Shredded Pepper Jack Cheese

One US cup of shredded pepper Jack cheese weighs 113 grams (4 ounces). Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.88 cups.

Also called pepper Jack, shredded pepper Jack, pepper Jack cheese, jalapeño Jack, hot pepper Jack.

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

Shredded pepper Jack weighs 113 g per US cup (4 oz), a density of 0.478 g/mL, the same as shredded Monterey Jack. King Arthur gives 113 g for shredded Jack, USDA measures 113 g for the base cheese, and the Kraft and H-E-B bags label a quarter cup at 28 g, which is 112 g per cup.

Pepper Jack is Monterey Jack with chopped chili peppers, usually jalapeño, sometimes habanero or red pepper flakes, stirred into the curd before it is pressed. The peppers are a small fraction of the cheese by weight, so the cheese around them has Monterey Jack's make-up: USDA puts Monterey at 41% water and 30% fat, a little moister than cheddar. It is mild, semi-soft and melts smoothly, which makes it a common choice for quesadillas, nachos, burgers and spicy macaroni and cheese.

USDA FoodData Central has no record for pepper Jack. Its record for the base cheese, SR Legacy "Cheese, monterey" (FDC 170844), publishes 1 cup shredded at 113 g and 1 cup diced at 132 g. King Arthur's chart lists "Cheese (grated cheddar, jack, mozzarella, or Swiss)" at 1 cup = 4 oz = 113 g. For Jack that figure matches USDA exactly, and this entry publishes it. Confidence is medium rather than high because no source has weighed a cup of the pepper version itself.

The bags agree within a gram. Kraft and H-E-B both print a quarter cup at 28 g, which works out to 112 g per cup. That 28 g is the one-ounce serving that US labels write as a quarter cup on every shredded cheese, whatever it really weighs, so it is not a measurement. It lines up here only because Jack genuinely weighs about 112-113 g per cup.

The physical check is simple. Solid cheese is about as dense as water, close to 1 g/mL. A cup of shreds at 0.478 g/mL is therefore a little under half cheese and a little over half air. The chili flecks do not change that: they are small soft pieces spread through the cheese, not something that changes how the shreds stack. USDA's diced Monterey Jack, at 132 g per cup, shows the other side of the same rule: cubes pack with fewer gaps than tangled shreds, so the same cheese weighs about 17% more per cup when diced.

Practical guidance: an 8-oz bag is 227 g, almost exactly 2 cups. For a quesadilla, 1/4 cup is 28 g; for a pan of nachos or a casserole topping, 1 cup is 113 g and 1/2 cup 56.5 g. Shreds from the fine side of a box grater are fluffier and settle less, so a home-shredded cup can come out lighter than a bagged one; weigh when the amount of cheese sets the texture, as in a cheese sauce.

The shredded cheese comparison page shows pepper Jack beside Monterey Jack, cheddar, Swiss, Gruyère and the other shredded and crumbled cheeses.