Tilsit Cheese substitute

Best substitute

Raclette

Use the same amount by weight as the tilsit cheese you are replacing

Best for melting over potatoes and vegetables

Close match

Raclette is the closest widely sold cheese and swaps 1:1: it is semi-firm, washed-rind, savoury and melts just as willingly. Alsatian Munster or a well-aged American brick cheese match the pungency even more closely if you can find them. Havarti is the easy supermarket answer and behaves identically in the pan and on the slicer, but it is much milder, so if the recipe wants that unmistakable aroma, grate in a small amount of Limburger or a washed-rind cheese alongside it. Butterkaese, Fontina and young Gouda all melt beautifully and taste gentler. What Tilsit is contributing is a specific combination of things: a pronounced savoury tang and farmyard aroma, plus enough moisture and fat to melt smoothly without splitting, which is why a hard cheese like Parmesan cannot cover for it and a mild one like mozzarella will leave the dish tasting empty.

Other tilsit cheese substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Alsatian Munster or aged brick cheese
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Strongly aromatic washed-rind cheeses ripened with the same surface bacteria as Tilsit.
What changes
Best for
cheese boards and Kaeseplatte, sandwiches with butter and mustard, gratins and casseroles, melting over potatoes, with dark bread and beer
Prep. Bring to room temperature for a board; for cooking, trim the rind and use slightly less if the cheese is very ripe.
The closest flavour match on this list, because these cheeses are made the same way, with the rind washed and encouraged to develop the reddish-orange smear bacteria that create that unmistakable pungent aroma. French Munster from Alsace is softer and considerably stronger-smelling than Tilsit, with a sticky orange rind and a paste that runs when warm, so use it where softness is welcome and expect a much bigger aroma. Aged American brick cheese is a direct descendant of the Tilsit style and is arguably the truest replacement of all, being firm enough to slice and properly pungent, though young brick sold in supermarkets is mild and bland by comparison. Watch out for American muenster, which despite the name is a completely different, very mild, orange-rinded sandwich cheese with almost no aroma at all.
3Havarti
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Danish semi-soft cow's-milk cheese, buttery and mild, with small irregular holes.
What changes
Best for
sandwiches and rolls, casseroles and bakes, toasted cheese, cheese sauces, cheese boards for cautious eaters
Prep. Choose aged Havarti if available; for baked dishes add a small amount of a strong washed-rind cheese for depth.
The practical answer in most supermarkets and functionally excellent: it slices cleanly, it is the same semi-soft texture, and it melts into a beautifully smooth, glossy pool without going oily. The gap is flavour, and it is a wide one. Havarti is mild, sweet, buttery and lactic, with none of Tilsit's tang and none of its aroma, so a sandwich made with it tastes pleasant and a Kaeseplatte made with it tastes polite. Two ways to close the gap: buy a matured or aged Havarti, which develops a genuine savoury sharpness, or grate a small amount of a pungent washed-rind cheese into it, as little as 20 g of Limburger or Munster per 200 g of Havarti will shift the whole dish.
4Butterkaese
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
German semi-soft cheese, very mild and high in fat, named for its butter-like richness.
What changes
Best for
sandwiches and Brotzeit, casseroles and gratins, melting over vegetables, toasted cheese, cheese plates for children
Prep. Season the dish more strongly, with mustard, pepper or caraway, to compensate for the mild flavour.
Right nationality, right texture, deliberately mild flavour. Butterkaese is the German cheese people buy when they want something that melts perfectly and offends nobody, so as a texture swap for Tilsit it is flawless: same easy slicing, same smooth pale melt, no stringiness. But it is the mildest cheese on this list, sweet and creamy with no tang and no aroma at all, which makes it a genuinely poor choice if Tilsit's pungency is what the recipe was after. Use it happily for a family casserole or a toasted sandwich, and season the dish more assertively with mustard, black pepper or caraway to make up for the missing savouriness. Avoid it on a cheese board that needs a strong cheese.
5Fontina Val d'Aosta
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Italian Alpine semi-firm cheese with a washed rind, supple and earthy.
What changes
Best for
gratins and bakes, melting over polenta or potatoes, toasted sandwiches, cheese sauces, cheese boards
Prep. Grate cold; expect a creamier melt and finish gratins under the grill for colour.
A well-judged middle option. Genuine Fontina Val d'Aosta is also a washed-rind mountain cheese, so it has a real savoury, mushroomy, faintly funky character, though it comes across as earthy where Tilsit is sharp and tangy. It is one of the great melters, going glossy and liquid without separating, and its higher moisture makes it easy to work with. Two things to note: grate it straight from the fridge or it will smear on the grater, and make sure you are buying the Italian original rather than the very mild Danish and Swedish cheeses sold under the fontina name, which are closer to a bland Havarti.
6Young Gouda or Edam
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Mild Dutch semi-firm cheeses, cheap and available everywhere.
What changes
Best for
sandwiches and rolls, casseroles and bakes, toasted cheese, grating over potatoes, everyday cheese plates
Prep. Prefer a medium-aged Gouda over Edam, and add mustard or a little Parmesan for savoury depth.
The last-resort option, and worth being honest about. Young Gouda and Edam are firm, sliceable, mild and pleasantly nutty-sweet, and they melt reasonably well, so a bake or a sandwich made with them will be perfectly nice. But they are missing everything that makes Tilsit distinctive: no washed-rind aroma, no tang, and a cleaner and sweeter finish. Edam in particular is drier and can turn slightly rubbery when baked for long. A medium-aged Gouda is the better of the two because ageing brings some savoury depth. If the dish is meant to smell of cheese when it comes out of the oven, this substitution will disappoint, and adding a little Parmesan or a spoonful of mustard is the quickest way to give it some character.

