The Salty Cheese Your Ice Cream Has Been Missing

When it comes to picking the perfect ice cream topping, you might feel tempted to stick with the safety of the classics: butterscotch or caramel sauce, hot fudge, rainbow sprinkles, etc. But there is a whole world of unconventional ice cream toppings out there, from your favorite breakfast cereal to that pack of Pop Rocks you've been hoarding since Halloween. Adventurous eaters have even gravitated toward seemingly unexpected sweet-and-salty pairings, like drizzling soy sauce onto a scoop of vanilla or crumbling potato chips over a bowl of rocky road.

But there's one ice cream topping that is still waiting for its moment to shine: feta cheese. Yes, the same crumbly, salty cheese that you find on a Greek salad. While popular cheesy ice creams like Jeni's Goat Cheese & Red Cherries or Van Leeuwen's viral Kraft Macaroni & Cheese collab may have paved the way, you might still be skeptical about putting feta on your dessert. However, once you've sprinkled a few crumbles on a scoop of your favorite strawberry ice cream, you'll see why feta is the ultimate salty topping.

Feta is one of the oldest styles of cheese in the world, first mentioned — though not by name — by the ancient Greek poet Homer in the eighth century B.C. Traditionally made exclusively with sheep's milk (or a combination of sheep's milk and up to 30% goat's milk), feta has a distinctive tangy flavor and a uniquely salty profile. This salinity comes from the traditional process of salting and drying fresh feta before brining it for several weeks in salt water. Dense blocks of bright white cheese are typically sold in their brine, allowing the feta to stay moist and retain its signature saltiness.

With its ancient roots, feta has been used in a plethora of culinary applications throughout history — including sweet ones. Many Greek cooks today still prepare traditional feta me meli, where the cheese is wrapped in flaky phyllo dough and baked with honey. Some bakers even use feta to add a salty touch to their favorite cheesecake recipes. Feta has also become a popular way to enhance summery watermelon salads because of how its saltiness contrasts with the sweetness of the fruit. With all this history, putting feta on ice cream just seems like a natural choice!