Cheeses for melting and grilling
Fondue, raclette, pizza, toasties and grilled halloumi: cheese made to melt or char.
Some cheeses are made to melt. Fondue and raclette in the Alps, pizza with mozzarella, Georgian khachapuri with sulguni, Mexican queso fundido, grilled halloumi and paneer tikka, cheese toasties and the queso dips of Texas all depend on a cheese that softens, stretches or chars just right. Choosing well is a matter of chemistry: moisture, fat, acidity and age decide how a cheese behaves in heat.
Why some melt and others do not
A cheese melts when its fat liquefies and its protein network loosens. Young, moist cheeses with moderate acidity, such as mozzarella, Fontina, Gruyère and young cheddar, melt smoothly. Very old cheeses have proteins broken into small pieces and tend to go oily or grainy. Cheeses set with acid and heat, such as paneer and queso blanco, and halloumi, whose curd is cooked in hot whey, keep a firm protein network, so they soften and brown but hold their shape: ideal for grilling and frying.
Melted at the table
Swiss fondue moitié-moitié, half and half, melts Gruyère and Vacherin Fribourgeois in white wine with garlic and a splash of kirsch, and bread is dipped on long forks. Raclette is the name of both the cheese and the meal: the cut face of a half wheel is held to the heat and scraped over boiled potatoes, with gherkins and pickled onions. Mexican queso fundido melts Oaxaca or Chihuahua cheese, often with chorizo, to be scooped up in tortillas.
Stretch and char
Neapolitan pizza uses fior di latte or buffalo mozzarella. Adjarian khachapuri is a boat of bread filled with sulguni and imeruli, topped with an egg yolk and butter that are stirred in at the table. Halloumi and paneer are grilled in slices or on skewers, and paneer tikka is marinated in yoghurt and spice and charred in a tandoor. Greek saganaki is a slab of kefalograviera or kasseri fried in a small pan, sometimes flamed at the table.
Worth knowing
- Fondue: Cheese melted in wine for dipping
- Raclette: Melted cheese scraped over potatoes
- Khachapuri: Georgian cheese bread
- Neapolitan pizza: Pizza with fior di latte or buffalo mozzarella
- Queso flameado: Mexican melted cheese, also called queso fundido
- Halloumi: The grilling cheese of Cyprus
- Paneer tikka: Spiced paneer charred in the tandoor
- Saganaki: Greek fried 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.
Melting and grilling on EveryCheese
The cheeses written up so far, best known first.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Schabziger: Flyout, CC BY-SA 3.0, source