A cheese meal from the Alps
Raclette comes from the Valais in Switzerland and the neighboring Savoie in France, where herders melted half a wheel of cheese by the fire and scraped the soft layer onto potatoes. The name comes from the French verb racler, to scrape. Today most people use a tabletop grill with small pans, where each guest melts their own slice.
How much to buy
The calculator uses common amounts for an adult when raclette is the main dish:
- Cheese: about 7 oz (200 g), the setting you can adjust
- Potatoes: about 9 oz (250 g)
- Cold cuts: about 4.5 oz (125 g)
- Pickles and pickled onions: about 1 oz (30 g)
Children count as half an adult. A light appetite, or raclette served alongside other dishes, uses three quarters of these amounts; a hearty appetite, such as after a day of skiing, a quarter more.
Example
Six adults with normal appetites:
- Cheese: 6 × 7 oz = 2.6 lb (1.2 kg)
- Potatoes: 3.3 lb (1.5 kg)
- Cold cuts: 1.65 lb (750 g)
- Pickles: about 6 oz (180 g)
- That is about 0.4 of a half wheel of 6.6 lb, so a pre-sliced pack or a wedge from the cheese counter is enough.
Choosing the cheese
Traditional raclette cheese is a semi-hard cow’s milk cheese that melts smoothly without separating. Look for Raclette du Valais AOP from Switzerland or Raclette de Savoie from France; many supermarkets sell American or other raclette-style cheese too. Slices about 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick melt evenly in the pans. Vary with smoked, peppercorn or garlic raclette, or Alpine cheeses such as Fontina or Gruyère.
Serving tips
- Take the cheese out of the fridge 30 minutes before the meal.
- Boil small waxy potatoes in their skins and keep them warm in a covered basket.
- Serve cornichons and pickled onions to cut through the richness, and a green salad.
- Traditional drinks are a dry white wine or hot black tea; very cold drinks are said to sit heavily with melted cheese.
- Leftover cheese freezes well in slices for cooking.