Grilled Brun-Uusto Cheese

This isn’t grilled cheese on the grill, it’s cheese I grilled.  I’m not sure that makes any sense.  To clarify, this is not a sandwich.  This is cheese I placed right over the high heat on my grill and made an amazing appetizer…

Recently I was at a store/restaurant near my office looking for some wine and cheese for dinner.  I may be the Grillin’ Fool, but I have a sophisticated side.  After I picked out a nice Cabernet, I walked over to the cheese counter and sampled a few varieties.  I noticed they had Haloumi cheese which is touted as the cheese that can be grilled and I actually did it once, but found it to be not all that good so I never put it on this site.  I mentioned my experience with Haloumi to the cheese monger and she told me I should try the Brun-Uusto and quickly ran off to heat some up in a skillet.  I didn’t really want to wait that long and was perfectly content with about four of the cheeses I sampled, but she went to all the effort so I stuck around.  I’m so happy I did.  It was magnificent: warm, creamy and garlicky.  And when I got to the checkout with my little block of cheese and bottle of wine, the cute checker said to me, “Have you had this before?  It’s wonderful.”  I told her I just got a sample at the cheese counter.  I never saw someone move so fast as she rang me out and said, “We have samples?”  She handed me my receipt and was off like a shot to get a bite.

Back to the cheese.  What is Brun-Uusto cheese? The label says:

Brunkow’s Baked Cheese with Garlic

Juustalepia – in Finland and Sweden, translates to “bread cheese.”

The cheese is baked to form a tasty crust similar to toasted bread.
The rich buttery flavor is complemented by the warmth and pungent spice of the garlic.
Try it served warm as an individual appetizer, a topping, or stuffing.
To Serve: Warm in microwave for 15-20 seconds, grill outdoors or heat in a skillet until crisp.

Here is a little more info about bread cheese. 

So, I had to give brun-uusto a whirl when I saw it could be grilled.  Here it is out of the package and on a cutting board:

For my first go round with this, I decided to do half first, so I cut it in half and threw it on the Grill Manufacturer That Shall Not Be Named:

I put it right over the hot part of the grill while two zone grilling/smoking some pork tenderloin on the other side.  It was a very cold and blustery night and the kettle wasn’t keeping temps up so I kicked up the charcoal on the hot side right before putting the cheese on.  The heat rose noticeable and after five minutes it looked like this.  See how it’s melting between the gaps in the grill grate:

And here is the grilled cheese flipped.  See the indentations along that side:

So, I left the cheese on the grill, for only a couple more minutes, but the fire really stoked up and I didn’t have time to take pictures as it was melting through the grill grates!  I only had time to pull it before it melted through and plated it.  The brun-uusto cheese was not all that appetizing on the plate with the crackers, but it was delicious:

I enjoyed it with this Cabernet Sauvignon:

So, I had the other half a few days later at my folks and thought I would show you how good it looks if not put over a blazing hot fire.  Here it is on the Char-Boil 940X:

The temp was pegged at about 250, and the fire was not nearly as intense, even though I put it right right over the hot coals, next to the meat loaf we did for Feast Magazine.  There were a couple more inches between the coals on the Char-Broil than the kettle.  After eight minutes of indirect grilling it starts to melt out the side where I sliced it in half:

I flipped it after eight minutes:

And then I pulled it after just another four minutes of indirect grilling and plated it:

This stuff is really fantastic and is will be a conversation piece at your next party.  It’s warm, soft and has a nice garlic infusion that makes it great by itself or smeared on a cracker or a piece of crusty bread.  Of course, you can do this inside by placing it in a pan with a little oil as they prepared it for me at Provisions, but grilling is so much more fun!  I highly recommend this stuff.

Grill grates with a lot of space between the metal bars aren’t the best with this, and it doesn’t need super high heat as much as it needs to be warmed.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or shoot me an email.

If you are interested in other sides and appetizers, click here.

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

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BBQ Grilling

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This article was initially published on: January 4, 2011