Swiss cheese alternatives include Gruyere, Jarlsberg, Mozzarella, and Cheddar. They all have a distinct taste profile than Swiss cheese, yet they all melt beautifully. So choose the one that goes best with your food.

What is Swiss Cheese Made of?

Swiss cheese, also known as Emmental cheese, is a Swiss cheese with a mild, buttery, and rich taste. Swiss cheese is a common element in fondue owing to its high melting point. It is often a light yellow tint with varying sized holes that form throughout the fermentation process.

This semi-hard cheese is made from unpasteurized cow’s milk and has no additives or GMOs. It is Switzerland’s oldest cheese, dating back to the 13th century. Swiss cheese is an important element of our country’s history. Its distinguishing features are a smooth, solid, and thick texture with a hard, inedible rind.

The taste might alter on its own. Young-aged Swiss cheeses, for example, have a softer taste, but older cheeses have a nutty, robust, and complex flavor. Swiss cheese is reasonably priced at stores in France, Germany, and the United States.

Swiss cheese may be found in almost every meal that calls for melting cheese, such as gratins, casseroles, sandwiches, spaghetti, and quiches. It may also be served cold with fruit and other cheeses. In terms of other cheeses, suppose you don’t have access to Swiss but the recipe you’re reading calls for it.

5 Recommended Swiss Cheese Substitute

The 5 most common cheese like swiss:

• Gruyere Cheese
• Jarlsberg
• Mozzarella
• Fontina
• Cheddar

Gruyere Cheese

Gruyere, the first Swiss cheese alternative, has a few characteristics with its cousin, Swiss, including a nutty flavor and a smooth melting texture. This cheese is matured for six months or longer and is made from cow’s milk. Gruyere is a hard, light yellow cheese with a rich, creamy texture. It contains a few tiny holes, although they are not as obvious as the Swiss.

Gruyere is cured with enzymes and has a greater water content, which both contribute to its ease of melting. Cheese dries out as it ages, so young or fresh cheese melts better. Gruyere is sold in supermarkets, although it is not cheap. Gruyere goes well with sandwiches, cheese platters, and fondue.

Jarlsberg Cheese

This cheese is somewhat aged, smooth, and little rubbery. Jarlsberg is well-known for its buttery and nutty taste. It is still accessible in Norway, as well as the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Jarlsberg may be purchased as wedges, slices, or shredded and is used on cheese boards, deli trays, and sandwiches. It’s an excellent Swiss cheese alternative since it was created with Swiss or Emmental features blended with Dutch Gouda influences. It didn’t become popular until the mid-nineteenth century, but it currently accounts for 80% of Norway’s cheese exports, as seen in restaurants and grocery shops.

It gets its distinct taste by being salted and kept for three months. It is available in numerous varieties, including low-fat, extra-aged, rindless, and original. Jarlsberg may also be used in hot and cold sandwiches, as well as in snack plates.

Furthermore, it melts wonderfully for cheesy dips and may be shredded into a variety of meals to add taste and texture. Soups and sauces, as well as anything egg, potato, or pasta, are popular Jarlsberg dishes.

Mozzarella

Everyone has probably heard of mozzarella. This curd cheese originated in Italy and was made from water buffalo milk, giving it a delicate, creamy taste. Because of its low fat and salt level, it is one of the healthiest cheeses.

Buffalo milk is more nutritious than cow milk, which means it has more calcium, protein, and iron without as much cholesterol. It is usually served fresh and has a semi-soft texture with a distinct white tint.

Mozzarella, unlike the preceding selections, is not aged and is consumed within hours of being prepared. It’s smooth, soft, delicate, and light in taste, and it’s best eaten at room temperature to appreciate its gentle flavor. This cheese is available at varying costs and is used in a variety of dishes. It may be sliced and tossed with salad, or it can be paired with chicken, pork, fish, and other vegetables. Of course, pizza is a must.

Mozzarella cheese has a distinct taste that is difficult to reproduce, and it is heavy in moisture, therefore it must be chilled and consumed quickly since it does not survive as long as other cheeses.

This cheese is often used in paninis, bruschetta, and crostinis, but it also works well with fruits like melons and tomatoes and is used in stuffings for protein-packed foods, making it an ideal Swiss cheese alternative due to its flexibility.

