If cheese and ice cream sound like some bougie pairing found somewhere in Brooklyn, New York, think again. Cheese ice cream is a flavor match made in culinary heaven, and the smooth pairing of tangy butter and creamy milk can send taste buds into overdrive. At Portland’s Salt and Straw, scoops of Gruyère and Tomato Custard Tart and Pear and Blue Cheese ice creams are scooped into cups and cones, and flavors such as Chèvre with Apricots, Balsamic Fig Mascarpone, Goat Cheese with Red Cherries, and Burrata Soft Serve have made appearances at ice creameries and dessert shops across the United States. Yet, long before any of these creative concoctions landed in shops, a different kind of cheese ice cream delighted lovers of treats for centuries in the Philippines.
Filipino queso ice cream, also known as Keso flavor, delivers spoonfuls of sweet cream and cheddar-flavored ice cream. Visible pieces of yellow cheese can often be spotted in scoopfuls. These scoops can be tucked into a bread roll known as pal de sal or served alongside a sweeter ice cream flavor for that unbeatable sweet and savory combo that may remind you of a perfectly made cheesecake recipe.
This culinary pairing simply works
Ice cream was originally only available to the upper echelon of Filipino society. Money was shelled out for house staff to hand-churn ice shipped from overseas. But once this treat found its way into street carts, vendors sold ice creams made with carabao milk to the masses. Cheddar cheese made its foray into the Philippines following World War II and soon began to appear on top of pastries, plates of spaghetti, and yes, even ice cream.
In the United States, Ramar Foods in California has been replicating these flavors since 1972, offering kernels of sweet corn tucked into cheese ice cream in its Mais Queso product. The brand’s Queso Queso doubles down on all things cheese by adding salty cheese directly into a cheese-flavored ice cream base, and the company’s Ube Queso packs cheese in brightly colored, purple yam-inspired ice cream.
If you’re curious about making this cheesy style of ice cream for yourself, you may want to wade into recipes for cheesecake ice cream or cottage cheese ice cream in addition to knock-offs of the Keso flavor. Find Edam cheese to use in your ice cream-making attempts, or look for a sweeter cheddar cheese. Then, try pairing your creamy, cheesy homemade creations with crumbles of crunchy peanut brittle for a sweet and texturally satisfying accoutrement. Prepare yourself for a lengthy process, however, as your creamy, cheesy creation will need to freeze for several hours before the treat is ready to serve and eat.
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