What is Tilsit Cheese?

Tilsit Cheese is Tilsit, sold as Tilsiter in Germany and Switzerland and as Tollenser in parts of eastern Germany, is a semi-firm cow's-milk cheese with a washed, smear-ripened rind and small irregular slits, which gives it a pungent aroma, a tangy savoury flavour and an easy smooth melt.

Cooking tips

If your only option is a mild cheese, buy two and blend. Tilsit is doing two things at once, melting smoothly and tasting strongly, and mild supermarket cheeses only do the first. Grating as little as 20 to 30 g of a pungent washed-rind cheese such as Limburger, Munster or a ripe raclette into 200 g of Havarti or Butterkaese gets you a convincing result at a fraction of the intensity, and it is much easier to buy a small wedge of something strong than to find Tilsit itself.
Melt it gently and finish off the heat. Semi-firm washed-rind cheeses have enough moisture and fat to flow beautifully, but boiling them splits the fat out and leaves rubbery threads in a greasy pool. Stir grated cheese into a hot sauce or hot potatoes with the pan off the burner, and for a gratin put the cheese on top and give it two or three minutes under a hot grill rather than half an hour of baking.
Decide about the rind before you cook. The rind of a smear-ripened cheese is where most of the aroma lives, so leaving it on makes the dish smell and taste considerably stronger, while trimming it gives a milder result. It is edible either way. For a cheese board, leave it and let the cheese come to room temperature for half an hour, which is when the flavour opens up.
Caraway is a natural partner and often built into the cheese itself. Tilsiter mit Kuemmel, studded with caraway seeds, is a common variety, and if a recipe or a memory involves that flavour you can reproduce it with any substitute by scattering half a teaspoon of lightly crushed caraway seeds over the cheese in a sandwich or a bake. It also does a good job of making a mild cheese taste more distinctly German.
Wrap it properly and keep it away from everything else. Washed-rind cheeses continue to ripen and they share their aroma generously, so a loosely wrapped piece will perfume the butter, the milk and everything else in the fridge within a day. Wrap it in waxed or greaseproof paper, then put it in a loosely closed box so it can still breathe, and use it within a week or two.

Frequently asked questions

What does Tilsit cheese taste like?

Savoury, tangy and noticeably aromatic, somewhere between a mild washed-rind cheese and a firm sandwich cheese. The paste is pale yellow, semi-firm and dotted with small irregular slits, and it slices cleanly. Because the rind is washed during ripening, it develops surface bacteria that give the cheese a pungent, faintly barnyard smell and a lingering sour-savoury tang, stronger with age. It melts easily and smoothly, which is why it turns up in German sandwiches, on Kaeseplatte, and baked into casseroles and gratins. The original cheese came from the East Prussian town of Tilsit, where Dutch and Swiss settlers adapted their own methods, and Swiss Tilsiter and German Tollenser are variations on the same theme.

Is Havarti a good substitute for Tilsit?

For texture, yes, almost perfectly: it is the same semi-soft body, it slices as cleanly, and it melts into a smooth glossy pool without splitting. For flavour it falls well short, because Havarti is mild, buttery and sweet with none of Tilsit's tang or aroma. So it is an excellent swap in a family casserole or a toasted sandwich and a weak one on a cheese board where the point is a strong cheese. Look for aged Havarti, which develops real savoury sharpness, or grate a small amount of a washed-rind cheese into it.

Can I use American muenster instead of Tilsit?

It will melt well and taste very mild, so it depends what you wanted. Despite the name, American muenster is not related in character to the pungent Alsatian Munster; it is a soft, mild, orange-rinded sandwich cheese with a gentle, almost bland flavour. As a melter for a grilled cheese, a casserole or a bake it performs nicely. As a stand-in for Tilsit's aroma and tang it does almost nothing, so add mustard, caraway or a little strong cheese to give the dish some character. If you can find genuine Alsatian Munster, that is a completely different and much closer match.

Can I just leave the cheese out?

It depends on the dish. In a sandwich or on a cheese plate the cheese is the point, so no. In a casserole, a gratin or a baked potato dish where Tilsit is one element among several, you can leave it out and the dish will still work, but it will lose fat, salt and savoury depth all at once, so expect it to taste noticeably plainer and drier. Compensate with a little butter or cream for richness, extra salt, and something savoury such as mustard, browned onions or a spoonful of miso. Substituting any melting cheese is much easier than doing without.

Where can I buy Tilsit cheese?

German, Swiss, Polish and Eastern European delis and grocers are the reliable sources, often labelled Tilsiter, and Swiss versions turn up in cheese shops in most large cities. Some supermarkets carry it under a house label near the Havarti and Gouda. If you cannot find it, raclette is the closest thing that is stocked almost everywhere, and aged brick cheese is a very good match in North America. Failing both, aged Havarti with a small piece of a pungent washed-rind cheese grated in will get you convincingly close for cooking.

Related substitutes

More cheese substitutes

Tilsit Cheese substitute

Other tilsit cheese substitutes

2Alsatian Munster or aged brick cheese

3Havarti

4Butterkaese

5Fontina Val d'Aosta

6Young Gouda or Edam