Why You Should Cook with Cheese | The Cheese Professor

Cheese stands out as a remarkably versatile ingredient in cooking. Whether incorporated into sauces, melted over main dishes, or baked into pastries, it can elevate both simple and complex recipes. Its unique ability to enhance flavors, create contrast, and enrich a dish makes it an essential component in countless culinary creations.

Cheese in Cooking

Cheese adds richness and complexity
Savory or tangy cheese enhances desserts
The richness of cheese balances the acidity of fruit
Cheese elevates diverse flavors
Cheese can help thicken and bind
Cheese can change the texture of a dish

When thoughtfully used in recipes, cheese does not just complement other ingredients—it transforms them. The saltiness of a firm cheese like Parmesan can intensify the sweetness of roasted vegetables or fruits, while the gooey texture when melted of a cheese like Gruyère adds a luscious richness to soup or pasta. With its ability to bring depth and complexity to every bite, cheese is a powerful tool in the kitchen.

Matthew Card photo credit Channing Johnson

Matt Card, Creative Director of Recipes at Milk Street—a food media company known for teaching simple techniques and recipes—believes that understanding the role of cheese in recipes is key to its successful use. “The best combinations become greater than the sum of their parts,” he says.

Contrast

Consider how aged or farmhouse Cheddar pairs with the crisp acidity of fruits like apples. Card explains, “The apple’s sweet-tart acidity cuts through the cheese’s creamy richness, amplifying its bold, complex flavors, and elevating the cheese’s funky, amino-rich notes.” The interplay of contrasting elements demonstrates how each element can enhance the other, creating a memorable combination.

Savory Recipes

Cheese works well in savory recipes because of its unique combination of fat, protein, and umami flavors. Cheese is rich in glutamates, which create the savory, mouthwatering taste known as umami. This makes it pair well with meats, vegetables, and starches. This may also have something to with why it pairs well with seafood. Made with salt, cheese is naturally salty, which enhances other flavors in a dish, making it taste more complex and satisfying.

Cheese can act as a binder (in recipes such as meatballs or casseroles) and a thickener (in soups or sauces). Classic Italian dishes like cacio e pepe and fettuccine alfredo have very few ingredients. Cheese takes a starring role, transforming pasta into something memorable and combining with not much more than a bit of butter or water to make a sauce.

Sweet Recipes

While cheese is often a central feature in savory dishes, it also plays a fascinating role in sweet recipes. Creamy mildly sweet cheeses like ricotta and mascarpone bring richness and complexity to desserts. Cheesecake, the most iconic example, demonstrates cheese’s ability to elevate sweet dishes. The cheese’s tangy flavor balances the sweetness, transforming dessert into something luxurious and satisfying.

Sweet & Savory

Sweet and savory combinations succeed not just through culinary intuition but by leveraging the science of flavor interactions. “The way we experience a food’s flavors is shaped by an incredibly complex system of flavor compounds, aromas, textures, and even taste memory,” Card explains. When paired with fruits like apples, pears, or grapes, the acidity and bitterness of the fruit serve to balance out the creamy richness of the cheese. Acidity sharpens flavors and “cleans” the richness of the cheese, while bitterness can serve to “shut down” overly rich or cloying elements.

Card highlights a standout cheesecake created in collaboration with Chef Angie Mar, chef/owner of Beatrice Inn in New York City. This cheesecake blends fresh goat cheese, cream cheese, and crème fraîche with a graham cracker crust spiced with black pepper. “The unique balance of tangy, sweet, and peppery flavors is extraordinary,” Card says, adding, “The creaminess of the cheese softens the sharpness of the black pepper, while the pepper enhances the cheese’s creaminess in a perfect symbiotic relationship.” Multiple kinds of cheese in the recipe add even more flavor.

By combining contrasting flavors, this cheesecake underscores how cheese can transform a dessert into a rich, yet harmonious experience. Through inventive recipes like this, cheese proves to be an indispensable ingredient in the realm of sweet treats.

The versatility of cheese as both a savory and sweet ingredient makes it a unique and essential part of the culinary landscape. Whether it is the rich creaminess of mascarpone in desserts or the sharp tang of blue cheese with figs, cheese adds sophistication and depth to dishes.

With a little experimentation and an understanding of how cheese interacts with other ingredients, anyone can harness its endless possibilities to transform everyday recipes into extraordinary meals.

