If you love gooey, stretchy, creamy cheese, you will love burrata cheese. Sounds new? Burrata is best served as is, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt, then spread on crackers or scooped with chunks of bread. You can also use it on salads, pizza, and pasta, or pair it with fresh fruits or fresh tomatoes and basil.
Freshness and seasonality make it difficult to stock up on Burrata. The cheese needs to be consumed within 24-hours of cutting to maintain freshness. Most shops do not stock up on Burrata during the winter months because it does not sell fast. You can only find it during the summer months.
Due to these reasons, you will need to substitute Burrata with some other cheese. Here are some possible alternatives
- Fresh Mozzarella
- Cream Cheese
- Ricotta Salata
- Queso Fresco
- Feta Cheese
- Mascarpone cheese
- Fontina
- Gruyere
- Caciocavallo
Before we go into detail for the whole list, let’s understand a bit more about this buttery cheese
17 Best Substitute For Burrata
Burrata cheese is an Italian cheese made from cow or buffalo milk. Burrata has been around since the 1930s in Andria, Italy, but official records state it originated in Southern Italy in 1956.
Burrata is a cross between mozzarella and ricotta. Its exterior is mozzarella, and the interior is rich and creamy as ricotta. This is because Burrata starts out as mozzarella. The mozzarella is formed into pouches, filled with whole cream and fresh curd, and sealed.
Burrata has a firm, moist texture that turns soft, stringy, creamy, and buttery once cut. The flavor is rich, buttery, and milky. Our best substitute is non-other than mozzarella. Remember that Burrata is mozzarella cheese filled with curds of cheese and cream.
The outer layer of Burrata cheese is Mozzarella cheese with the same texture and aroma. This makes it the closest substitute for Burrata cheese.
Fresh Mozzarella
Mozzarella isolated on white background
Fresh mozzarella is made from buffalo’s or cow’s milk added with rennet to curdle. The fresh curds undergo the Pasta Filata process. This process is what makes the cheese soft and elastic.
Fresh mozzarella is white in color, soft and silky in texture. It has a mild, milky flavor.
Fresh mozzarella is used as the skin or base of burrata cheese and makes it an excellent substitute for Burrata. It is a semi-soft, sliceable, melty, and stretchy cheese.
Fresh mozzarella should be eaten immediately and at room temperature like Burrata. It is an excellent cheese for pizza, salad, and pasta.
Interesting Fact
The name burrata comes from the word burro, which means butter. This describes the richness and creaminess of this cheese.
Cream Cheese
Cream cheese is made from cream and milk, similar to the filling inside the burrata pouch. Cream cheese shares many similarities with Burrata.
It has the same white color and soft texture. There is no aging time, so it has a mild, fresh flavor like Burrata. Cream cheese fat content is high due to its main components of milk and cream.
Cream cheese is spreadable like Burrata and is perfect for crackers, bagels, and bread. It is also an excellent choice for dips, desserts, and other baked goods.
Ricotta Salata
Ricotta Salata is soft and creamy like Burrata.It is made from whey derived from the milk of cows, sheep, water buffalo, and goats.
Ricotta Salata is made from hot whey. This is the same hot whey used to plunge burrata cheese in the pasta filata process.
It is white in color, soft and creamy in texture, and has a mild, fresh taste similar to Burrata. It is an excellent substitute for Burrata in pasta, lasagna, and salad.
Queso Fresco
Queso fresco is a Mexican cheese made from goat’s or cow’s milk. It can also come from both types of milk, and produces a white-colored cheese.
It is a soft, pliable cheese with a fresh, mild, and tangy flavor similar to Burrata. Queso fresco melts well without getting stringy. It works well with dishes that require melted cheese.
However, queso fresco is aged up to 6 months, giving it a more robust flavor.
Feta Cheese
Fresh greek feta cheese set, on white background
Feta cheese is a Greek cheese made from either sheep milk, goat milk, or both. Feta cheese has a soft but grainy and crumbly texture.
Feta may not be the best substitute for Burrata, but it has a rich creaminess similar to Burrata. It is a brine-aged cheese resulting in a salty, tangy flavor. Its sharp taste can be likened to Burrata. However, feta is more robust compared to the restrained flavors of Burrata.
Its creamy texture works well with pasta or salad dishes.
Mascarpone cheese
Mascarpone cheese is ivory white, buttery, and creamy like Burrata. It has a sweet, lemony, and buttery flavor.
Its buttery texture and fresh taste make it a good burrata substitute for pasta dishes, soups, dips, and sauces. Mascarpone has a rich, mouth-melting quality similar to Burrata.
Fontina
Fontina is an Italian semi-soft to firm cheese similar to mozzarella. It has a few holes like the Swiss cheese and a tough rind.
