TikTok and other social media platforms have played a huge role in recent years in raising the profiles of different cooking cheeses, said Rachel Shemirani, senior vice president of Poway, Calif.-based retailer Barons Market. 

Boursin and feta (remember the feta, tomato and pasta craze?) are among the cheeses people are learning about via social that are easy to translate into delicious weeknight dinners everyone, even kids, love, she said.

As is so often the case when it comes to specialty cheeses, education is key, and when a quick video makes that education easy and fun, the sky’s the limit on possible cooking applications.

“Many customers, even though they can talk about charcuterie boards, they still don’t really know what brie is,” Shemirani said.

Pistachio cream is a newer product that Shemirani has been raving about to her friends a lot lately. Even so, they had to ask her how to eat it. Put in on brie? No, she said — think of it more as a substitute for peanut butter or cookie butter.

Or take halloumi, another cheese with all kinds of potential cooking applications. It’s another one most consumers struggle to identify, much less know how to cook with. At a recent trade show Shemirani attended, one vendor had rebranded halloumi as “the grilling cheese.”

“That was really helpful,” she said. “We’ve seen many great products fail in the store because people don’t know how to prepare it.”

With that in mind, Barons is rolling out something new this year, a cheese of the month program that will focus on pairing cheeses with other ingredients for quick and easy meal solutions.

The displays will feature one cheese and up to four products that pair well with it. Speaking of halloumi, Barons could pair it with ciabatta, pesto and tomatoes for a new twist on grilled cheese, Shemirani said. 

“We’re small enough so we can do it,” she said. “Everyone expands their specialty cheese offerings during the holidays. We want to carry that excitement through the year. People don’t always want charcuterie boards, maybe they don’t want to make fondue in April. But they do always want cheese they can use for easy dinners.”

Basil-flavored burrata is another example of a cheese that’s perfect for something like a spring promotion, where it could be paired with lettuce and other vegetables for a “fresh twist on salad,” Shemirani said. And any new take on cheddar is “always exciting,” she added. 

“Cooking cheese” could be defined in countless ways — you can cook, after all, with most if not all cheeses. But when Shemirani thinks of specialty cheeses that are great for cooking, she thinks mild — a cheese that can bear well with a variety of other flavors without overwhelming them.

“Not everyone wants blue cheese or other ‘out there’ cheeses,” she said, citing parmesan, asiago and Irish cheddars as other cheeses that can be great cooking aides.

Making it as easy as possible for the shopper is also key. Barons, for instance, carries a brie that comes rind-free, making brie grilled cheeses an easy upgrade on Kraft American singles.

“As people become aware of recipes, that’s the motivating factor — is it easy and crowd pleasing, driving them to cheeses they would not usually buy,” Shemirani said.

People used to get feta just for salads. Then came the TikTok feta/tomato/pasta earthquake, and it changed everything.

“It really opened people’s minds.” 

And it’s just a matter of time before another cooking cheese takes off in similar fashion. 

The best cooking cheeses, per Martha

“Some cheeses, like feta or Parmesan, deliver immediate pleasure straight out of the package, but turn into a stringy, oily, or just plain globby mess when melted,” Liz Thorpe and Randi Gollin wrote for marthastewart.com “And yet other cheeses reach a whole other level of molten deliciousness, heightening pasta dishes, omelets, casseroles, and so many other favorites. What gives?”

A cheese’s melt potential comes down to a few key components, they said. For starters, moisture content is paramount to melting, since moister cheeses have more milk proteins that spread out when they hit the heat. 

The fat quotient is a big factor, too, while acidity and age also play major roles (younger cheeses are oftentimes better meters). 

Here are marthastewart.com’s top cooking cheeses:

• Fontina

• Gouda

• Asiago

• Taleggio

• Reblochon

• Provolone

• Gruyère