Cooking With Goat Cheese: How to Choose, Crumble, Spread, and Pair It
Goat cheese can be fresh and creamy, crumbly and tangy, bloomy-rinded, blue, or firm and aged. In American markets, the familiar soft log is only one style, but it is an especially useful ingredient because it can be spread, crumbled, whisked into dressings, warmed over vegetables or tucked inside chicken.
This guide focuses on how to choose and use goat cheese in everyday cooking, what happens when it is heated, and which flavors pair especially well with its characteristic tang.
What Is Goat Cheese?
Goat cheese is cheese made from goat’s milk. It is produced in many styles, from fresh, high-moisture cheeses to aged wheels with firmer textures and more concentrated flavors. The French term chèvre simply means goat, although in the United States it is often used to describe the soft fresh style sold in small logs.
Fresh vs. Aged Goat Cheese
Fresh goat cheese is soft, moist and easy to spread. Its flavor is generally bright and tangy, and it works particularly well in salads, omelets, appetizers, fillings and creamy sauces.
Aged goat cheeses lose moisture as they mature, so their texture becomes firmer and their flavor more concentrated. Some develop natural or bloomy rinds; others may be made in blue or washed-rind styles. When a recipe simply says “goat cheese,” it usually means the fresh soft variety unless the recipe specifies otherwise.
How Goat Cheese Behaves When Heated
Fresh goat cheese softens readily with heat, but it does not usually stretch and flow like mozzarella. That makes it useful when you want warm pockets or crumbles of cheese that retain some identity in the finished dish.
Warm Goat Cheese & Chicken Salad uses that softening quality without requiring the cheese to melt into a smooth layer.
How to Crumble Goat Cheese
Fresh goat cheese can be sticky at room temperature. If you want distinct crumbles for a salad or finished dish, keep it cold until shortly before serving and break it apart with your fingers or a fork. If you want it to spread or blend smoothly into another ingredient, let it soften briefly at room temperature first.
Using Goat Cheese in Salads
The tang of goat cheese is especially effective with sweet fruit, earthy vegetables and bitter or peppery greens. Try it with apples, pears, berries, watermelon, beets, squash, sweet potatoes, spinach or arugula. Nuts add crunch, while vinaigrette provides enough acidity to keep the salad lively.
Examples include Golden Beet & Spinach Salad With Cashews & Goat Cheese, Apple Pecan and Goat Cheese Salad with Maple Apple Dressing, and Watermelon Goat Cheese Salad.
Pairing Goat Cheese With Roasted Vegetables
Sweet roasted vegetables are a natural match for tangy goat cheese. Butternut squash, pumpkin, beets and sweet potatoes develop concentrated sweetness in the oven, while the cheese adds salt, acidity and creaminess.
Using Goat Cheese With Eggs and Chicken
Goat cheese works well in eggs because a small amount adds both creaminess and tang. Add crumbles near the end of cooking so they soften without disappearing completely. Try BBQ Chicken Omelet with Salsa & Goat Cheese.
Its soft texture also makes it useful as a filling. Stuffed Chicken Breasts With Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Goat Cheese pairs the cheese with concentrated tomato flavor inside chicken breast.
Goat Cheese for Appetizers and Spreads
Let fresh goat cheese soften slightly when you want to mix it with herbs, honey, cream cheese or other ingredients for a spread. Its tang helps keep sweet additions from becoming cloying. Sweet Potato Rounds With Bacon, Honey & Goat Cheese combine sweet, salty and tangy flavors in one appetizer.
Making Dressings With Goat Cheese
Fresh goat cheese can be whisked or blended into a dressing to provide body and a creamy texture. Because the cheese already contributes tang and salt, add vinegar or citrus and additional salt gradually, tasting as you go. Try Butter Leaf Lettuce Salad With A Herbed Goat Cheese Pear Dressing.
How to Store Goat Cheese
Keep goat cheese refrigerated and well wrapped or in a covered container so it does not dry out or absorb refrigerator odors. Storage life varies considerably between fresh and aged styles, so use the date and storage instructions on the package as your primary guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does goat cheese melt?
Fresh goat cheese softens and becomes creamy when heated, but it generally does not stretch or melt into a fluid layer the way mozzarella does.
Should goat cheese be served cold or at room temperature?
Use it cold when you want clean crumbles. Let it soften briefly when you want to spread, whisk or blend it. For food safety, do not leave soft cheese sitting at room temperature longer than necessary.
What flavors go well with goat cheese?
Fruit, honey, nuts, herbs, roasted vegetables, leafy greens, eggs and chicken are all strong partners. The most successful pairings usually give the cheese either sweetness, freshness or savory contrast.
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