Popular and delicious as Provolone cheese is, it’s not always easily available outside Italy. Some larger metropolitan cities might still have stores that sell this cheese, but it can be difficult to get hold of.
Whether it’s availability or anything else, there might be several situations where you need a provolone substitute for your recipe.
For the purpose of substitution, we can consider provolone as a semi-soft cheese with flavor ranging from mild and milky to significantly sharper and pungent.
The wide variation in flavor is because there are two types of provolone. Dolce provolone cheese is somewhat creamy with a milky flavor. Provolone Piccante is aged for longer and is drier and sharper. Though there is an obvious difference in flavor, they have a very similar texture. Along with flavor, texture is the second most important quality to consider for this substitution.
In the US, the commonly used variety of this cheese is Provolone Dolce, as such, many substitutes we list here will cater to this cheese. However, Provolone Piccante isn’t to be left out either, and we will include some substitutes for this option as well.
Generally, the usual substitutes for provolone cheese are low-moisture mozzarella, mild cheddar, fontina, gouda, emmental, muenster, and monterey jack cheese.
Let’s get further into the details and see what works.
Table of Contents
Substitutes For Provolone Cheese You Should Try
1. Mild Cheddar
Mild cheddar is seen as one of the best substitutes for provolone cheese. It is available fairly easily in the USA and can often be less expensive than provolone. Even better, it has a taste and texture that can work fairly well as a provolone substitute.
Conventionally, cheddar cheese is known to be a hard cheese with a sharp flavor. That is why, the term “mild” is all important in this case. Because of the creation of more variants, modern cheddar cheese can be available in several varieties, often depending on the time spent on aging.
Mild cheddar usually has a more buttery and creamy flavor, with a soft and plasticky texture like provolone cheese. Generally, this should be suitable for provolone piccante and bring the same sharper flavors. However, if you want to push further, there can be more options on the cheddar sharpness scale, including a medium cheddar or sharp cheddar.
Do keep in mind, as you go up the scale, the texture of the cheese changes as well, with the cheese becoming harder.
In most cases, mild cheddar should be an excellent provolone substitute, matching the taste, texture, and to some extent, even how the cheese melts.
2. Low-Moisture Mozzarella (Aged Mozzarella)
Mozzarella is one of the more popular varieties of cheese and is readily available in most parts of the world. However, low-moisture mozzarella is a different variety, and relatively rare. It is, however, a workable substitute for provolone, especially provolone dolce.
Conventional mozzarella has a soft flavor with some tang. However, low-moisture mozzarella spends more time in aging, giving it a harder texture and sharper flavors that put it in line with aged cheese types like cheddar and provolone.
Low-moisture mozzarella does come very close to provolone cheese in terms of taste and texture. The only thing to keep in mind with this substitution would be that mozzarella melts far more easily than provolone.
So, you’ll need to watch your recipe to make sure there aren’t significant changes due to different melting points.
3. Muenster Cheese
Muenster Cheese is an American cheese that builds upon the French cheese, munster. That’s a careful distinction to make, because while American muenster cheese makes a good substitute for provolone cheese, the French munster does not!
American muenster cheese is semi-soft with a flavor that more closely resembles provolone.
And while this is a good choice by itself, usually, better results come from using a combination of two-thirds muenster and one-third low-moisture mozzarella for best results for a provolone substitute.
4. Fontina Cheese
Fontina is another popular cheese that can work as a decent alternative to provolone cheese in many recipes. The origins of this cheese lie in Italy, but this cows milk cheese is made in several countries around the world.
It is a semi-soft cheese with a buttery and nutty flavor. Its nuttiness can increase depending on the aging process.
In most cases, Fontina cheese works as a very suitable alternative to provolone cheese.
5. Emmental Cheese
This Swiss cheese has become one of the more instantly-recognized types of cheese in the world. The holes in the cheese are almost iconic and make for easy association with this type of cheese.
Emmental cheese is a medium-hard cheese with a texture slightly firmer than provolone cheese. It’s also somewhat on the sweeter side of things.
However, it is readily available and in cooking, often behaves very much like provolone cheese. As such, this is a workable alternative to provolone cheese, but not an ideal one.
In fact, it might be better to combine it with another Swiss cheese, Gruyère cheese to create a better, more suitable substitute.
6. Smoked Gouda Cheese
Here’s something that can be a decent alternative to provolone cheese, but you’ll need to put some thought into the recipe and substitution to decide whether it will work for you.
Gouda cheese has a texture that is very similar to provolone. It is fairly popular and might be more easily available than provolone if you live in the USA.
However, the issue with substitution here is flavor. Gouda cheese tends to be on the sweeter side of things and gets sweeter the more it is aged. As such, though it can pass as a substitute for provolone dolce in many recipes, it doesn’t quite work with provolone piccante.
Those who prefer the sharper flavors can consider smoked gouda cheese as a more suitable substitute. The smoked gouda has a distinctly more robust flavor than classic (or regular) gouda cheese and can therefore be a better option.
7. Monterey Jack Cheese
Monterey Jack cheese can be a useful substitute for provolone, considering the similar texture and flavor profiles. This is a semi-hard cheese made with cow’s milk, can be sliced or shredded, and melts rather well in food.
However, monterey jack’s flavor can be on the milder side of things, making it more useful as a substitute to the mild provolone dolce.
If you’re in the US, Monterey Jack can be a lot easier to get hold of, as compared to provolone. As such, the substitution is decent.
Though I haven’t tried it yet and thus don’t want to specifically vouch for it, Cheddar Jack cheese looks like it would have the right texture and sharpness to be an excellent substitute for provolone cheese.
8. Vegan Substitution Options
There are many vegan substitution options available for provolone cheese. Since these are generally commercial products, your choice will depend on the flavorings from the brand you prefer.
Some brands of note that produce vegan-friendly provolone substitutes are Violife, Follow Your Heart, Miyokos, and Daiya. Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive listing, so feel free to use the type you prefer. I’ve found Violife provolone substitute to be a better pick, but that is purely a subjective opinion.
Choosing The Replacement For Provolone Cheese
Considering that there are many types of cheese available with similar properties, choosing the right type of provolone substitute can largely depend on your own preferences and the types of cheese available at your location.
Our options here consider availability, texture, and closeness in flavor to pick the right choice, but this is not an exhaustive list. A lot can come down to local ingredients and your personal preferences.
And since cooking is a lot about the willingness to try something new, using a local semi-hard and somewhat sharp or savory cheese could work just as well as many of the options listed in this article.