Bergkaese substitute

Best substitute

Gruyere

Use the same amount by weight as the bergkaese you are replacing

Best for Kaesespaetzle

Close match

Gruyere is the substitute to reach for and it swaps 1:1 in everything from Kaesespaetzle to a gratin, being made the same way in the same mountains. Comte is equally good and slightly more hazelnutty. Emmental melts beautifully but is much milder and sweeter, so use it mixed with a handful of grated Parmesan to put the savoury depth back. If the recipe wants the pungent, farmyardy character of a well-aged Bergkaese, Appenzeller gets closer than anything else. The job Bergkaese does in a dish is savoury depth plus fat plus a smooth stretchy melt, all three at once, which is why a mild supermarket cheese cannot cover for it: mozzarella melts but tastes of nothing, and Parmesan tastes right but goes grainy instead of flowing.

Other bergkaese substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Comte
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
French Alpine-style cheese from the Jura, aged six months to three years.
What changes
Best for
Kaesespaetzle, gratins and quiche, cheese sauces, cheese boards, grilled cheese and toasted sandwiches
Prep. Choose a younger wheel for sauces; grate rather than cube so it melts evenly.
A superb match and arguably the most interesting of these. Same production method, same firm dense paste, same excellent melting behaviour. The flavour leans towards brown butter, roasted hazelnut and dried fruit, deeper and less tangy than a young Bergkaese and richer than most Gruyere, and older wheels develop crunchy tyrosine crystals which are delicious on a board but do not fully dissolve into a sauce. That is the only real caveat: for a smooth cheese sauce choose a Comte of around twelve months rather than a twenty-four-month wheel. In Kaesespaetzle and gratins it is excellent at any age.
3Emmental, ideally with a little Parmesan
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight, plus about 20 g grated Parmesan per 200 g of Emmental
Mild Swiss cheese with large holes, springy and sweet, an outstanding melter.
What changes
Best for
Kaesespaetzle, gratins and potato bakes, toasted sandwiches, fondue, cheese sauces
Prep. Grate both cheeses together and combine before adding, so the Parmesan is evenly distributed.
The most widely available Alpine cheese in most countries, and traditional in Kaesespaetzle where it is often mixed with Bergkaese precisely because it melts so smoothly. On its own it is noticeably mild, sweet and milky, with a springy rather than dense body, so a dish made only with Emmental tastes pleasant but thin and can feel a bit sweet where it should taste savoury and deep. The fix is easy and worth doing every time: add roughly a tenth of the weight in grated Parmesan or aged Gouda, which restores the salty, nutty, umami backbone without harming the melt. Do not go further than that or the sauce turns gritty.
4Appenzeller
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Swiss firm cheese washed during ageing in a herb and wine brine, distinctly pungent.
What changes
Best for
Kaesespaetzle, Kaspressknoedel, gratins with potato or celeriac, cheese boards, toasted cheese
Prep. Consider blending half and half with a milder melter if the eaters are cautious about strong cheese.
The best choice when the recipe means a properly mature Bergkaese, because it is the one supermarket-available Alpine cheese with real funk. The brine washing gives it a fruity, spicy, faintly barnyard aroma and a lingering tang, which lands close to where a twelve-month Allgaeuer Bergkaese lives. It melts well, though slightly more loosely than Gruyere. Be aware of how strong it is: in a dish where the cheese is the only flavour, such as Kaesespaetzle with fried onions, Appenzeller can dominate, so consider using half Appenzeller and half Emmental. Anyone who dislikes strong cheese will notice immediately.
5Fontina Val d'Aosta
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Semi-firm Italian Alpine cheese, supple and earthy, one of the great melting cheeses.
What changes
Best for
Kaesespaetzle, gratins and polenta bakes, fondue-style dishes, stuffed and baked dishes, cheese toast
Prep. Grate straight from the fridge; expect a creamier, softer result and finish under the grill for colour.
Made in the Italian Alps for the same reasons and in much the same way, and it melts as smoothly as anything on this list, going liquid and glossy without stringiness. The flavour is milder and more buttery than Bergkaese, with a mushroomy, faintly earthy note instead of a sharp nutty one, so the dish tastes gentler and rounder. It is also softer and considerably higher in moisture, so grate it cold from the fridge or it will clog the grater, and a gratin made with it will be creamier and less crusty on top. Look for genuine Fontina Val d'Aosta; the mild Danish and Scandinavian cheeses sold as fontina are much blander and rubberier.
6Aged Gouda
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Dutch cow's-milk cheese aged one to three years until dense, dark and crystalline.
What changes
Best for
Kaesespaetzle, mixed with a younger melting cheese, gratin toppings, cheese dumplings, cheese boards, grating over soups and vegetables
Prep. Use as one third of a blend with a good melter; grate finely so it disperses before it can separate.
Strong on flavour, weaker on melt, which makes it best as part of a blend. A two-year Gouda has exactly the concentrated nutty, savoury, brothy intensity you want from a mature Bergkaese, plus a butterscotch sweetness of its own that is genuinely lovely. But as Gouda ages it loses moisture and its proteins tighten, so on its own it tends to go oily and slightly grainy rather than flowing smoothly, and it can separate in a sauce. Use it as roughly a third of the total cheese, with Emmental, Gruyere or Fontina doing the melting, and you get depth and smoothness together. Younger mild Gouda melts nicely but tastes far too bland to stand in for Bergkaese.

