Cabrales cheese substitutes

The most available strong blue and a genuinely good match. Gorgonzola piccante is sharp, salty and assertively funky, with the same moist crumbly texture that lets it dissolve into a hot sauce without turning stringy. Compared to Cabrales it is a shade sweeter and more buttery, with a slightly less mineral, less cave-damp edge - Cabrales has a wilder, sharper, almost ammoniac top note that Gorgonzola softens. In a steak sauce the difference is small.

Best for

blue cheese sauce for steak, cheese boards, melting into pasta and risotto, crumbling over salads, stuffed into meat

Buy piccante or mountain Gorgonzola, not dolce. Gorgonzola dolce is soft, sweet and mild, and in a Cabrales sauce it disappears into the cream and leaves you with a bland, slightly cheesy gravy. If dolce is all you can get, use half again as much and add extra salt.

Arguably the closest match in character, even though it is French sheep's milk rather than Spanish cow's. Both are wet, crumbly, aggressively salty and sharply pungent, and both fall apart into a sauce rather than melting smoothly. Roquefort brings a distinctly sheepy, tangy, almost lemony sharpness where Cabrales is earthier and more mineral. It is often the saltiest of the common blues, so a sauce made with it can tip over the line if you season without tasting.

Best for

blue cheese sauce for beef, cheese boards, dressings, crumbling over pears, walnuts and salad leaves

Cut the salt in the recipe to zero and taste at the end - Roquefort is salty enough that most blue cheese sauces need none at all. It is more expensive than Gorgonzola, so use it where the cheese is tasted directly rather than in a heavily reduced sauce. Both Cabrales and Roquefort are strong enough that a little goes a long way.

A fine substitute with a noticeably different personality. Stilton is firmer, drier and more crumbly-cakey than Cabrales, and its flavour is rounder, nuttier and more mellow, with less of the sharp saline attack. A sauce made with Stilton tastes richer and more comforting but less thrilling - it lacks Cabrales's edge, which is what cuts through a fatty steak. Using a bit more, plus a squeeze of lemon or a splash of sherry, closes most of the gap.

Best for

cheese boards, blue cheese sauces, melting into potato dishes and gratins, with port and walnuts

Because Stilton is drier it melts less readily; grate or crumble it very fine and add it to warm cream off the heat, stirring until it dissolves. A splash of sherry or a few drops of sherry vinegar sharpens it up and pushes it towards the Spanish profile. Blue Stilton, not white Stilton, which has no blue in it at all.

If the recipe specifies Cabrales because it wants a Spanish blue, these are its regional neighbours and near-identical in role. Valdeon is made in Leon from cow and goat milk and wrapped in sycamore leaves, giving a slightly softer, sweeter, more herbaceous cheese than Cabrales. Picos de Europa is a common cave-aged Spanish blue found under various names. Both are sharp, moist and crumbly, and both make a sauce that tastes properly Asturian.

Best for

blue cheese sauce for steak, cheese boards alongside Manchego and quince paste, melting into sauces, crumbling over roasted vegetables

These turn up in Spanish specialty shops and better cheese counters more often than Cabrales itself, since Cabrales exports in smaller quantities. Valdeon is a shade milder, so if you want Cabrales-level punch, do not be shy with the quantity. Ask the counter for their strongest Spanish blue and you will land somewhere useful.

The pragmatic answer. Generic blue cheese crumbles - usually a mild domestic Danish-style blue - are far gentler than Cabrales: less salty, less funky, and often drier from being pre-crumbled and coated with anti-caking starch. Used at the recipe's stated quantity they produce a sauce that tastes faintly of cheese and mostly of cream. Using half again as much and sharpening with vinegar and salt gets you to a respectable steak sauce.

Best for

blue cheese sauces, dressings and dips, crumbling over salads and burgers, when only supermarket cheese is available

Pre-crumbled cheese often contains starch or cellulose to stop it clumping, which can make a sauce slightly gritty. A wedge you crumble yourself melts far more smoothly. Danish blue and Danablu are stronger than generic crumbles and closer to what you want.

Offered honestly: there is no good substitute for blue cheese if you cannot use blue cheese. Feta gives you the salt and the crumbly texture, and aged goat cheese gives you tang and a little barnyard funk, but neither has the mould-ripened pungency that defines Cabrales. A sauce made this way is salty, tangy and pleasant, and it is not a blue cheese sauce - it is a salty white cheese sauce, and anyone who ordered blue will notice immediately.

Best for

salads and crumbled toppings, sauces when a blue cheese aversion or allergy is in play, stuffed meats

The Worcestershire sauce or anchovy paste is doing important work, adding the deep savoury funk that blue cheese normally supplies. Aged, firm goat cheese works far better here than fresh chevre, which is mild and creamy. If nobody at the table wants blue cheese, consider a different sauce entirely - a sherry and cream pan sauce or a mushroom sauce - rather than a blue cheese sauce with the blue taken out.