Brunost substitute

Best substitute

Cajeta (Goat's Milk Caramel)

Use the same amount by weight, plus a pinch of fine salt per 100 g as the brunost you are replacing

Best for sauces for game and venison

Different texture

The best substitute for brunost is dulce de leche with a good pinch of salt, or better still cajeta, the goat's milk caramel, because it carries the same faint goaty tang as gjetost. Use it measure for measure in sauces. For brown cheese on bread, mash cream cheese with dark brown sugar and salt.

Other brunost substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Dulce de Leche + Salt (+ Cream in Sauces)
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight, plus ¼ tsp fine salt per 100 g and a splash of cream
Cow's milk caramel, sold in every supermarket, doing the exact job brunost does in a pan sauce: sweetness, colour and body.
What changes
Best for
brown sauces, venison and reindeer, meatballs, glazes
Sweeter and rounder, without the slight tang and the granular chew of the real thing, so a Norwegian game sauce made with it tastes richer but less savoury. The salt is not optional, and a spoonful of sour cream sharpens it further.
3Any Other Nordic Brown Whey Cheese
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Mysost, Gudbrandsdalsost, Ski Queen, geitost and gjetost are all the same family and differ mainly in how much goat's milk they contain.
What changes
Best for
everything brunost is used for
Effectively the same ingredient under a different name, so if you find any of them on the shelf, buy it and stop looking. The goat-heavier versions taste sharper and slightly more barnyard; the mysost styles are milder and sweeter.
4Cream Cheese + Dark Brown Sugar + Salt
Taste and texture differ
100 g cream cheese to 2 tbsp dark brown sugar and a pinch of salt, used 1:1 by volume
For the on-bread job: brown cheese on crispbread, on waffles with sour cream and jam, or in a lunchbox.
What changes
Best for
crispbread, waffles, toast, spreads
Tastes convincingly of sweet caramelised dairy and takes two minutes, but it spreads rather than slices, so you cannot shave it thin the way brunost is meant to be eaten. It also will not brown or hold shape under heat.
5Brown Sugar + Cream + a Squeeze of Lemon
Different taste
Use 1 tbsp dark brown sugar plus 1 tbsp cream for every 30 g brunost called for, plus a few drops of lemon juice
The emergency fix for a Norwegian game or meatball sauce when there is no brown cheese and no caramel in the house.
What changes
Best for
pan sauces, gravy, venison, meatballs
It rebuilds the two things brunost was contributing, sweetness and a little body, and the lemon or a spoon of sour cream stands in for the dairy tang. It will not taste like brown cheese, but the sauce will taste finished rather than thin.
6No Real Substitute (On Waffles or a Cheese Board)
Taste and texture differ
Least-bad option: cajeta or salted dulce de leche, spread very thinly
Shaved onto a waffle with sour cream and jam, or sliced onto crispbread, brunost is doing something no other cheese does, and everyone at the table will notice.
What changes
Best for
waffles, cheese boards, crispbread
A thin smear of salted caramel gets the flavour direction right and is genuinely nice, but the whole appeal of brunost is the firm, fudgy slice that softens slowly in your mouth, and a spread cannot do that. Worth ordering the real thing, which keeps for weeks.

What is Brunost?

Brunost is Brunost, Norwegian brown cheese, is made by boiling whey with milk and cream until the milk sugars caramelise, giving a dense, sliceable block that tastes like salted caramel with a dairy tang.

Cooking tips

Use a cheese slicer rather than a knife. Brunost is dense and very sweet, and a thick slab is overwhelming where a paper-thin shaving is perfect, which is why the Norwegian cheese slicer exists in the first place.
In a sauce, grate it and stir it in off the boil until it dissolves. Boiling brown cheese makes it look stringy and split, and because it is full of milk sugar it catches and scorches on the bottom of the pan fast.
It is salty as well as sweet, so taste a pan sauce before adding any more salt. A great many first attempts at Norwegian game sauce end up over-seasoned for exactly this reason.
A very small amount goes a long way. A walnut-sized piece will flavour and thicken a sauce for four, and this is also why substitute quantities of caramel should be measured rather than eyeballed.
Brown cheese is the sweet element in a dish, so pair it with something sharp: lingonberry, redcurrant jelly, a splash of vinegar or sour cream. Without that acid the sauce turns cloying, and this matters even more with a sweeter substitute like dulce de leche.
Tightly wrapped, it keeps for weeks in the fridge and dries out rather than moulding. A dried edge can be grated straight into a sauce.

Frequently asked questions

Is brunost actually cheese?

Not in the usual sense. Ordinary cheese is made by curdling milk and draining the whey; brunost is made from the whey itself, boiled down with milk and cream until the lactose caramelises. That is why it is sweet, why it is brown, and why it behaves nothing like cheddar or Gouda in cooking.

What is the difference between brunost, gjetost and mysost?

Brunost is the umbrella term for Norwegian brown cheese. Gjetost or geitost is made wholly or partly with goat's milk and tastes tangier and sharper. Mysost is the milder cow's milk version. Popular blends such as Gudbrandsdalsost, sold internationally as Ski Queen, sit between them. All three are interchangeable in recipes; just expect more tang from the goat versions.

Can I just leave brunost out of a sauce?

You can, and the sauce will still work, but it will taste noticeably thinner and less interesting because you have removed the sweetness and some of the body. Stir in one to two teaspoons of dark brown sugar and a splash of cream per portion, then a few drops of lemon juice or a spoon of sour cream to keep it from tasting flat and sugary.

Does brunost melt?

Not the way normal cheese does. It softens, slumps and eventually dissolves, but it never stretches or forms strings, because there is no curd protein network to melt. That makes it useless on a pizza and excellent in a sauce, where it simply disappears into the liquid.

What can I use in a Norwegian venison or meatball sauce?

Cajeta or salted dulce de leche, measure for measure with the brown cheese, plus a splash of cream. If you have neither, one tablespoon of dark brown sugar and one of cream per 30 g of brunost the recipe asks for, finished with lemon juice or sour cream, gives you a sauce that tastes complete even though it is not authentically brown cheese.

Related substitutes

More cheese substitutes

Brunost substitute

Other brunost substitutes

2Dulce de Leche + Salt (+ Cream in Sauces)

3Any Other Nordic Brown Whey Cheese

4Cream Cheese + Dark Brown Sugar + Salt

5Brown Sugar + Cream + a Squeeze of Lemon

6No Real Substitute (On Waffles or a Cheese Board)