Watching The Bachelor this season whet my appetite for traveling in the Swiss Alps –> then what it did was remind me of the time I spent in Switzerland –> thinking of my time in Switzerland then made me think about cheese –> thinking about cheese in Switzerland then made me think of raclette.
Ohhh, raclette.
If you’ve been following my blog, you’ve probably figured out by now that the way to my heart (and the key to my memory bank apparently) is through my taste buds.
What is raclette? It’s basically melted cheesy goodness! In its raw form, raclette is a semi-hard cheese with an orangy-brownish rind, made from unpasteurized cow’s milk, aged up to six months. When melted and scraped over potatoes and served with cured meats and cornichons, it becomes a comfort food of the same name – raclette – and is known as a traditional dish in the Swiss Alps.
If it sounds to you like fondue, you’re partly right. It’s melted cheese. But raclette is a very particular cheese with a very particular flavor. It carries a strong, distinct, nutty aroma. I enjoyed eating it raw, but was warned that it would probably upset my stomach. And it did. But I kept eating it anyway! The cheese tastes quite different when it’s melted, but is still delicious and embodies the same core aromatic flavors.
I tasted raclette for the first time when I was visiting my ex-boyfriend in the Swiss Alps. Dario and I had met while traveling in Australia a year and a half before, and had fallen in love instantly. (You may recall him teaching me to paraglide in France and backpacking with me through Thailand). By the time my travels took me to Switzerland, we had already broken up but remained very close friends. One of these days, I’ll tell you all about it. For now, I’ve got raclette on the brain.
Dario is a good old-fashioned mountain boy who’s extremely proud of Ticino, the Swiss-Italian region he calls home. And knowing the food-lover that I am, Dario made sure I tasted only the best of the best of his beloved country.
Raclette would be one of those bests.
How do you make raclette? Well, first, you need a raclette grill. History has it that the cheese started to melt while sitting on stones next to an open campfire, and a farmer scraped it off the stones so as not to waste it. In turn, he discovered that it tastes pretty damn good (the word “raclette” actually comes from the French phrase “to scrape”). It would evolve into half wheels of cheese being melted and scraped directly from the wheel. Today, the cheese is melted on a grill designed specifically for raclette – it’s a two-tiered grill with specialized spatulas from which to melt and scrape.
Basically, invite a couple friends over, get a cozy fireplace going in the background. Gather all this stuff in a room and you’re good to go:
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A local bottle of Fendant,
the proper white wine to pair with raclette (and fondue too)
I’m told that a good wine is essential, and that I must not drink water –
as water would harden the cheese in my stomach and cause all sorts of tummy trouble.
Raclette is extreeemely heavy and I ended up with tummy trouble anyway. But I’m pretty sure it’s because I ate waaaaay too much of it – no less than three servings!
Was it worth it?
Um, duh. Of course it was worth it! Just reminiscing about it, I can almost taste the raclette! *Mmmmmmmmmmmmm nom nom*