Chèvre Cheesecake with Black Pepper–Graham Crust Recipe

Start to finish: 2½ hours (40 minutes active), plus cooling and refrigerating
Servings: 12 to 16

Angie Mar, chef/owner of Beatrice Inn in New York City, may be best known for her artistry with all things meat, but we’re smitten with her chèvre cheesecake, the recipe for which is found in her book “Butcher + Beast.” Made with equal parts chèvre (fresh goat cheese) and cream cheese plus a generous measure of crème fraîche, the cake has the perfect amount of savoriness and tanginess—and a surprisingly light texture despite its richness. In addition to scaling Mar’s recipe to fit into a standard 9-inch springform, we mixed lemon zest into the filling to lift the flavor and add citrusy notes that play off the black pepper in the crust. The best way to gauge doneness of the cake is with an instant thermometer inserted through the side (in the area where the filling has risen above the pan), with the probe angled slightly down and to the center; 145°F to 150°F is the finished temperature. To cut clean slices, warm the knife blade by dipping it into a pitcher of hot water; wipe the blade dry before and after each cut and rewarm it as needed. Covered tightly with foil and refrigerated, the cheesecake keeps well for up to four days, though the crust softens over time.

Don’t forget to allow the cheeses to warm to cool room temperature before mixing. If they’re refrigerator-cold, the filling is more likely to wind up with lumps. Note that this recipe involves multiple oven settings: 300°F, 450°F, off (with the cake still inside and the door propped open) and 250°F. Don’t forget to run a knife around the cheesecake after the cake has cooled for 10 minutes—this helps prevent cracking.

—Rebecca Richmond and Rose Hattabaugh

86 grams (6 tablespoons) salted butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus more for the pan

210 grams (1¾ cups) graham cracker crumbs

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon plus 161 grams (¾ cup) white sugar, divided

½ teaspoon table salt, divided

1 pound fresh goat cheese (chèvre), cool room temperature

Two 8-ounce packages cream cheese, cool room temperature

Two 8-ounce containers crème fraîche, cool room temperature

111 grams (⅓ cup) honey

4 large eggs, plus 2 large egg yolks, cool room temperature

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

Heat the oven to 300°F with a rack in the lower-middle position. Brush the bottom of a 9-inch round springform pan with melted butter; reserve the brush. In a large bowl, stir together the cracker crumbs, pepper, 1 teaspoon sugar and ¼ teaspoon salt. Add the melted butter and stir until evenly moistened. Transfer to the prepared pan and use the bottom of a ramekin or dry measuring cup to firmly press into an even layer. Bake until the crust is fragrant and golden, 15 to 17 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack until barely warm, 15 to 20 minutes.

Brush the inside walls of the pan with melted butter, then set on a rimmed baking sheet. Increase the oven temperature to 450°F. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the goat cheese and cream cheese on medium until creamy, airy and well combined, about 3 minutes, scraping the bowl and paddle once or twice. Add the remaining 161 grams (¾ cup) sugar and the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, then beat on medium-high until the mixture is smooth and fluffy, about 1 minute, scraping the bowl and paddle halfway through.

With the mixer on medium-low, gradually add the crème fraîche, followed by the honey. Scrape the bowl and paddle. With the mixer on low, add the whole eggs one at a time, beating until combined after each addition and scraping the bowl and paddle after the first 2 eggs. Add the yolks and beat until fully incorporated.

Detach the bowl from the mixer, and use a spatula to stir in the lemon zest, scraping the bottom of the bowl, until evenly distributed. Pour into the springform pan; the pan may be filled to the rim. If necessary, smooth the surface with the spatula.

Bake the cheesecake on the baking sheet for 20 minutes; the filling will have risen above the rim of the pan and the surface will be golden. Turn off the oven and prop open the door with the handle of a wooden spoon for 10 minutes; the surface of the cake will darken slightly during this time.

Close the oven door and heat the oven to 250°F. Continue to bake until the center reaches 145°F to 150°F (insert an instant-read thermometer through the side of cake, in the area where it has risen above the pan, with the probe slightly angled down so the tip is at the center of the cake), 35 to 40 minutes.

Set the baking sheet with the cheesecake on a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Run a narrow-bladed knife around the edge of the cheesecake to loosen the sides, then cool for 1½ to 2 hours; the cake will deflate slightly as it cools. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, at least 6 hours or up to overnight (if refrigerating for longer than 3 hours, cover tightly with foil after the cheesecake is fully chilled). Remove the pan sides before slicing.