The Top 4 Cheeses for Grilling: Enhance Your Barbecue Experience

Grilling season is perfect for experimenting with different flavors, and incorporating cheese into your recipes can elevate a simple grilled dish to a gourmet level. At Arteflame, after extensive testing, we've identified the top five cheeses that perform exceptionally well on the grill.

We tested many different commonly used cheeses and this is what we found.

Best Cheeses for Grilling

Muenster Cheese Muenster is superb for grilling due to its smooth melting quality and creamy texture. It envelops meats and vegetables in a gooey, flavorful layer that enhances every bite.

Cheddar Cheese - Slightly oily melt with small bubbles

Cheddar Cheese A barbecue staple, cheddar offers a robust flavor that complements the smoky grill taste. Its excellent melting ability makes it perfect for topping burgers and melting into sandwiches.

Young Gouda Cheese - Uniform but slightly firm melt

Young Gouda Young Gouda melts beautifully and retains a rich, slightly sweet flavor, adding sophistication to any grilled dish.

Gruyere Cheese - Distinct texture with slight bubbling and a tendency to become crispy around the edges

Gruyere This cheese is valued for its nutty, mild taste and smooth, creamy texture when melted, making it a fantastic addition to any gourmet grilled creation.

Raclette cheese being melted in front of an open fire

Bonus: Raclette Raclette is famous for its melting properties, traditionally scraped onto dishes after being heated. On the grill, it can be melted over vegetables and meats, providing a wonderfully rich and slightly salty flavor that is hard to resist.

Raclette Cheese - Creamy, smooth melt with a slightly golden surface

These young cheeses packed a punch with flavor and texture. Definitely choose these when you want a sophisticated dimension and flavor to your dish.

Great Grilled Cheese Recipe:

So what cheeses didn’t stack up to our criteria?

Not all cheeses are suited for grilling:

Mozzarella Cheese - Stretchy and stringy melt

Mozzarella tends to become rubbery and lacks flavor enhancement when grilled. It melts stretchy and stringy.

Parmesan Cheese - Resistant to melting, slight browning and crisping

Parmesan can burn easily, forming a hard, unappealing crust. It resist melting and becomes brown and crispy instead.

Blue Cheese - Unique melt with pockets of fat turning liquid and mold veins maintaining structure

Blue Cheese does not melt well as it turns liquid

Aged Gouda Cheese - Oily and slightly stretchy melt, with some parts becoming crispy

Aged Gouda does not melt well, becoming runny or chalky. Once it cools, it turns hard and clumpy.

Tips for Grilling with Cheese

Manage Heat: Use a medium temperature for optimal cheese melting. By heating the cheese slowly, it's easy to melt it and control getting the perfect amount of crust.
Use Indirect Heat: Cheeses are sensitive, only use the flat cooktop of your Arteflame to avoid burning the cheese or having it drip into the fire.
Mix and Match: Combine cheeses like cheddar and mozzarella for both flavor and texture enhancement.

Conclusion

Choosing the right cheese can significantly impact your grilling experience. Muenster, cheddar, young Gouda, Gruyere, and Raclette are our top picks for their meltability and flavors that perfectly complement grilled dishes. Experiment with these choices to discover how gourmet grilling with cheese can transform your outdoor cooking adventures.

So that’s it! Cheese grilling 101. For more tips on how to grill and to find what we are testing please sign up for our newsletter.

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