10 Top Substitutes For Fontina Cheese To Try

Are you looking to learn about fontina cheese substitutes to use when this cheese isn’t available? This article will provide detailed information and instructions on how you can substitute fontina cheese while still maintaining the flavor and texture of your dishes.

Fontina is a semi-soft, raw cheese originally from Italy. Fontina is also delicious, typically used in cooking. However, while it’s creamy and rich, Fontina cheese isn’t suitable for everyone.

A significant reason why many people are searching for a substitute for Fontina cheese is its scent, which intensifies as the cheese ages.

There is no doubt about the uniqueness and taste of Fontina cheese. Unfortunately, this cheese in some locations might be difficult to find, so It’s crucial to get to know replacements for Fontina cheese so you can cook dishes based on Fontina cheese anytime you like.

If you’re feeling super curious and excited about this list of fontina cheese substitutes, let’s go!

What Can Substitute For Fontina Cheese?

It can be difficult if you want to find the right substitutes for fontina cheese among the vast array of cheeses available, so I’ve put together here a list that will surely help you.

1. Emmental
2. Gruyere
3. Edam
4. Parmesan
5. Cheddar
6. Mozzarella
7. Provolone
8. Gouda
9. Vacherin
10. Tofu

What Is Fontina Cheese?

Originating from the Aosta valley in southern Italy, Fontina attracts attention from its surface with many tiny pores, especially its creamy taste; the flavor gradually increases.

After going through a sophisticated heating process, squeezing, salting, and pouring molds to brew for 3 – 10 months, the manufacturers will obtain the authentic Italian Fontina. Delicious and quality Fontina cheese is a critical ingredient in many signature dishes around the world.

Fontina cheese aged short is especially suitable for making fondue, a highly famous cheese hotpot globally.

However, whether aged for a long time or for a short time, Fontina is relatively easy to melt, suitable for slicing, and cakes that need to be baked afterward to obtain a dish with just the right amount of melted cheese.

Although produced continuously throughout the year, summer is the time when this cheese is at its best. This is because the cows that produce milk to make cheese are only fed grass to create a characteristic aroma.

Fresh fontina cheese has a relatively soft texture suitable for making sauces, while older Fontina will become a hard cheese with a nutty flavor and good melting point.

You can easily buy Fontina cheese in markets and supermarkets or make your own at home following the steps detailed in this video.

Health Benefits Of Fontina Cheese?

Fontina offers a wide range of health advantages as well as all the traits and features of large cheeses, including:

Prevent Tooth Decay

Fontina cheese has a considerable amount of calcium – the essential ingredient to help keep teeth strong. Furthermore, this food has very little lactose. Therefore, eating a portion of cheese after a meal has been shown to prevent toothache.

Prevent Cancer

Cheeses have always been known for their cancer-preventing abilities, thanks to their conjugated linoleic acid and sphingolipids. Fontina cheese is no exception when it comes to high levels of these beneficial substances.

Not only preventing cancer, but Fontina cheese also improves the health of diners thanks to beneficial substances such as vitamins and beneficial bacteria. So consuming Fontina cheese can prevent many diseases.

Help To Gain Weight

Although cheese has many benefits, you should consider using this food if you want to lose weight. This is because cheese contains a lot of natural fats that can make you gain weight.

Fontina cheese is rich in protein, fat, calcium, vitamins, and minerals that play an essential role in maintaining and developing muscles and bones, keeping the body healthy. In addition, vitamins and minerals are also necessary for metabolism in the body.

Help Strengthen Bones

Cheese is one of the foods that contain the most calcium and B vitamins. Therefore, it is not difficult to explain why eating a lot of cheese helps strengthen bones. This food is extremely good for children, the elderly, pregnant, and lactating women to promote bone and cartilage health.

Osteoporosis can be treated with the protein, calcium, and minerals found in cheese. In addition, vitamin B in cheese also helps the body absorb and regulate calcium better.

Reduce Stress

Fontina cheese contains an amino acid called tyrosine, which is the building block of several neurotransmitters in the brain that aid in transmitting information between nerve cells.

The fats in cheese also encourage the brain to produce dopamine. An increase in dopamine can induce feelings of joy and excitement.

