Substitute for Taleggio Cheese

Author : Efrain Silva

So, what do you day when your store is all out of Taleggio cheese (perhaps due to the Covid 19 crisis in your local area as well, and no other providers sell it either?), or maybe you’ve just eaten so much of it that you want to try something of a similar feel instead? Or, perhaps your wallet has run dry, or the price of this cheese has now gone up double, as has its quantity and demand? What do you do? I’ll tell you….

You opt in for a substitute, my friend ; it works every time, and in this short but sweet reading, I am going to briefly show you just a few things you can do when you need to mix it up. Did someone say “substitute”? That’s right. Call in the sub!

Now, first things first, of course, one solid alternative that never tends to fail (according to American and Italian cheese lovers alike) would be that of the one and only Italian Robiola cheese, which you can find in any country these days. You can eat that kind of cheese fresh, or even when it’s been aged (but no more than 20 days — note that it’s got half the lifespan of the Taleggio cheese, which is actually about 40 days at full age). This Stracchino cheese, to give you a bit of a backstory, comes from Italy as well, but mostly from its Lombardy region.

Both cows’ milk and goats’ milk come together to make the Robiola cheese all that it is and more, and its process of production is no less lengthy than that of the Taleggio. All in all, it’s been made and manufactured in a very, very similar fashion and has the same overall end - result sort of taste and feel, which is why you can rely on it as a good substitute. Some have even noted that they ate one kind of cheesing thinking it was the other, sometimes not being able to tell the difference between the two, apart from the store label itself. How interesting is that?

But what if you can’t find either of these two cheeses? Well, then you go for another sub option, which could be the one and only Limburger cheese. Notably, this cheese comes with its only unique smell (unique in a good way or bad way, depending on how your first impression goes), usually being very strong and ‘stinky’, but some still like it this way, just the way it is. This cheese has been made fun of in countless TV shows, YouTube videos, and movies alike, one of my favorites being the classic Little Rascals.

There you go, friend : I’ve opened up your mind to a few other possibilities, for when you can’t get your hands on some Taleggio cheese. Hopefully, you should still be able to. But sometimes, life can throw us all a curveball! The question is : Are you ready and prepared?