Best Cheese for Roast Beef Sandwich – 15 Ideas
A timeless classic and an absolute favorite to many, the roast cheese sandwich is a very delicious, popular, and versatile dish. The best thing about the roast beef sandwich is that you can combine it with many sides and drinks. When you think things couldn’t get any better, here comes the cheese, which is best friends with the roast beef sandwich. So, what are the best cheeses for roast beef sandwiches?
Gouda, brie, blue cheese, cheddar, Manchego, Gruyere, Provolone, Havarti, mozzarella, Swiss cheese, Pepper Jack, feta, Romano, and burrata are some of the best kinds of cheese to add to roast beef sandwich.
You may think it is just cheese, but it is much more than that; it is the special magic you add to your dish to make it even yummier. Getting the right cheese for a roast beef sandwich can improve your experience just as much as the wrong one can diminish it. In the following paragraphs, I will give you some ideas on which cheeses to use in your roast beef sandwich.
Provolone
Not too hard, not too soft, smooth, and delicious, this is one of the best types of cheese to combine with your roast beef sandwich and sandwiches in general. Its smooth texture makes it the perfect fit for this occasion, contrasting the slightly coarse texture of the roast beef sandwich.
It won’t disappoint you taste-wise, either. With its sharp-tasting notes, slightly nutty flavor, and overall butteriness, it is one of the most versatile and best-balanced cheeses.
Mozzarella
It would be a shame to leave mozzarella cheese out of this list. Known as a very versatile cheese, it is a part of countless dishes; famous for its softness and melting properties, it fits perfectly here too.
With its recognizable yet gentle, soft, understated, and almost neutral flavor, it captures your taste buds by uniquely unifying all the flavors of your roast beef sandwich. It also creates an irresistible texture sensation, injecting softness and creaminess into your roast beef sandwich.
Because it isn’t too expressive in terms of flavor, mozzarella is very absorbent of other flavors. Therefore, the flavors in your roast beef sandwich will rub off onto the mozzarella, becoming better rounded and perfectly balanced.
Gouda
Probably one of the most versatile on this list and a well-deserving list opener, gouda is an excellent choice for your roast beef sandwich. It fits almost any combination, from cheese plates to toasted sandwiches to meaty sandwiches.
It melts nicely, becoming delightfully soft when squeezed between two buns of bread filled with juicy roast beef. It has an expressively milky flavor, though the milkiness is perfectly balanced with the richness of the cheese. The fresh and crispy roast beef sandwich ingredients create a wonderful texture contrast, making your sandwich even more spectacular.
Gruyere
Recognizable and original, yet not overwhelming, the Gruyere cheese is yet another excellent idea to pair your roast beef sandwich with. Excellent to melt and delicious in any combination, the Gruyere cheese will amaze you with its balancing powers.
Since it isn’t overly sharp but still very noticeable, it will infuse your roast beef sandwich with richness and butteriness while allowing the roast beef flavors to take over and carry the main story. Consider this cheese an excellent supporting character and an excellent fit for your meal.
Cheddar
As a semi-white and sharp-tasting cheese, cheddar injects lots of flavors wherever you use it. It is a classic cheese that finds a place in various dishes. The slightly tangy note of the roast beef sandwich gets from the fresh ingredients. Most often, arugula fits perfectly with the cheesy sharpness of the cheddar.
Although it melts excellently, it won’t soften as the gouda cheese would, so you will feel every ounce of flavor it offers to your roast beef sandwich. It also has a slight crumbliness, which further enriches the texture of your roast beef sandwich.
Manchego
Combining and balancing sweet, salty, and tangy notes, the Manchego cheese has lots of character and tends to be an equal rather than just having a supporting role. Combined with the potent-flavored roast beef sandwich, it stands tall along with the other flavors in your roast beef sandwich, allowing you to experience it fully and thoroughly.
Semi-soft, rich, and generously fatty, you will love the aristocratic dimension it adds to your roast beef sandwich. The Manchego cheese might be your perfect option if you like intense but not overwhelmingly dominating cheeses.