When Need To Substitute Fontina Cheese?

Once you know the Fontina cheese well, you should understand the situations in which it is necessary to substitute it in recipes. Here are a few typical reasons:

Lactose Intolerance

Lactose intolerance is defined as when a person eats or drinks dairy products without fully digesting the lactose in milk. As a result, when trying to consume dairy products such as cheese, they experience some discomforts such as bloating, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

Lactose malabsorption is not life-threatening, but patients certainly do not want to consume dairy products to experience such unpleasant symptoms.

Fontina cheese, whose main ingredient is cow’s milk, contains much lactose, so it will not suit people with this condition.

High Price

Fontina has a long history, but it’s not one of the most popular cheeses. Unfortunately, this leads to a scarcity that sometimes makes it more expensive than regular cheeses.

Last but not least, the general rule for high-quality cheeses is that taste always comes first, not quantity. So to ensure a uniquely delicious taste, quality Fontina cheese is often a bit pricey.

Veganism

Can vegetarians eat cheese? This is a question that many vegetarians are interested in. Because recently, vegetarians are talking about this issue because there are more and more delicious and attractive cheese recipes. Everyone has an opinion; some say they can be eaten, others say no.

Cheese is a product made from the milk of goats, sheep, cows, or other mammals. In this case, if you are vegetarian with a diet containing milk and eggs, you can do a vegan diet with cheese. But, conversely, cheese is not for you if you cannot consume eggs and dairy on a vegetarian diet.

The Taste Is Not Suitable For Everyone

Fontina cheese has more calories than regular cheese, so it has a slightly sour and greasy taste. This flavor gives a unique flavor to dishes. However, not everyone likes it. So looking for alternatives with similar textures but a more pleasant taste is not a wrong choice.

Fontina Substitutes That Solve Your Problems

If you need a substitute for Fontina cheese, you will want to find reasonable mouth-feeling possibilities with a similar taste as the original fontina cheese. The following options are prevalent in most supermarkets or online.

Emmental

Emmental is known for its medium firmness with a golden color and originates from the area around Emmental in Switzerland. This cheese variety from Switzerland is widely used to accompany fresh fruits or sandwiches.

This cheese is made from cow’s milk and aged for a minimum of 4 months. It has a light yellow color, a slightly sour taste that resembles a fruity sour taste, and is relatively easy to eat. Emmental cheese is not soft but slightly pliable, low melting point.

An identifying feature of this cheese is that it has holes inside the block of cheese. The larger these holes, the stronger the flavor of Emmental cheese.

Considered a dairy product, this cheese has many of the same nutrients as some other cheeses. Emmental is suitable for developing children and nutritious food that helps the body supplement nutrients and calcium for adults.

It can be substituted for Fontina cheese in salads and sandwiches because of its pleasant taste that is suitable for many people.

Gruyere

Gruyere is one of the most famous Swiss cheeses that conquers many culinary followers in the world. Gruyere belongs to the category of hard cheeses, with a sweet and slightly salty taste. Gruyere cheese is considered one of the best cheeses when making baked goods, with a characteristic flavor that does not overwhelm other ingredients.

What makes Gruyere cheese so special is the alpine grasses and the processing guaranteed by Swiss Biotechnology. The know-how and ingredients for the production of Gruyere cheese have remained the same since its inception to this day.

Why is Gruyere such a perfect replacement for Fontina? It’s thanks to the prominent flavor of Gruyere, which is quite similar to Fontina. However, Gruyere is firmer than Fontina and must be grated in a recipe before use. The flavor is likewise slightly more substantial than the Fontina.

In conclusion, Gruyere is a suitable replacement for pasta preparation using Fontina cheese. It may be used in soups too.

Edam

Edam cheese is a food originating from Dutch cuisine. The product ingredients include pasteurized milk, salt, yeast that are carefully selected, bringing high-quality products and meeting consumers’ strict requirements.

Edam cheese also has a delicious, attractive, smooth, and rich taste, not only bringing nutrients to the body, with a special recipe.

The product is used in many dishes, such as in Italian Pizza, with French toast and red wine, salads with Greek olive oil, and Italian pasta, which are very attractive and delicious.

