Requeijao substitutes

Full-fat block cream cheese whisked with cream over low heat until it flows off a spoon in a thick ribbon, then seasoned with a pinch of salt and about ¼ teaspoon of sugar.

Best for

frango com catupiry, pao de queijo filling, pizza topping, spreading on bread, stuffed chicken and pastries

This is the practical answer and it is close. It is noticeably tangier than requeijao and it sets firmer once it cools, so a baked filling comes out denser rather than molten. Because it has no melting salts it can go slightly grainy over high heat, so keep the pan low and stir until it is glossy before you use it.

Cook the milk and cornstarch to a thick pourable sauce, pull the pan off the heat, then whisk in the cream cheese and butter a piece at a time until it turns completely glossy.

Best for

frango com catupiry, pizza, coxinha and pao de queijo filling, pasta sauce, the closest possible match

The best answer on this page if you have ten minutes, because it copies the one thing cream cheese cannot do on its own. Real requeijao is stabilised with melting salts so it stays smooth and flowing in the oven; the cornstarch here does the same job, holding the fat and water together so the sauce goes glossy under the grill instead of breaking into curds and oil. It also stays spoonable straight from the fridge rather than setting into a block. Keeps four or five days covered. Add a pinch of sugar with the salt if you want it to taste Brazilian rather than American.

Mascarpone is barely acidic and very rich, so blending it with cream cheese dilutes the sour tang that makes plain cream cheese read as American rather than Brazilian.

Best for

frango com catupiry, sweet fillings, brigadeiro variations, cake and pastry fillings, dips

The best flavour match of the practical options. Mascarpone brings requeijao's faintly sweet, milky roundness, and the cream cheese keeps it from being cloying. It is still firmer than the jarred product, and mascarpone breaks if you boil it, so warm it gently and stop as soon as it is smooth.

Both are already thick, pourable and mildly tangy, which means you get requeijao's spoonable consistency straight from the tub with no whisking or warming.

Best for

drizzling over hot dishes, stirring into sauces, topping baked pasta, finishing soups

The texture is right out of the tub but it never firms up, so a filling made with it runs out of whatever you piped it into. It is also more sour and much less salty. Add it off the heat or at the very end, because both will break into oily curds at a hard simmer.

Processed spreadable cheeses contain the same kind of melting salts as requeijao, which is exactly why they turn glossy and smooth when heated rather than separating.

Best for

baked and broiled dishes, cheese sauces, hot fillings, pizza

Structurally close, and the one most people do not think of, because processed spreadable cheeses carry the same kind of melting salts as requeijao and so turn glossy rather than separating. Buy the plain version, not garlic and herb, or you will taste it. In a Latin American market, look for queso crema or crema de queso in a tub, which is the same idea but milder, softer and much closer to requeijao than either cream cheese or a foil-wrapped wedge; it is often saltier, so hold back on salt elsewhere. The general drawback of this whole category is a slightly processed edge and no fresh dairy sweetness, which a spoonful of cream helps.

Whole milk ricotta blitzed in a food processor with cream until it is completely smooth gets you a mild, milky, spreadable cheese out of a very ordinary supermarket ingredient.

Best for

baked fillings, layered dishes, cheap and cheerful substitutions

The least-bad option if it is what you have. Even blended, ricotta stays slightly grainy on the tongue, it is much less salty, and it weeps water when baked, which can make a pao de queijo filling soggy. Drain it in a sieve for 30 minutes first and blend it longer than you think you need to.

Fresh unaged cheeses blended with cream give you a spreadable white cheese with a clean, lactic flavour.

Best for

cold spreads, sandwiches, dips, toast

Use this cold, not hot. Queso fresco is designed not to melt, so it stays squeaky and stubbornly separate in the oven rather than going molten, which defeats the whole purpose in a baked dish. Quark behaves better but is markedly more sour. Both are leaner than requeijao, so the result tastes thinner.