Savoury and brothy
Deep, meaty umami: Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana, aged Gouda and Comte.
Savoury cheeses taste deep, brothy and meaty, the flavour the Japanese call umami. It comes mainly from glutamate, freed as proteins break down during long ripening, and it is strongest in Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano, aged Comté and Gouda, and old cheddars. A spoonful of grated Parmigiano does for a dish what stock does: it rounds and deepens everything around it.
Glutamate and age
Milk proteins hold glutamic acid bound up in long chains. As a cheese ages, enzymes cut the chains and release free glutamate, which tastes of umami. Parmigiano Reggiano has one of the highest levels of free glutamate of any common food, and the level rises with age. Peptides and other amino acids add brothy, meaty notes, and some amino acids collect as the white crystals in old wheels. Salt, which brings out umami, plays its part too.
Cooking with savoury cheese
Savoury cheeses are seasoning cheeses. Parmigiano and Grana finish risotto, pasta and soup, and their rinds simmer in stock. Comté and Gruyère deepen onion soup and gratins. A vegetarian kitchen can lean on these cheeses for the depth that meat stock gives elsewhere, but cooks who avoid animal rennet should check how a cheese is made: Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano are always made with calf rennet, while many similar hard cheeses use microbial rennet.
Beyond the grana
Savoury depth turns up in many places: in aged Mahón from Menorca, old Gouda, Switzerland's Sbrinz, the long-aged Bitto of the Valtellina, and the aged sheep's milk cheeses of the Pyrenees, such as Ossau-Iraty. Well-aged washed rinds have a meaty savour too. Pair these cheeses with good bread, a few drops of aged balsamic vinegar, dry sherry or a dark ale, which share their deep, rounded taste.
Worth knowing
- Parmigiano Reggiano: High in free glutamate
- Grana Padano: Grana of the Po valley
- Comté: Brothy when aged
- Gouda: Deep and savoury when old
- Sbrinz: Hard Swiss grating cheese
- Mahón: Menorcan cheese, savoury when aged
- Bitto: Alpine cheese of the Valtellina, aged for years
- Ossau-Iraty: Pyrenean sheep's milk cheese
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.
Savoury and brothy on EveryCheese
The cheeses written up so far, best known first.
🇪🇸 SpainCabralesqueso de Cabrales
A pungent blue cheese from the Picos de Europa mountains of Asturias, Spain.Mixed · Blue · Sharp and tangy-aged
🇸🇰 SlovakiaParenica
A semi-firm Slovak cheese made from steamed curds, often smoked and woven into spirals.Sheep · Semi-hard · Savoury and brothy
🇬🇷 Greece and 5 moreWhey cheese
A dairy product made from the liquid remaining after curds are separated during cheesemaking.Mixed · Whey · Sweet and caramel
🇵🇹 PortugalCastelo BrancoQueijo de Castelo Branco
A soft Portuguese cheese from the Beira Baixa district, made with goat or sheep milk.Mixed · Semi-soft · Savoury and brothy
🇪🇸 SpainGamonéuQueso de Gamonéu
A lightly smoked, mixed-milk cheese from the mountains of Asturias with a moulded rind.Mixed · Smoked · Savoury and brothy
🇮🇹 ItalyFormaggio di fossa
A sharp Italian cheese aged in sealed underground pits for a distinct anaerobic fermentation.Cow · Semi-hard · Sharp and tangy-aged
🇮🇹 ItalyRobiola
A soft-ripened Italian cheese from Piedmont and Lombardy, made from cow, goat, or sheep milk.Cow · Bloomy rind · Sweet and caramel
🇬🇷 GreeceXynotyro
A hard, sour whey cheese from Greece made with sheep or goat milk.Mixed · Hard · Tangy and lactic
🇷🇺 RussiaKorallКоралл
A pink, shrimp-flavoured processed cheese made in Russia with fish paste and spices.Mixed · Processed · Savoury and brothy
🇪🇸 SpainCampo de Montalban
A semi-firm Spanish cheese from La Mancha made with a blend of cow, sheep and goat milk.Mixed · Semi-hard · Savoury and brothy
🇧🇦 Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnian smoked cheeseSuhi dimljeni sir
A very dry, piquant low-fat smoked cheese from Bosnia and Herzegovina.Mixed · Smoked · Piquant and spicy
🇳🇵 NepalTibetan cheese
A family of dairy products from Tibet, ranging from fresh curds to extra-hard aged blocks.Mixed · Fresh · Savoury and brothy
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Cabrales: PDPhoto.org, Public domain, source
- Gamonéu: Jrfdiaz, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Formaggio di fossa: Zeugma fr ( talk ) (Antoine FLEURY-GOBERT), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Castelo Branco: Adriao, Public domain, source
- Whey cheese: Illustratedjc, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Parenica: Stanislav Doronenko, Public domain, source
- Robiola: Andrea Marchisio, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bosnian smoked cheese: Security.cyber, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Tibetan cheese: Alpha, CC BY-SA 2.0, source