Edam cheese has a characteristic shape of a sphere or a round cylinder, a light yellow color. This food with “E” as the first letter is covered with a characteristic red paraffin wax outside to prevent the cheese from drying out due to dehydration and avoid harmful mold.

This crust makes Edam cheese wrapped in glass paper sold in the supermarket; the intestines are yellow, and the red skin looks like an apple.

Edam is a type of cheese that is easy to store, hard to spoil; the longer it is left, the harder it becomes, so it is quickly brought to exchange between places, thus becoming a famous and popular cheese. Between the 14th and 18th centuries.

Edam is a fantastic Fontina alternative. It’s also nutty, but it’s a bit light, so you should notice. On the other hand, if you need a cheese that melts nearly like Fontina, Edam will be the way.

Parmesan

Parmesan is the abbreviation for Parmigiano – Reggiano cheese; this is a cheese used in many dishes of Italian cuisine, especially pasta. The name of this unique cheese is named after the place where they are produced.

Parmesan cheese has a complicated form, with ingredients mainly made from cow’s milk. Therefore, creating this type of cheese usually takes a lot of time, at least 1 year, and the average time is from 2 to 3 years to mature cheese to reach the most perfect.

When used, Parmesan cheese can be used directly as soon as it is ground into a powder or used to process some hot dishes and cakes. To apply Parmesan, you will need to use a firm and sharp cheese slicer to slice it into small pieces. You can also shred or grate it as well.

Then, this cheese will be sprinkled on dishes or covered on the surface of some baked goods to create a delicious, attractive flavor. To best preserve parmesan, you should buy whole Parmesan at the stores and keep it in the refrigerator.

Since Parmesan has the same firmness and richness as Fontina, it can be substituted, but the taste won’t be precisely the same.

Cheddar

Cheddar is one of the most popular cheeses made from cow’s milk, has a salty taste, and is quite hard. However, when enjoyed alone or with other dishes, this cheese has an irresistibly delicious taste.

There are two ways to enjoy cheddar cheese, which is eaten directly with some other ingredients or processed into attractive dishes, cakes, and pastries.

To get the best batch of cheddar cheese, one has to age for a very long time. Usually, it will take between 9 and 24 months of aging for the Cheddar to reach its requirements and bring out the perfect flavor.

At first, this cheese was only famous in the UK and European countries, but with the introduction of cuisine, Cheddar became famous and widely used worldwide.

Cheddar cheese is delicious and rich in healthy nutrients, such as protein, vitamins, and beneficial bacteria.

Cheddar is a suitable cheese replacement for Fontina in toppings of Pizza and sandwiches. It is also ideal for cupcakes, pastries, salads, and dips in recipes. The finest cheddar cheese is those that are matured to achieve the necessary rich taste like Fontina cheese.

Mozzarella

Mozzarella is made with the traditional Italian pasta filata method, with the main ingredient being buffalo or cow’s milk, giving it an irresistible flavor. This is the traditional cheese of southern Italy.

Mozzarella cheese is an essential ingredient in many delicious dishes, and the most famous is Pizza. The highest quality Mozzarella cheese will create dishes that attract diners.

Mozzarella cheese is white to yellow in its new form, depending on the diet of the buffalo or dairy cow. Although originating from Italy, there are now many countries that successfully produce this cheese.

Traditionally, fresh Mozzarella will be made and eaten on the same day; due to high humidity, fresh Mozzarella can be stored in the refrigerator for about 1 week.

Because Mozzarella is a soft and moist cheese, it also goes moldy very quickly. In addition, when you open the package and cut it with a knife, bacteria can easily penetrate the surface of the cheese, so you should not leave it to keep it in the freezer for a long time.

While Mozzarellla’s flavor is not as good as Fontina’s, it melts uniformly as Fontina and works well with recipes that demand soft, sensitive melted cheese effects.

Consequently, Mozzarella cheese is a fantastic alternative in so many foods such as pizza, lasagna, and meat dishes, shredded or browned shape.

However, we should be aware that Mozzarella’s flavor is relatively mild and will not replace the earthy scent of Fontina. We would thus want to blend Mozzarella in sauces and fondue with other varieties of cheese.

