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We sought heat, smooth meltability, and cheese with character.
Published June 1, 2013. Appears in Cook's Country TV Season 7: New Orleans Shrimp and Creamy Grits
Top Pick
Winner
Boar’s Head Monterey Jack Cheese with Jalapeño
This “buttery” cheese had a “tangy,” “cheddarlike” flavor that was “clean” and “nicely balanced,” and the jalapeños gave it a “bright,” “assertive” kick. The texture was “even and firm” yet “creamy.”
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This “buttery” cheese had a “tangy,” “cheddarlike” flavor that was “clean” and “nicely balanced,” and the jalapeños gave it a “bright,” “assertive” kick. The texture was “even and firm” yet “creamy.”
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What You Need To Know
Add hot pickled peppers to Monterey Jack, a mild California cow’s-milk cheese, and you’ve got pepper Jack. As American enthusiasm for spicy food continues to rise, pepper Jack has become one of the country’s fastest-growing sellers, according to Datassential, a restaurant market research firm.
Here in the test kitchen, we like pepper Jack for its creamy melting properties, and we’ve used it in enchiladas, biscuits, nachos, seven-layer dip, Tex-Mex meatloaf, and much more. To select a favorite product, we tasted seven nationally available cheeses: six in block form and one preshredded from a prominent brand that doesn’t sell blocks. We tried the cheeses on their own and melted in quesadillas.
Although every product uses jalapeños (with one adding habanero), the heat levels ranged. None was tear-inducingly hot, but some were tear-inducingly tame: “Where is the heat?!” demanded one exasperated taster of an especially bland sample. When we tallied the results, a pattern emerged: We preferred the spicier cheeses.
Peppers aside, the cheeses themselves ranged from “bland” and “kid-friendly” to pleasingly “sharp,” “grassy,” “buttery,” and “tangy.” Tasters compared the products we liked with sharper cheeses, such as cheddar and Swiss, and those with more “bite and sharpness” could take on the hot peppers. Fat played a role in our rankings, too, providing buttery, creamy, rounded background to the tang, saltiness, and heat of pepper Jack, as well as helping the cheese melt smoothly. Unsurprisingly, our bottom two products had 1 less gram of fat than the other samples.
As for the lone preshredded product? It got off to a bad start when we tasted it plain, and it didn’t fare much better in quesadillas: The potato starch and powdered cellulose coating that is added to preshredded cheese to keep the shreds from clumping made it “chalky” and “oddly dry.”
With 9 grams of fat per ounce, our winning product was “creamy” and “buttery.” It melted nicely, and its cheddarlike tang easily accommodated the “assertive kick” of peppers. Made with this cheese, even a plain cheese quesadilla was lively and flavorful.
Everything We Tested
Recommended
Winner
Boar’s Head Monterey Jack Cheese with Jalapeño
This “buttery” cheese had a “tangy,” “cheddarlike” flavor that was “clean” and “nicely balanced,” and the jalapeños gave it a “bright,” “assertive” kick. The texture was “even and firm” yet “creamy.”
Fat: 9 g per oz
Heat: Hot
Style: Block
Peppers: Jalapeño
Price at Time of Testing: $6.99 for 8 oz (87 cents per oz)
This “buttery” cheese had a “tangy,” “cheddarlike” flavor that was “clean” and “nicely balanced,” and the jalapeños gave it a “bright,” “assertive” kick. The texture was “even and firm” yet “creamy.”
Fat: 9 g per oz
Heat: Hot
Style: Block
Peppers: Jalapeño
Price at Time of Testing: $6.99 for 8 oz (87 cents per oz)
Tillamook Pepper Jack Cheese
This cheese’s “very strong, sharp flavor” was “more tangy than milky,” “fairly acidic,” and “complex.” The heat was “moderate” and the texture “soft.”
Fat: 9 g per oz
Heat: Medium
Style: Block
Peppers: Jalapeño
Price at Time of Testing: $16 for 2 lb (50 cents per oz)
This cheese’s “very strong, sharp flavor” was “more tangy than milky,” “fairly acidic,” and “complex.” The heat was “moderate” and the texture “soft.”
Fat: 9 g per oz
Heat: Medium
Style: Block
Peppers: Jalapeño
Price at Time of Testing: $16 for 2 lb (50 cents per oz)
Recommended with reservations
Vella Jalapeño Jack
Vella’s “full milky flavor” was “creamy” and “rich,” while the spice level was “mild but consistent”; some tasters preferred hotter products. The cheese was “soft,” “smooth,” and “nearly gooey.”