What is Bergkaese?

Bergkaese is Bergkaese, meaning mountain cheese and written Bergkase or Bergkaese in English, is a family of firm Alpine cow's-milk cheeses from Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland, made in large wheels from the milk of summer pasture and aged for months into something dense, nutty, savoury and slightly sharp.

Cooking tips

Think of Bergkaese as doing two jobs and consider using two cheeses to replace it. A good aged mountain cheese delivers both a deep savoury flavour and a clean stretchy melt, which is rare. If your shop has only mild Emmental or only intense aged Gouda, buy both and mix them, roughly two parts melter to one part flavour cheese. This is exactly how Kaesespaetzle is made in Bavaria and the Allgaeu, where a mix of Bergkaese and Emmentaler is standard.
Grate rather than cube, and grate coarsely. Alpine cheeses are dense and fatty, and a cube takes long enough to melt that the fat separates and pools before the centre gives way. Coarse gratings from a box grater melt evenly in seconds. If you are stirring cheese into a hot sauce, toss the gratings with a teaspoon of cornflour first, which keeps the proteins from clumping.
Add it off the heat, or nearly. Aged Alpine cheese splits into rubbery strands and grease if you boil it, so pull the pan off the burner, stir the cheese into the hot pasta, Spaetzle or sauce, and let the residual heat do the work. For a gratin, put the cheese only on the top and finish under a hot grill for two minutes rather than baking it for half an hour.
Do not throw away the rind. The dry outer rind of a mountain cheese is full of savoury flavour and will not melt, so cut it off and drop it into a pot of soup, lentils, minestrone or a barley broth for the last twenty minutes, then fish it out. It gives the whole pot a brothy Alpine depth for nothing, and the same trick works with Gruyere and Comte rinds.
For Kaesespaetzle, the browned onions matter as much as the cheese. The dish is Spaetzle layered with grated Alpine cheese and topped with onions cooked slowly in butter until genuinely dark and sweet, and that sweetness is what makes a milder substitute cheese taste complete. If you have had to use Emmental or Fontina instead of Bergkaese, brown the onions longer and season more assertively with black pepper and salt.

Frequently asked questions

What is Bergkaese and is it the same as Gruyere?

Bergkaese simply means mountain cheese, and it covers a family of firm cow's-milk cheeses made in the Alps of Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland, including protected names such as Allgaeuer Bergkaese and Vorarlberger Bergkaese, plus Alpkaese made up on the summer pastures. Gruyere is not the same cheese but it is the same idea made the same way a short distance away: large wheels of raw cow's milk, pressed, brine-treated and aged for months into a dense nutty cheese that melts smoothly. That is why it substitutes so cleanly. In practice a wheel-aged Gruyere and an Austrian Bergkaese of similar age taste like siblings, with the Bergkaese often a little sharper and more herbal.

What is the best substitute for Bergkaese in Kaesespaetzle?

Gruyere on its own, or a mix of two thirds Emmental and one third Gruyere or aged Gouda, which is closest to how the dish is actually made in the Allgaeu. You want one cheese that melts into strands without going oily and one that brings salty savoury depth. Grate everything coarsely, layer it between hot Spaetzle so it melts from the residual heat rather than boiling, and finish with a generous pile of onions browned slowly in butter, which does more for the dish than any single cheese choice.

Can I use cheddar or mozzarella instead?

Neither is a good stand-in and it is worth knowing why. Mozzarella melts wonderfully but contributes almost no flavour, so a dish that should taste deeply savoury tastes of butter and pasta. Mature cheddar has plenty of flavour but the wrong kind, sharp and lactic and tangy rather than nutty and brothy, and it splits into grease and rubber readily when overheated because it is made and aged differently. If cheddar is genuinely all you have, use a medium rather than an extra-mature one, mix it half and half with mozzarella for a better melt, and add a spoonful of grated Parmesan for depth. The dish will be good, just not Alpine.

Can I just leave the cheese out?

Not from a dish named after it. Kaesespaetzle, Kaspressknoedel and Alpine gratins are cheese dishes, and without the cheese you have plain noodles or plain dumplings. If you are avoiding dairy, the honest route is a different dish rather than a substitution, because plant-based cheeses melt but supply almost none of the savoury, brothy depth that is the entire point here. If you do want to try, use a firm plant-based cheese for melt plus a tablespoon of nutritional yeast, a teaspoon of white miso and plenty of slowly browned onions to build savouriness, and expect something enjoyable in its own right rather than a copy.

How can I tell how aged a mountain cheese is, and does it matter?

It matters a lot for melting. A young wheel of three to six months is pale, supple and slightly springy, tastes mild, milky and gently nutty, and melts perfectly smoothly, which makes it right for sauces and fondue-style dishes. A wheel of twelve months or more is darker, drier and firmer, sometimes with crunchy crystals, tastes intensely nutty, salty and brothy, and is better grated over the top of a dish or eaten on a board because it can turn oily or grainy when melted. Counters usually label the age in months; if not, press the cheese with a thumb, since give means young and hard resistance means old.

Related substitutes

More cheese substitutes

Bergkaese substitute

Other bergkaese substitutes

2Comte

3Emmental, ideally with a little Parmesan

4Appenzeller

5Fontina Val d'Aosta

6Aged Gouda