Provolone

Provolone originates from Casilli near Vesuvius in southern Italy, the paradise of cheeses. Here, provolone is still processed in pears, sausages, or cones 10-15 cm long.

Provolone cheese is a yellowish, slightly sweet-tasting type of cheese produced by a rigorous process. Products with ingredients mainly from cow’s milk without added chemicals are produced according to modern technology suitable for all dishes.

Provolone is a stable and convenient cheese to use, so it is one of the top choices for a grilled sandwich.

Provolone cheese is suitable for children’s growth and nutritious food to help supplement nutrition and calcium for adults. In addition, the product provides vitamin A to help maintain health, strengthen the immune system, and produce blood cells.

The calcium and phosphorus in cheese help support the development of teeth and bones, reducing the risk of osteoporosis. In addition, cheese contains probiotics, which are very beneficial for the digestive tract, helping children absorb food better.

It is pretty close to Fontina’s tangy flavor. Therefore you may use it to substitute Fontina. Provolone will pass in soup, pasta, and salad dishes as a substitute for Fontina.

The taste is relatively mild and almost without fragrance, making it a suitable option if you prepare for someone that enjoys cheese that is not too strong.

Gouda

Gouda cheese is the most popular cheese in the Dutch dairy country. However, the pronounced flavor of Gouda cheese is slightly saltier than Fontina; the fat content is also higher, so the price is higher. Therefore, it is also more delicious and soft to eat.

This cheese can be sliced to eat with sandwiches in the morning. It is also added to familiar dishes like Pizza and pasta.

In terms of texture, Gouda has a firmer texture than Fontina cheese, and the color is not the same. However, you can use it to replace Fontina cheese in pasta dishes because of the similar taste.

Vacherin

Vacherin is a soft cheese made from pasteurized fresh cow’s milk in the Jura region of Switzerland. Traditionally, Vacherin cheese is made in the winter months when the herd comes down from the mountain pastures for the best quality.

Commercially available Vacherin cheese is usually housed in a round box made of Spruce, creating a distinctive identity. This cheese is rich and aromatic, making it the perfect choice for those who like the traditional richness of the cheese.

Because of its softer texture than Fontina cheese, Vacherin is often used as a substitute in soups and baked goods.

Tofu

Tofu is a rustic dish of people in East Asian countries such as China, East Asian countries, and Southeast Asia. Tofu originated in China. The ingredients to make tofu are soybeans, which are ground and soaked in water.

Starch flows into the water into a self-made shape; the residue is filtered out. Once you have created the product, you can cut it out to fry or cook with many different dishes.

Tofu is a delicious and nutritious dish and has the effect of preventing disease and protecting health. Therefore, regularly eating tofu can lower blood cholesterol, reduce the risk of atherosclerosis.

You might be wondering if you can add tofu to a gluten-free diet, but worry not. Most of the time, this ingredient doesn’t contain gluten. In addition, regular use of tofu will prevent the aging rate, helping the skin retain its elasticity.

Tofu has a slightly more solid texture than Fontina cheese. Therefore, it is suitable as a substitute for pasta dishes and baked goods. This is an excellent choice for vegetarians.

FAQs

If your difficulties with this material have not been entirely answered, please often check the questions posed. Also, do not hesitate to ask questions regarding cheese or its surrogates, as I will always answer you!

Save Your Dishes With These Fontina Cheese Substitutes!

While cheese is a fat source, it is difficult to dispute that it is a tasty and healthy element for many plates, so you always have to remember that the quantity of cheese you consume is controlled.

Anything taken over may be dangerous, so bear in mind that you are accountable and control your diet carefully.

There’s no perfect Fontina replacement, as we have seen. However, all these kinds of cheeses on our list have comparable features and functions in various meals.

The most excellent part about cooking with cheese is to pick from too many possibilities if you want to tweak it a bit. Do not be scared to try! Try not to be scared! If you appreciate the taste, texture, or just like Fontina, I hope this will inspire you!

I hope in this post you will learn more about replacing Fontina cheese. So you know if you like the component or not when you’re away from Fontina’s cheese.

Did you find a suitable substitute for cheese from this article? Let me know a note below. You may also share this information with your pals that enjoy cheese!