Cantal Cheese substitute

Best substitute

Mild or medium young cheddar

Use the same amount as the cantal cheese you are replacing

Best for gratins

Close match

Block cheddar aged only a few months, still springy rather than crumbly.

Other cantal cheese substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Low-moisture mozzarella blended with mild cheddar
Different taste
Half and half, used 1:1 for the total weight
A two-cheese mix engineered for stretch plus flavour.
What changes
Best for
aligot, truffade, cheesy mashed potato
This is the trick that actually makes aligot work in a home kitchen. Mozzarella supplies the long elastic pull that the traditional very young Tomme fraiche gives, and the cheddar supplies the tang mozzarella completely lacks. The result stretches convincingly and tastes close, though slightly milder and less complex than the real thing. Use block mozzarella, not fresh mozzarella in water, which is far too wet.
3Lancashire or Cheshire cheese
Close match
Use the same amount
Crumbly, lactic English cheeses with a fresh acidic tang.
What changes
Best for
cheese boards, gratins, salads, toasted cheese
The best flavour match for aged Cantal if you can find them, closer than cheddar because they share that fresh, almost yoghurty lactic sharpness rather than cheddar's deeper savoury note. Both are more crumbly, so they melt into a sauce well but do not stretch. Excellent on a board where you were going to serve Cantal vieux.
4Gruyere or Comte
Different taste
Use the same amount
Firm cooked-curd Alpine cheeses, nutty and sweet.
What changes
Best for
gratins, cheese sauce, quiche, onion soup
They melt beautifully and reliably, and in a gratin or a sauce they are an upgrade in melting behaviour. The flavour goes somewhere else, though: nuttier, sweeter and more savoury-brothy, so the dish reads Alpine and refined rather than rustic and tangy. If you cook a lot of French food you probably have one of these already, and it is a perfectly respectable choice.
5Monterey Jack
Different taste
Use the same amount plus a handful of parmesan or aged cheddar for flavour
Soft, mild American melting cheese.
What changes
Best for
aligot, truffade, gratins, cheese sauce
One of the smoothest melters available and it stretches decently, so it handles the mechanical job well. The problem is that it is close to flavourless next to Cantal, which makes a potato dish taste rich but blank. Fixing that is easy: replace about a quarter of it with grated parmesan or an aged cheddar for savoury depth.
6Salers or Laguiole
Close match
Use the same amount
Neighbouring Auvergne and Aubrac cheeses made in the same style.
What changes
Best for
aligot, cheese boards, gratins, truffade
Effectively the same cheese with a different label and a stricter production rule. Salers is made only in summer from a single herd's raw milk and tastes deeper and grassier; Laguiole is the traditional cheese for aligot in Aubrac. If a cheese shop offers either, buy it and use it 1:1 without adjustment.

What is Cantal Cheese?

Cantal Cheese is Cantal is an ancient uncooked pressed cow's milk cheese from the Auvergne region of France, firm and pale yellow, tasting mildly milky and lactic when young and nutty and sharp when aged, and it is the French cheese closest to English cheddar.

Cooking tips

For aligot, the stretch comes from young cheese, not aged. Traditionally it is made with Tomme fraiche du Cantal, which is even younger than Cantal jeune and barely a week or two old. Any aged, crumbly cheese will break instead of pulling, no matter how good it tastes.
Grate the cheese, then let it lose its fridge chill before it goes into hot potato, and take the pan off direct heat before you add it. Cold cheese hitting a hot pan is exactly how aligot turns first stringy and then greasy, because the fat separates before the proteins loosen.
Add the cheese a handful at a time and beat with a wooden spoon, not all at once. Aligot is worked hard on purpose, and you want each addition fully absorbed before the next goes in.
If your recipe just says Cantal with no age given, buy entre-deux, the middle age of roughly two to six months. It is the everyday version and works for cooking and for eating.
The dry, dusty-looking rind on a farmhouse Cantal is normal. Trim it off before grating, but keep it and simmer it in a soup or a pot of beans the way you would a parmesan rind, since it carries a lot of savoury flavour.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cantal the same as cheddar?

Not the same, but genuinely comparable. Both are firm pressed cow's milk cheeses that age from mild and springy to sharp and crumbly, and Cantal is often introduced to English speakers as France's cheddar for that reason. Cantal is a little more lactic and less deeply savoury than a good aged cheddar, and it uses a different curd-milling process, but for cooking purposes they swap well.

Which age of Cantal should I buy?

Cantal jeune, about one to two months, is springy and mild and is the one to use anywhere you need smooth melting or stretch. Entre-deux, two to six months, is the all-purpose everyday version. Cantal vieux, over six months, is dry, sharp and crumbly, good for grating and for a cheese board but poor for melting.

Can I use cheddar for aligot?

Mild young cheddar, yes, with reservations. Sharp aged cheddar, no, because it splits and turns oily rather than stretching. The most reliable home version uses about half low-moisture mozzarella for the pull and half mild cheddar for the flavour, added off the heat, a handful at a time.

Can I leave the Cantal out?

Not in aligot, truffade or a cheese gratin, where the cheese is the dish and provides all its richness and stretch. In a recipe where Cantal is one ingredient among many, such as a savoury tart or a salad, any firm melting cheese will do and you do not need to hunt for the real thing.

What is Salers cheese?

Salers is Cantal made under stricter rules: only between spring and autumn, only from raw milk of a single farm's herd grazing mountain pasture, and only in wheels made on the farm. It tastes deeper and grassier than standard Cantal and is more expensive. Use it interchangeably in any recipe calling for Cantal.

Related substitutes

More cheese substitutes

Cantal Cheese substitute

Other cantal cheese substitutes

2Low-moisture mozzarella blended with mild cheddar

3Lancashire or Cheshire cheese

4Gruyere or Comte

5Monterey Jack

6Salers or Laguiole