Swiss Cheese
Salty, buttery, gentle, flavorful, and excellently balanced, Swiss cheese draws out the best from your roast beef sandwich and vice-versa. The Swiss cheese makes up for the missing gentility in the otherwise rugged roast beef sandwich, and the roast beef sandwich ingredients work together to give some edge to the gentle Swiss cheese.
Together they create an overall balanced flavor and a delightful texture contrast. A thin slice of Swiss cheese between your roast beef sandwich buns is all you need to cheese up your meal and do it with style.
Havarti
Known worldwide and for a good reason, too, Havarti is a Danish semi-soft cheese made from cow’s milk. Tender, buttery, slightly nutty, and absolutely delicious, the Havarti cheese fits well in many stories, so it is only logical that it found its place on this list.
Much like Swiss cheese, the Havarti brings a sense of refinement and elegance to your roast beef sandwich, letting it keep its rustic side, adding some style, and upgrading the overall combination. It will mellow down the intensity of the roast beef while bringing out the flavors and juiciness of the rest of the ingredients.
Pepper Jack
Semi-soft and slightly spicy this cheese will add some kick and zest to your roast beef. If you like stronger and more expressive flavors and don’t mind some extra spice, this cheese is the one you should add to your roast beef sandwich.
The Pepper Jack cheese and your roast beef sandwich bring out the ruggedness of one another and create an absolute flavor explosion in your mouth. However, this is a pretty potent flavor combination, and if you are a fan of the mild and balanced, you may want to skip this idea.
Brie
Soft, creamy, slightly sweet, buttery, and milky, brie is an excellent spreading cheese mostly had on crackers or baked goods. Therefore, smearing some brie on your roast beef sandwich buns and covering it with roast beef creates an excellent barrier between the roast beef and the buns, as well as being a great flavor balancer.
If you have added too much of something to your roast beef sandwich, add some brie to balance things out and create a more sophisticated flavor.
Blue Cheese
Sharp, salty, tangy, characteristic, and one of the most flavorful cheeses on this list, blue cheese is a great way to add some edge to your roast beef sandwich. However, it may take over and make itself the show’s star, so be careful how much you add.
Also, blue cheese changes its flavor depending on what you pair it with. The meat, bread, and fresh ingredients may intensify this cheese’s already strong-tasting notes. Therefore, start with smaller amounts and gradually add some more after trying the roast beef sandwich.
Nevertheless, even though it is a potent and pungent cheese, chances are you will like it in your roast beef sandwich, so this idea is definitely worth giving a shot, even if you like your roast beef sandwich more on the mellow side.
Burrata
Known for its superb texture and elegant creaminess, the burrata cheese can double as a spread in your roast beef sandwich. Underneath the mozzarella shell lies a creamy and delicious cheese that will enrich your roast beef sandwich in ways you never thought possible.
It will juice up your sandwich, creating a rich experience you want to repeat soon after.
Feta
Feta cheese is slightly salty and tangy cheese, incredibly delicious, and highly versatile. You can add it to salads, cheese plates, or even pasta dishes. Even though it doesn’t melt as some of the cheese on this list, it is delightfully crumbly, creating an amazing texture contrast in your roast beef sandwich.
The slight saltiness and tang are perfect companions to the fresh roast beef sandwich ingredients, while the bread is an excellent balancer of all the included flavors. If you want some extra zest but you don’t want to be overwhelmed with flavors, feta should be your choice.
Romano
Known as a grating cheese, perfectly fitting in pizzas and pasta, this piquant cheese is also a great option for your roast beef sandwich. One of the most flavorful cheeses on this list, it offers an abundance of rich flavors and aromas to your roast beef sandwich, creating an amazing unity of balanced yet distinctive flavors.
The Romano cheese is full of character and playfulness that carry on into the sandwich. The longer it stays between the buns, the more flavor it releases, making each bite taste slightly different than the one before.
Ricotta
Light, neutral, and refreshing, with just a bit of tang, the grainy ricotta cheese is an excellent option for roast beef sandwiches. It infuses freshness and slight sourness to the sandwich causing the rest of the flavors to come out, creating a fun and playful result.
In itself, ricotta cheese isn’t very assertive and is almost neutral-tasting. However, when paired with the roast beef and the rest of the roast beef sandwich ingredients, it develops new tasting notes becoming more noticeable and influential in the sandwich.
