Of course, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to find out that Switzerland has a second cheese specialty next to fondue. It’s called raclette. No surprise again, it has to do with melted cheese and white wine. The name ‘raclette’ stems from the French ‘racler’ which means scraping and is basically how it is traditionally eaten. Melted cheese is scraped off the cheese wheel onto a plate.
Tradition
The simple meal originated in the Alpine regions of Valais and is documented as far back as 1574. I believe in 2003 the exclusive rights to the name were given to the canton of Valais. It goes without saying, the Valaisers love their raclette.
Herders put a half of a wheel of semi-hard cheese near a fire so some of the top melted. They then scraped off the melted part and ate it with some bread while the next portion melted.
These days there is no need for an open fire, there are other ways to melt cheese. More often than not, electricity is used. The electric contraptions emanates the traditional way. Another, very popular way to eat raclette is in slices. Nowadays both are usually eaten with special smaller steamed potatoes. Guess what they’re called, raclette potatoes!
My First Raclette
Ben and his family took me on an excursion to the Castle of Gruyères in Fribourg. There I had my first raclette. Gruyères is the home of Gruyères cheese and not raclette, it’s not even in the canton of Valais. But who cares? I was in a dream world. There I was, in a medieval town with cobblestone streets imagining how it must have been back then. Put that together with the fact that that was my very first castle and a special Swiss meal. That made it pure enchantment.
Because I didn’t speak any German, let alone French at the time, Ben ordered for me. That has distinct advantages. One being I didn’t make any disastrous mistakes akin to ordering anything barbaric like Coke with the meal. You never know with those Americans.
The Raclette Wheel in Valais
Raclette isn’t just a meal, it’s a very social event; the more people, the more social. Generally speaking, every time either Ben or I have been in Valais, we have had the more traditional wheel version. The wheel version also takes a lot longer to eat. You get your two mini potatoes and wait for your turn to get your tiny portion of the scraped cheese. It takes no time to eat the two bites. Then you have to wait until your turn again for your next little portion. Ah, but the folk of Valais know how to bridge waiting time. It’s called white wine.
After a company meeting in the mountains of Valais, Ben was invited to a raclette dinner. The person organizing it was from there and that certainly wasn’t his first raclette. The man explained to Ben how he calculated how much wine he had to buy. He said two bottles of wine pro Valaiser and one bottle per person for everyone else.
The evening was a success and there was just enough wine. At one point someone had drunk so much that he fell asleep under the table. Ben asked if they should put him onto the couch. The answer was a definite ‘No! If he wasn’t comfortable enough where he was, he could get up by himself.’ I believe he did some two or three hours later.
What was truly scary though, was that many of the people there who lived in the area drove home. The running joke was that since they couldn’t walk they had to drive and the cars knew their way home. That’s a lot of narrow streets and curves in the mountains of Valais.
Sliced Raclette for Dinner Parties
The other way to eat raclette is much faster. It requires a special grill oven, personal little flat pans, wooden scrapers and sliced raclette. The oven usually has room for 4 – 8 pans at a time. You put one slice of cheese on a pan and slide it into the oven under the electric heater. After the cheese is adequately grilled, you slide the cheese over the potatoes. This is done using the wooden scraper and not a knife so as not to scratch the pan. Depending on how fast you eat and how hungry you are, you can immediately slide your next piece of cheese into the grill while you eat.
Too much melted cheese can clump in your stomach. That is why it is in your best interest to drink warm tea with the meal. Of course, those from Valais say that white wine does a better job of helping to digest.
Thinking out of the Box
Sometimes Swiss can be very conservative and other times they surprise me completely. Traditional raclette is served with potatoes, pickles, pickled onions, white wine and tea. That’s it. Because raclette is so traditional, it can be daunting to try to do something different with the meal.
On the other hand, cheese can be combined with almost anything and it’s always delicious. That’s why we often serve raclette with pineapple pieces, bacon or mushrooms. You just put whatever you want into the individual pan and grill it along with the cheese.
The last time we had guests I did something wild and crazy; I served broccoli and I was ready to defend my idea if need be. I thought that would be fantastic instead of potatoes. Of course, I still made potatoes because I assumed I would be the only one eating the broccoli. I almost didn’t make enough. Our guests loved the idea. To my surprise my friend said she serves raclette with fermented cabbage. Fermented cabbage? Really? Okay, I’m conservative, she wins.
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