Pepper Jack Cheese

Pepper jack cheese: where nice meets spice

Pepper jack cheese is the nicest showoff you'll ever meet. Just when you think its fireworks of spicy flavor are about to go ahead and overwhelm your palate, it finishes with a delicate buttery taste that only leaves you wanting more. This semi-soft American cheese melts with the best of them, but it's always ready to play a supporting role in nachos, pizzas, casseroles, omelets, and any mac and cheese recipe.

We're big fans of flavor in Wisconsin, so pepper jack cheese is one of our #1 "go-to" ingredients – we'll happily go to whatever new heights of flavor pepper jack wants to take us to.

What to pair with pepper jack cheese

Pepper jack cheese injects spicy flavor into any dish you melt it on. Mexican foods, grilled cheese sandwiches, hearty burgers, egg strata, and mild white fish all get a powerful punch of flavor from pepper jack cheese. We love a snack of pepper jack cheese and crackers or an appetizer of pepper jack cheese balls. We'll also melt it over baked chicken and bacon smothered in barbecue sauce or shred it for on a chicken corn chowder. And we're gaga for macaroni and smoky cheese – any smoked pepper jack cheese will do.

When drinking wine, you'll want something with punch, like red zinfandel, that can hold its own with pepper jack's burst of flavor. A wine like Moscato works equally well – the sweetness of the wine balances the spice in the cheese.

For beer, an imperial stout can intensify the power of pepper jack cheese taste for taste, or choose a lager, IPA or wheat beer if you want a cleansing contrast.

Why Wisconsin pulls for pepper jack cheese

California may have been the birthplace of monterey jack and pepper jack cheese, but Wisconsin is pepper jack's biggest fan. That's because there's no other state or country on earth that champions cheese the way we do.

Our cheesemakers have been mastering traditions and whipping up innovations for 175 years, since before we were even a state. Today, we produce over 600 varieties, styles, and flavors of cheese. Almost all the milk from our bountiful dairyland gets poured into making cheese, so you better believe we're going to make it unbelievably tasty. And the world seems to agree – we've won more awards for our cheeses than any other state or country on the planet.

So, when you think about, where else would pepper jack cheese call home? And where else but Wisconsin would you look for the best pepper jack cheese on earth?