This Is The Cheese To Reach For When Making Tacos Or Quesadillas

Quesadillas are one of Mexico's greatest global exports. They're a simple and adaptable dish, beloved by latch-key kids, late night snackers, and anyone who needs a quick and satisfying melt. The form is straightforward, just a tortilla folded around cheese and heated until the inside turns melty. The tortilla can be flour or corn, thick or thin, griddled on a comal, fried until crisp, or even heated up in the microwave, if you must. The cheese must necessarily be one that melts, binding the tortilla into something more than wrapper and filling. Choose poorly and you end up with grease or rubber. Choose well and you get the stretch, pull, and richness that make a quesadilla what it is. 

Tacos actually don't have cheese (except, famously, at Taco Bell) and when cheese does get added, like in quesabirria, they're considered quesadillas. In Mexico, regional quesadillas can include mushrooms, squash blossoms, or huitlacoche, but the cheese is never optional, because it's the molten glue that holds the dish together. Global interpretations of the dish have introduced myriad quesadilla variations, some of which include cheeses from Monterey Jack to cheddar. They melt well enough, they just shift the dish toward an American flavor profile. One of the great characteristics of quesadillas is their adaptability, but for a quesadilla that connects back to its roots, try queso de Oaxaca. Known as quesillo in its home state, it's a fresh, stringy cheese made precisely for quesadillas.

Queso de Oaxaca is produced with a technique similar to mozzarella. Fresh curds are stretched in hot water until they become long, pliable ribbons. Those ribbons are wound into balls or tight ropes, a shape that keeps them moist and ready to peel. Rather than grating, you pull strips off by hand, string cheese style. Those strips melt into elastic threads, which is exactly what makes Oaxaca cheese suited for quesadillas, tlayudas, and other traditional Oaxacan dishes. Cold, the cheese can feel too firm or squeaky; when warmed, it relaxes into a smooth, stretchy layer that fuses with the tortilla.

The flavor is milky, faintly salty, sometimes with a slight tang depending on how fresh it is. That mildness is what allows it to pair with assertive flavors like roasted peppers, earthy huitlacoche, or the spiced consommé for dipping quesabirria. Queso de Oaxaca doesn't attempt to become the dominant flavor, it just holds everything together. In Oaxaca's markets, quesillo is sold in large balls, knotted strands pulled apart at home. 

Outside of Mexico, Oaxaca cheese is becoming easier to find in supermarkets, often labeled as quesillo or Oaxaca string cheese. While mozzarella can substitute in a pinch, it lacks the same fibrous pull and cultural connection. Used properly, Oaxaca cheese makes a quesadilla the best version of itself, binding the filling with a subtle flavor that leaves space for everything else to come through.