Oaxaca cheese, or quesillo, is Mexico's great melting cheese: a white, mild, slightly salty cheese made by stretching hot curds into a long ribbon and winding that ribbon into a ball, so it pulls apart in strings like mozzarella. It is made by exactly the same technique as mozzarella, which is the good news for anyone with a cheese kit and an afternoon, because the stretch is the skill and the shape is just showmanship.
Here is where Oaxaca comes from, how it differs from the Italian cheese it resembles, and how the pasta filata stretch you learn making mozzarella gets you most of the way there.
What is Oaxaca cheese?
Named after the southern Mexican state where it was first made, Oaxaca cheese is a fresh, unaged cow's milk cheese with a texture unlike almost anything else on a cheese counter. It is sold as a ball of tightly wound ribbon, and you serve it by unwinding and tearing rather than slicing.
The flavour is deliberately gentle: milky, buttery and lightly salted, closer to a young mozzarella than to anything sharp. Its real talent is melting. Oaxaca is the cheese behind a proper quesadilla, and it is what goes into queso fundido and stuffed into chiles rellenos, because it melts smoothly and stretches rather than splitting into oil and rubber.
The story goes that it was invented by accident in the 19th century when a young cheesemaker let a batch of curds over-acidify, and rather than throw them away, poured hot water over them and pulled them into strings. Whether or not the details survive scrutiny, it is a very cheesemaking sort of accident.
How is Oaxaca different from mozzarella?
They are cousins, both members of the pasta filata family, which translates as spun paste and describes any cheese where curds are heated until they become elastic and then stretched. Fresh mozzarella, provolone, string cheese and Oaxaca all belong to it.
The differences come at the end of the process rather than the start. Mozzarella is stretched and then folded in on itself into a smooth ball, often stored in brine or lightly salted whey, so it stays wet and soft. Oaxaca is stretched into a long, thin ribbon, salted, and then wound around itself like a ball of wool, which gives it that unmistakable layered, stringy structure and a firmer, drier bite. Mozzarella is a cheese you eat as it is with tomatoes and olive oil; Oaxaca is a cheese built for heat.
Can you make Oaxaca with a home cheese kit?
Not as one of the named recipes, and we would rather say so plainly. Our Cheeses of the World Kit makes ten cheeses: Italy's ricotta, mascarpone, mozzarella and burrata, French chevre, Cypriot halloumi, Indian paneer, queso blanco from the Americas, Canadian-style squeaky cheese curds and homely cottage cheese. Oaxaca is not on that list.
What is on the list is the technique it depends on. The kit's mozzarella recipe teaches you rennet, cutting a set curd, and the hot stretch, and once your hands know what properly heated curd feels like, an Oaxaca-style ribbon is a change of finishing move rather than a new cheese: stretch the hot curd into a long rope instead of folding it into a ball, salt it, and wind it up.
There is a neat symmetry here too. The kit's Mexican entry is queso blanco, whose party trick is the exact opposite of Oaxaca's: it does not melt at all, softening without losing its shape, which is why it works crumbled over hot dishes. Make both and you have the two halves of the Mexican cheese repertoire, one that holds and one that pulls.
How do you get the stretch right?
Everything about a stretchy cheese comes down to temperature. The curds have to be hot enough to stretch like taffy, and if they tear rather than stretch, they are simply too cool. Reheat them in hot whey or in short bursts in the microwave and try again.
Three habits make the difference between silky and rubbery:
- Reheat rather than force. Cold curd will never stretch, no matter how determined you are. Get the heat back into it and the cheese becomes suddenly, satisfyingly obedient.
- Stop at glossy. Work the curd until it is smooth and shiny, then stop. Overworking is the classic cause of tough, squeaky-in-the-wrong-way cheese.
- Know your microwave. Our recipe was developed on an 800W microwave, so at 800W follow the instructions exactly. At 700W, follow them then continue in ten second bursts as needed. At 900W or 1000W, start with 25 seconds instead of 30 and carry on as written.
Salting is the other half of an Oaxaca-style finish. The strands are salted as they are pulled, which seasons the cheese right through the ribbon rather than only on the outside.
What do you need before you start?
Less than you would think, and one rule that matters more than all the rest. Never use UHT or ultra-pasteurised milk, which simply will not curdle, and skip lactose-free milk and milk alternatives too. Fresh whole pasteurised milk from any supermarket is exactly right.
From your own kitchen you want a large non-reactive pan, which in practice means stainless steel rather than aluminium, cast iron or unlined copper, since those react with the acid you add to the milk. A colander, a slotted spoon and a thermometer complete the set, and a microwave makes any stretched cheese considerably easier.
The kit brings the parts you cannot buy at a supermarket: vegetarian rennet, citric acid, cheese salt, a thermometer, cheese moulds, a cotton cheese cloth, a measuring scoop and a recipe book ordered from easiest cheese to hardest. Because the rennet is vegetarian, every cheese it makes is vegetarian too. Fresh cheeses are for eating fresh, so plan to work through them within a few days to a week rather than storing them like a supermarket block, and do not pour the whey away: it is excellent in bread, smoothies and stock. Everything above lives in the Cheeses of the World Kit, hand-packed in Britain.
Oaxaca cheese FAQs
What does Oaxaca cheese taste like?
Mild, milky and lightly salty, with a texture that peels into strings. Think of a young mozzarella with a firmer, more layered bite rather than anything sharp or tangy.
What can I use instead of Oaxaca cheese?
Fresh mozzarella is the closest substitute for melting, since the two are made the same way. It is wetter, so drain it well before it goes near a quesadilla.
Is Oaxaca cheese the same as string cheese?
It belongs to the same pasta filata family and pulls apart the same way, but it is wound into a ball rather than formed into sticks, and it is made for melting rather than snacking.
Why will my curds not stretch?
They are not hot enough. Reheat them in hot whey or short microwave bursts and try again. If they still will not go, the problem happened earlier, so check your milk and your rennet.
Are homemade cheese kits vegetarian?
Ours are. Both our cheese kits use vegetarian rennet, so the cheeses they make are vegetarian, though of course they are not dairy free.
Fancy learning the stretch for yourself? Browse our cheese making kits.
