Aside from just being plain delicious, the cheese you slide onto a tuna melt serves a more practical function. It melts around all those tasty bits of tuna and celery and capers, creating an effective culinary glue, thanks to the emulsifying power of cheese. This “glue” keeps all of those ingredients squarely on your sandwich. As such, picking the right kind of cheese for your classic tuna melt becomes of paramount importance. And while a couple of different types of cheeses might fit this bill, they all have one thing in common: They’re super duper melty.
First up to bat is a classic favorite — cheddar. This goes on the list because it adds both a tangy and slightly nutty taste to your sandwich. And while it is a meltable cheese, there are some things you should keep in mind if you use it on your next tuna melt. Aged cheddar doesn’t work as well on grilled cheese or tuna melt sandwiches as its younger counterpart. This is due to how grainy and oily aged cheddar can become when it’s melted, so if you want the great taste of cheddar on your next melt, opt for the unaged variety.
That old standby — American
Next on the list is an old standby — American cheese (or Velveeta if you’re buying it in brand-name block form). It’s technically not cheese according to the FDA, but rather “pasteurized processed American cheese food,” but that doesn’t stop sammie lovers from, well, loving it. In keeping with its not-technically-cheese status, American cheese, of course, isn’t all American. It has some Swiss origins, too, with the original processed cheese making its debut in Switzerland in 1911. James Lewis Kraft took the idea one step further when he decided to make a cheese product that not only traveled well but still managed to taste good on the other side of said travels.
What Kraft and others came up with eventually surpassed cheddar in the melt department. American cheese’s ability to turn into an ooey gooey blob in 10 seconds flat offers up real-life proof of how suited it is to the task of holding your tuna melt together. That said, it’s not that American cheese doesn’t have any cheese. Nowadays, it’s often a mix of cheddar and Colby, which makes it more flavorful. For extra flavor, opt out of plain ol’ American or Velveeta and get Mexican Velveeta instead. With the addition of jalapeño peppers, it takes your tuna melt from tame to terrific.
Other cheeses to consider
While cheddar and American often stand out as the go-to melting cheeses for your tuna melt, the reality is there are many more cheeses that melt well. Any one of these would add some extra oomph to your sandwich in terms of texture or flavor, or both. That being the case, it’s worth mentioning an array of cheesy possibilities.
Gouda brings a nice sweetness to your tuna melt. In terms of flavor, Gouda is like cheddar without its sharpness, making it a nice choice for those who want something a little different than cheddar, while still embracing some of its similarities.
Havarti, on the other hand, offers a flavor that’s closer to butter. Added to your tuna melt, this encourages a flavor juxtaposition where the savoriness of the tuna melds effortlessly with the smoothness of the havarti. It’s also a cheese that you’ll often find filled with an assortment of herbs and spices, making it a nice option to choose if you’ve decided to swap out the bread in your tuna melt for something like two pieces of panini bread.
Finally, it probably goes without saying that you don’t have to choose just one kind of cheese when you’re making a tuna melt. Often the most flavorful options come from being willing to mix and match the cheeses on your sammie, making a cheddar-Gouda-havarti tuna melt a real possibility for you in the near future.
