Grated Cotija Cheese

One US cup of grated Cotija cheese weighs 120 grams (4.2 ounces). Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.83 cups.

Also called Cotija, queso Cotija, Cotija cheese, crumbled Cotija, queso Cotija grated.

Shredded, grated and crumbled cheese compared: cup weights side by side, the source behind each, and why they differ.

Grated Cotija weighs about 120 g per US cup (4.2 oz), or 5 g per 2 teaspoons, a density of 0.507 g/mL. USDA and the Cacique label both give 2 teaspoons as 5 g; Talavera's quarter cup at 28 g (112 g per cup) sits inside the 10% tolerance.

Cotija is a salty, crumbly Mexican cow's-milk cheese named after the town of Cotija in Michoacán. The traditional aged cheese is hard enough to grate like parmesan; the Cotija sold in US supermarkets is younger and moister, and it breaks into soft, damp crumbs rather than dry flakes. It is the cheese scattered over elote, tacos, refried beans, enchiladas and salads, and it is sold grated in bags and shakers or as blocks and wedges that people crumble by hand.

USDA SR Legacy "Cheese, mexican, queso cotija" (FDC 170898) gives 2 teaspoons at 5 g, with 38% water, 30% fat and 20% protein. USDA's newer Foundation record for solid Cotija (FDC 2647443) has no household portion but analyses almost the same cheese, 40% water and 27% fat. Cacique's grated Cotija, the biggest US brand, labels 2 teaspoons at 5 g, 40 servings in a 7-oz pack. Talavera's grated Cotija labels a quarter cup at 28 g, which is the one-ounce serving written as a volume.

The figure is a small spoonful scaled up 48 times, which is why confidence is medium. A 5 g portion is rounded to the nearest gram, so the true figure behind it could be anywhere from 4.5 to 5.5 g, which is 108 to 132 g per cup. The label at 112 g falls inside that window, so nothing contradicts 120 g, but no source has weighed a whole cup.

The physical check is a comparison with parmesan. USDA and King Arthur put grated parmesan at 100 g per cup; parmesan is about 25% water, hard and dry, and its grated flakes are stiff and springy, so they hold air. Cotija is half as wet again, softer and more crumbly, and its grated crumbs are small, slightly damp and give under a spoon, so they pack a little tighter. Solid cheese is about as dense as water, so a cup at 0.507 g/mL is about half cheese and half air, slightly more cheese than a cup of grated parmesan and slightly more than a cup of shredded cheddar, which is what softer, finer crumbs predict.

Crumbled Cotija from a block is a different product: coarser, irregular lumps that settle around each other. USDA has no crumbled figure for Cotija. Its record for queso añejo, a related aged Mexican cheese with almost the same composition, lists 1 cup crumbled at 132 g, so hand-crumbled Cotija probably weighs more per cup than grated, but that is another cheese's measurement and is not published here.

Practical guidance: for elote, 2 tablespoons is 15 g and 1/4 cup 30 g; for a tray of enchiladas, 1/2 cup is 60 g. A 7-oz bag is 198 g, about 1 2/3 cups. Cotija is salty, so when substituting feta or parmesan, weigh it.