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🍳 BREAKFAST
Kachkéis (Luxembourg Cooked Cheese)
Aged curd melted down on the stove with butter and caraway into a glossy, tangy spreadable cheese, poured out to set and eaten on bread with mustard.
Luxembourgish · medium · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 15 min · plus 2 days hands-off time
~517 cal · 29g protein · 2g carbs · 44g fat · 0g fiber · 1g sugars · 28g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kachkeis, whose name means "cooked cheese", is a much-loved Luxembourgish specialty: a smooth, soft, spreadable cheese made by gently melting down a matured curd until it turns glossy and pourable, often with a hint of caraway stirred in. It sets to a silky, savoury spread quite unlike a firm sliceable cheese.
It is thoroughly everyday food, the kind of thing Luxembourgers grow up on and keep in the fridge. Spread generously on fresh bread, frequently with a swipe of mustard to cut its richness, it makes a simple, comforting breakfast, snack, or light supper.
Homely, tangy, and unpretentious, kachkeis is one of those small national foods that outsiders rarely meet but that locals hold real affection for. In a country proud of its distinct identity, even the cheese on the morning bread is quietly its own.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
- 2 cups (about 1 lb) dry curd cheese or well-drained quark, aged 2 to 3 days
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tsp caraway seeds
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 thick slices fresh bread, to serve
- to taste mustard, to serve
Instructions
- 1A few days ahead, leave the drained curd loosely covered at cool room temperature to ripen and soften. It should smell sharp and turn slightly translucent at the edges.✎ Chef’s noteThis ripening is what lets the curd melt smoothly instead of staying grainy. Well-aged supermarket quark, drained hard, works if you cannot ripen your own.
- 2Crumble the ripened curd into a bowl and mix through the baking soda. Let it stand 30 minutes.
- 3Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat, then add the curd.
- 4Stir constantly over low heat. After a few minutes the curd will suddenly collapse and turn glossy and stringy.
- 5Whisk in the milk a little at a time to loosen it to a thick, pourable cream, then stir in the caraway and salt.
- 6Cook gently 2 to 3 minutes more until completely smooth, with no lumps remaining.
- 7Pour into a shallow dish and cool. It firms as it cools into a soft, spreadable cheese; refrigerate to set fully.
- 8Spread thickly on fresh bread, add a smear of mustard, and serve.
Luxembourg City home tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Luxembourg City. Luxembourg City feasts on judd mat gaardebounen, smoked pork collar with broad beans, treated as the national dish. Its kitchen borrows freely from France and Germany, in river fish, black pudding with apple, and quetsch plum tart.
🗺️
Luxembourg. Judd mat Gaardebounen is tied to one village, Gostingen, whose inhabitants are nicknamed Bounepatscherten, bean-madmen. The smoked pork collar is soaked, then simmered with leeks, carrots, celery and cloves, often with Moselle wine, and served with broad beans. The word judd has no settled etymology, though one theory derives it from the Spanish judia, meaning bean.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Luxembourg
Judd mat GaardebounenLuxembourg's national dish: smoked pork collar simmered tender and served with a creamy broad-bean stew.
BouneschluppA green bean soup with potato and smoked sausage, the national soup of Luxembourg.
QuetschentaartA shortcrust tart of sharp quetsch plums under a cinnamon dusting, Luxembourg's classic late-summer bake.
Browse all Luxembourg recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Whisk.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Luxembourg meal
QuetschentaartDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Kachkéis (Luxembourg Cooked Cheese)?
Aged curd melted down on the stove with butter and caraway into a glossy, tangy spreadable cheese, poured out to set and eaten on bread with mustard.
Where does Kachkéis (Luxembourg Cooked Cheese) come from?
Kachkéis (Luxembourg Cooked Cheese) is a Luxembourgish dish from Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.
Can Kachkéis (Luxembourg Cooked Cheese) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Kachkéis (Luxembourg Cooked Cheese) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Kachkéis (Luxembourg Cooked Cheese) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Kachkéis (Luxembourg Cooked Cheese) take to make?
About 2 days in all: 10 minutes prep and 15 minutes cooking, plus 2 days of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 4.
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