The Hands-Down Best Cheese For Nachos

Without the right kind of melty cheese, your plate of nachos becomes corn chips under a blob of semi-melted chunks. The issue may come down to a dearth of cheese -– not the amount of cheese you put on top of the corn chips, but rather the number of different kinds of cheese you work with. Don't settle for just one cheese. According to Dan Whalen, blogger at The Food in My Beard and author of the book "Nachos for Dinner," there are some cheeses that are better suited for the task than others. "For most of my nacho recipes I use a combination of cheddar and Jack — cheddar for the sharpness and Jack for the creaminess," said Whalen, who recently spoke to Chowhound editors.

However, as delish as these cheeses are, Whalen admitted to having some hands-down favorites. "A combination of chihuahua for melting and crumbled cotija for a more sharp and tangy flavor can be life changing," he said. "These are my true top choices for nachos."

It isn't cheddar's origins in Cheddar Village in Somerset, England, that make it such a good choice for nachos. It's the process of making cheddar that makes it special. Made from sliced and stacked cheese curds, more or less, cheddar delivers a different taste depending upon how aged it is, with mild cheddar being the youngest version of the cheese at one to three months and vintage cheddar being the oldest version at 12 to 24 months. (It's reasonable to say that vintage cheddar is the sharpest cheddar there is.)

This cheese, with its bright orange cheddar glow, is made from cow's milk. If it's creamy and buttery overtones you want your game-day nachos to have, then a mild cheddar is the way to go. On the other hand, if you want your nachos to have a sharp, pungent bite, then go with sharp or even vintage cheddar if you can get your hands on some.

As for Jack cheese, also known as Monterrey Jack, it's also made from cow's milk. By itself, Jack is mild and creamy, a kind of everyman cheese. With the augmentation of other cheeses like cheddar or colby, it takes on a different flavor. For those who love spicy nachos, pepper Jack, with an abundance of fresh herbs, garlic, and sweet peppers as well as jalapeño and chile peppers, offers a creamy and spicy alternative to plain Jack and is especially great for your nachos recipes.

Chihuahua cheese came to Northern Mexico via the Mennonites in the 1920s. It's a mild cheese that has hints of butter and tanginess in its flavor profile. This cheese is made from cow's milk in a process that closely resembles the way cheddar cheese is made. That is, the milk is formed into curds that have their whey drained off. The curds, which are kept at warm temperatures, merge together. These will eventually go into a cheesecloth where they will harden to form cheese wheels. Because chihuahua cheese melts easily, it's a shoo-in for your nacho recipes.

With a crumbly texture like feta, cotija cheese hails from Michoacán, Mexico. It takes a couple of months to age this cow's milk cheese. It's similar to feta in tanginess and saltiness. (In fact, if you can't get your hands on this yummy cheese, you'll do right by your nachos recipe if you substitute feta instead.) Cotija cheese is a white cheese that has the consistency of feta when it's young and a texture closer to parmesan when it advances in age.

When it comes to the pros and cons of melting cheeses, cotija is not as prone to melting. It remains slightly crumbly, but what it lacks in meltiness, it more than makes up for when it comes to flavoring up your nachos. That said, if you really, really want completely melted cheese on your nachos, then by all means, use cheeses that melt like butter in the sun. Just be sure to sprinkle some cotija on top for out-of-this-world flavor that even ardent nacho lovers like Dan Whalen are likely to approve of.