheeses that go on top of the grilled food rather than on the grates. Aged cheddar is the workhorse: a slice of Cabot Clothbound, Montgomery's Farmhouse, Quebec Vintage, or Prairie Breeze on a hot smashed burger develops the same caramel-and-salt edge that the meat does, and a sharper four-to-seven-year cheddar carries through the cure of bacon or the smoke of grilled onion without disappearing. Gruyère AOP and Cave-Aged Gruyère suit steak melts and grilled cheese on sourdough, since they melt smoothly without separating and bring the nutty depth of an Alpine cow's-milk cheese. Raclette is the same logic at higher intensity: a half-wheel under the broiler or scraped molten across a hot plate of grilled potatoes, sausages, and pickles is the Swiss original of melted-cheese-over-meat cooking. For more, the raclette cheese collection covers the variants from Switzerland, France, and the United States.

Blue cheese works as the contrast pairing for grilled red meat. Gorgonzola Dolce melted across a porterhouse, Point Reyes Original Blue on a New York strip, or a wedge of Stilton crumbled onto bavette steak all bring salt and funk that cut against the iron of the beef. Smoked cheddar takes another approach: a Plymouth Smoked Cheddar or a hickory-smoked Cabot picks up the same wood-smoke notes already on the grill, doubling the flavor rather than fighting it. Cultured American cheese, the aged and traditionally fermented kind rather than the plastic-wrapped slice, suits a thin smashed patty better than any other cheese on this page, because it goes molten faster than cheddar and coats the meat in a layer no cheddar can match.

Also Worth Exploring

Anything from the grill is only as good as the rest of the cooking around it. The rubs, spices, and seasonings collection brings together the finishing salts, dry rubs, and spice blends that turn an everyday cut into a serious meal, from Maldon flakes and smoked sea salts to dry rubs built for brisket and ribs. For the cuts themselves, steaks, burgers, sausages, and chops chosen for direct-fire cooking are gathered in the BBQ grilling meats collection, including dry-aged ribeyes, lamb merguez, and bratwurst. And once the cheese comes off the grill, wooden boards, slate planks, and knives that handle hot cheese without warping or staining are in the cheese boards and utensils collection.