Fat: 9 g per oz
Heat: Mild-Medium
Style: Block
Peppers: Jalapeño
Price at Time of Testing: $24 for 2.5 lb (60 cents per oz)
Vella’s “full milky flavor” was “creamy” and “rich,” while the spice level was “mild but consistent”; some tasters preferred hotter products. The cheese was “soft,” “smooth,” and “nearly gooey.”
Fat: 9 g per oz
Heat: Mild-Medium
Style: Block
Peppers: Jalapeño
Price at Time of Testing: $24 for 2.5 lb (60 cents per oz)
Cabot Pepper Jack
This pepper Jack reminded us of “mild cheddar.” The large chunks of jalapeño gave it a “vegetal,” “fruity” pepper flavor. Good, but alas, the texture was “waxy” and “rubbery.”
Fat: 9 g per oz
Heat: Medium
Style: Block
Peppers: Jalapeño
Price at Time of Testing: $3.59 for 8 oz (45 cents per oz)
This pepper Jack reminded us of “mild cheddar.” The large chunks of jalapeño gave it a “vegetal,” “fruity” pepper flavor. Good, but alas, the texture was “waxy” and “rubbery.”
Fat: 9 g per oz
Heat: Medium
Style: Block
Peppers: Jalapeño
Price at Time of Testing: $3.59 for 8 oz (45 cents per oz)
Land O’Lakes Hot Pepper Jack
Tasters wished for “more sharpness” in this “bland” cheese, although at least the pepper flavor was “pronounced” and “lingering.” The texture was “weirdly soft, like bad American cheese,” said one taster; another compared it to Cheez Whiz.
Fat: 9 g per oz
Heat: Medium
Style: Block
Peppers: Jalapeño
Price at Time of Testing: $6.99 per lb (44 cents per oz)
Tasters wished for “more sharpness” in this “bland” cheese, although at least the pepper flavor was “pronounced” and “lingering.” The texture was “weirdly soft, like bad American cheese,” said one taster; another compared it to Cheez Whiz.
Fat: 9 g per oz
Heat: Medium
Style: Block
Peppers: Jalapeño
Price at Time of Testing: $6.99 per lb (44 cents per oz)
Not Recommended
Organic Valley Pepper Jack Cheese
The flavor was “subtle” in this “very mild,” “kid-friendly” cheese, which had “almost no heat,” with “sweet,” “not at all spicy” peppers. We found the texture “mushy” and “sticky.”
Fat: 8 g per oz
Heat: Mild
Style: Block
Peppers: Jalapeño
Price at Time of Testing: $7.99 for 8 oz ($1 per oz)
The flavor was “subtle” in this “very mild,” “kid-friendly” cheese, which had “almost no heat,” with “sweet,” “not at all spicy” peppers. We found the texture “mushy” and “sticky.”
Fat: 8 g per oz
Heat: Mild
Style: Block
Peppers: Jalapeño
Price at Time of Testing: $7.99 for 8 oz ($1 per oz)
Sargento Off the Block Pepper Jack Traditional Cut
We liked the definite pepper heat in this preshredded cheese (it includes habanero as well as jalapeño). But the ingredients added to prevent caking (potato starch and powdered cellulose) made the cheese chalky and powdery when eaten plain and “stiff” and “grainy” when melted.
Fat: 8 g per oz
Heat: Hot
Style: Shredded
Peppers: Jalapeño and habanero
Price at Time of Testing: $3.59 for 8 oz (45 cents per oz)
We liked the definite pepper heat in this preshredded cheese (it includes habanero as well as jalapeño). But the ingredients added to prevent caking (potato starch and powdered cellulose) made the cheese chalky and powdery when eaten plain and “stiff” and “grainy” when melted.
Fat: 8 g per oz
Heat: Hot
Style: Shredded
Peppers: Jalapeño and habanero
Price at Time of Testing: $3.59 for 8 oz (45 cents per oz)
*All products reviewed by America’s Test Kitchen are independently chosen, researched, and reviewed by our editors. We buy products for testing at retail locations and do not accept unsolicited samples for testing. We list suggested sources for recommended products as a convenience to our readers but do not endorse specific retailers. When you choose to purchase our editorial recommendations from the links we provide, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices are subject to change.
Reviews You Can Trust
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