top with cheese

Meaning

This phrase means to place a layer of cheese on top of a dish as the final ingredient, often right before baking, melting, or serving. It is a highly common instruction in recipes for casseroles, pizzas, pastas, and burgers. The tone is casual, practical, and standard across all types of culinary writing and speech.

Examples

• Once the pasta is in the baking dish, top with cheese and bake until golden brown.

  Once the pasta is in the baking dish, top with cheese and bake until golden brown.

• You can top with cheese right before serving to let it melt over the hot chili.

  You can top with cheese right before serving to let it melt over the hot chili.

• After assembling the lasagna layers, top with cheese for a perfect crust.

  After assembling the lasagna layers, top with cheese for a perfect crust.

• I like to top with cheese and broil it for two minutes to get it bubbly.

  I like to top with cheese and broil it for two minutes to get it bubbly.

• For the final step, top with cheese and garnish with fresh parsley.

  For the final step, top with cheese and garnish with fresh parsley.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ Put cheese on top of the head.

  ✓ Top with cheese.

  'On top of the head' is a literal translation error from some languages. In culinary English, 'top with [ingredient]' is the standard phrasing.

• ✗ Top by cheese before baking.

  ✓ Top with cheese before baking.

  The preposition 'with' is always used after 'top' when specifying the ingredient added to the surface.

Related Expressions

Practice

• Pour the meat sauce over the potatoes, then ___ and bake.

  💡 Add a final layer of cheddar or mozzarella.

  Show answer

  top with cheese

• To get that perfect golden crust on your casserole, always ___.

  💡 Put dairy on the very surface before baking.

  Show answer

  top with cheese