This cheese made from cow’s milk has a mild flavor that turns nutty and savory as it ages. Like other alpine cheeses, it melts really well and turns creamy, comparable to Burrata.
However, it does not stretch as well as Burrata and is more expensive than mozzarella.
It works well on dishes requiring melted cheese, grilled sandwiches, bread, and crackers.
Caciocavallo
Caciocavallo is a member of the pasta filata family. It is traditionally an Italian stretched-curd cheese made from cow’s milk and rennet.
The cheese is aged by hanging on a wooden beam to produce its unusual shape and features. It is stretched into two-teardrop shapes with a knot on top to hang. After 3 months of aging, it is ready as a table cheese.
It has a delicate, mild, moderately savory, and subtle taste with a milky aroma. Caciocavallo forms a hard, thin, straw-yellow rind that turns darker as it ages.
You can slice it like mozzarella, diced as an aperitif with cold meat or fresh bread, and melted (since it has rennet) for your pasta and pizza.
Gruyere
Gruyere is part of the Swiss cheese family. Young Gruyère has a salty, nutty, slightly sweet flavor and a milky creaminess that can substitute for Burrata.
It is slightly elastic and melty. A perfect cheesy top layer for your French onion soup. It gets crispy, bubbly, and pulls beautifully. It is one of the main ingredients in making fondue.
One of the main characteristics of Burrata is its stringiness. Its exterior is mozzarella, and any cheese with similar characteristics to mozzarella would be a good substitute.
Provolone
Provolone is another member of the pasta filata family, so you can expect the same taste and texture similar to the exterior of Burrata.
Provolone is an aged cheese, so it has a tangier, sharper taste but has a high-fat content similar to Burrata. It also has the same stringy, stretchy, and rubbery texture because of the pasta filata process.
Provolone is soft and melty cheese often used in lasagna, baked pasta, sandwiches, and pizza.
Queso Oaxaca
Queso Oaxaca originated in Mexico. It is stringy like any member of the pasta filata family. The cheese is made from cow’s milk, and is used widely in Mexican cuisine that calls for melted cheese.
Queso Oaxaca is semi-soft and white in color. It has an earthy, mild flavor and is stringy. It melts well and works perfectly for roasting, grilling, and baking.
As part of the pasta filata family, it is excellent for lasagna and pizza.
Muenster Cheese
Muenster cheese is an American semi-soft cheese with a light, ivory color. It is made from cow’s milk with a mild buttery flavor.
It is smooth, elastic in texture, and quite melty. The flavor turns earthy and rich when melted. It is usually sold in slices, giving it shorter shelf life.
Its stringy texture makes it a fantastic substitute for Burrata in your lasagna and pizza.
Jarlsberg
Jarlsberg is a Norwegian, mild cheese made from cow’s milk since the 1950s. It has a mild nutty and buttery flavor but is not comparable to the creaminess of the Burrata cheese.
However, Jarlsberg has a smooth, rubbery texture and turns chewy when melted. This makes the cheese super stretchy.
Jarlsberg makes a good substitute to Burrata for lasagna and pizza.
Emmental
Emmental is a Swiss semi-hard cheese with large holes comparable to Gruyere. Its elastic texture is due to its high calcium content.
It has a pH level that results in a perfect melting point to make it molten liquid that holds its shape, yet is stringy at the same time.
Emmental is a good substitute for Burrata in pizza and other dishes requiring melted cheese.
Havarti Cheese
Havarti cheese is a semi-soft cheese with a buttery taste and aroma. It has a pale yellow color, is rindless, and has high-fat content, which is the reason for its creaminess.
It has an elastic texture and melts well, making it a perfect substitute for Burrata.
If you are vegan or lactose intolerant, these two vegan substitutes work just as well.
Cashew Cheese
Cashew cheese is a vegan cheese recipe used in many dishes. The cheese is made from raw cashews blended with different spices until smooth. Pour plain gelatin powder mixed in hot water on the cashew blend and refrigerate to set.
You can mix spices to replicate different cheese flavors like ricotta or mozzarella. Cashew cheese can produce a sharp flavor similar to Burrata.
The resulting cheese is soft and spreadable, but not melty. It can be an excellent addition to your vegan dishes and sandwiches.
Tofu Cheese
Anyone allergic to nuts can choose this vegan alternative. Tofu cheese is made from soya curd or bean curd. Tofu is made from condensed soymilk (ground soybeans in water) with nigari pressed into blocks.
Tofu has a bland taste and absorbs all flavors of any spice you use to create any cheese flavor you want. Tofu is all protein and must be emulsified using refined coconut oil or olive oil.
To achieve the cheese-like texture and taste, blend the tofu with oil, fermented flavors like sauerkraut or miso paste, and spices like garlic, paprika, or onion powder in a smooth paste.