Learn how to freeze mozzarella cheese to keep it fresh.

Fontina

Fontina is made in Italy from whole, unpasteurized cow’s milk, but it is also available in Sweden, the United States, Canada, and Argentina. When young, it is semi-soft and becomes harder as it matures, which may take up to 150 days.

It is pale yellow in hue and contains 45% fat. It contains several little holes and, depending on the age, has a mild, nutty taste. If you wish to offer this cheese as a table cheese, use a younger variety. However, if you want to pack a flavor punch and integrate it into a savory dish, older is preferable.

This cheese comes in a few varieties; raw milk results in a lower moisture content. Swedish Fontina, on the other hand, is mild, milky, slices beautifully, and melts wonderfully. American-style is fairly mild, matured quickly, and has a lot of moisture.

Young Fontina melts easily, so it would be great in any dish that asks for smooth, gooey cheese, such as fondue, sauces, mac & cheese, pizza, and so on. Not only that, but this cheese may be grated over soup, mixed into rice or risotto, and used in a variety of other savory meals. Its taste makes it an excellent alternative for Swiss cheese and may be used in a variety of dishes.

Fontina may be grated and frozen, but the texture will dry out and the taste will become duller. In contrast to the previous cheeses, you may eat the rind.

Do you need anything comparable to fontina? Check out this fantastic fontina alternative.

Cheddar

Last but not least, there’s cheddar. Everyone is familiar with this cheese. This English hard cow’s milk cheese has a sharpness that intensifies with age. It has been naturally coloured orange using annatto, a plant extract from the achiote tree, without affecting the taste. Cheddar is flexible, tangy, and melts nicely, rivaling the taste and texture of Swiss cheese and serving as an excellent Emmental cheese alternative.

This cheese is the most popular in the United Kingdom, with the United States a close second. Its hardness, sharpness, and natural taste make it popular and extensively produced over the globe. Using goat or sheep milk is one variant. Its creamy, mild taste is essential in burgers, casseroles, and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Despite this, cheddar is relatively affordable in the United States, although some artisan types are created using traditional processes, resulting in more nuanced tastes. Cheddar, like parmesan, develops a rind that is trimmed before sale.

Cheddar cheese has a solid, crumbly texture and is drier. Depending on the maturing procedure (two to three months vs. five years), the taste strength may range from moderate to exceptionally intense. Cheddar cheese may be found in anything from nachos to spaghetti to chili. Some folks sprinkle cheddar cheese on a warm piece of apple pie! Cheddar pairs nicely with powerful red wines like Merlot or Pinot Noir and is used to make savory scones or pastries.

A Few Other Facts About Swiss Cheese

Switzerland has been a cheese aficionado since the Middle Ages, therefore they take their culinary skills seriously, and they play a large role in their society. Did you realize that the Swiss Cheese Union is a government-sponsored organization? Through most of the twenty-first century, they enjoyed entire control over manufacturing and exports, deciding how, where, and when cheese would be created.

Fortunately, cheesemakers nowadays can experiment with tastes, processes, and recipes. There are many varieties of Swiss cheese, as seen below:

• Raclette is semi-soft or firm, pungent, salty, full-bodied, and meaty, with cream and hazelnut overtones.
• Forsterkase: semi-soft, fragrant, covered in fir tree bark to produce a woody taste.
• Scharfe Maxx: nutty, oniony, with bacon aromas, cold butter mouthfeel, creamy and soft
• Etivaz: completely handcrafted and smoked with natural wood
• Moser Screamer: delicate, wind-ripened, light in color yet packed with taste, buttery, salty

As a result, if you want to remain with the Emmental family and avoid experimenting with other cheeses, there are over 1,800 distinct varieties to select from, so you won’t have trouble choosing a suitable Emmentaler alternative for Swiss.

Conclusion

Swiss cheese is more nutty than salty, with a sweet roast to it, and the ratios or quantities for substitutes vary depending on what you’re creating.

If you’re a cheese lover, you might go with the mantra “the more the merrier,” or you may try the alternative cheese ahead of time to assess its intensity and how much more you should add to bring a nuanced, exquisite flavor to your dish.

Any of the above alternatives ensure a wonderful supper with a variety of tastes provided by the kind and origin of cheese you choose.