News From The Cheese Caves

Cheese itself makes a great cold weather food (or hot weather food, as far as we are concerned) but melting it down into fondue, or melting it over bread, potatoes, vegetables or meats; all of these ways to enjoy cheese can be lip-smacking delicious.

Raclette is the name of a cheese but it also refers to the way that that cheese is melted over those other foods. The cheese was created by cowboys in eastern France and the French-speaking part of southwest Switzerland. They would take a half a wheel of cheese and face the cut side toward their campfire then they would scrape the melted cheese onto bread. The name is derived from the French word racler, meaning “to scrape.”

The cheeses are on the stinky side, especially when they are heated up. Their surfaces have that blush rind that allows good beneficial bacteria – the b. linens – to perform their magic. The Raclette that we have from France is excellent; the one from Switzerland – the Val Bagner, from Canton Valais – is a little firmer and fuller-flavored.

These are so delicious you may decide not to bother with melting and scraping them. You may just gobble them up at room temperature the way I do.

Posted by Artisanal Cheese

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 6th, 2011 at 11:24 am and is filed under Artisanal Cheese News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.