Cheese

Its Raclette Season!

Its Raclette Season!

Raclette is both the name of a type of Swiss cheese and the name of the a prepared dish using that cheese. This delicious cheese is available in our Atlanta shop only. 

The Swiss are known for making raclette in the winter, as its a fun and easy dinner to prepare with friends and perfectly warming in the cold months. Raclette makes for a fun party or group gathering. All you have to do is prepare the ingredients in advance, then each guest gets to make and choose what they want to enjoy. 

Raclette cheese is traditionally made from cow’s milk, and sometimes sheep’s milk. The cheese has a pungent aroma, but the taste is mild, sweet, salty and nutty. At Capella cheese we offer both. 

Raclette cheese is a semi-hard cheese that is sliced thickly and melted or grilled. The Swiss tradition is to serve melted raclette as a side served over pearled onion, crusty French bread, asparagus, cornichons, or boiled potato. Though we encourage you to get Epicurious and try raclette over meats and vegetables of your liking. Traditionally, the raclette cheese wheel would be melted on an open fire and then you would scrape off the melting portion of the cheese and serve over traditional raclette ingredients.

Now though, you can get a small table-top raclette grill to place in the middle of the table, and the cheese can be melted in small pans called coupelles, which are placed under the heating element. The grill top can be used to cook meat and vegetables.

How to prepare Raclette cheese 

For a raclette dinner party, you will need about 7 oz of raclette cheese per person (though a few extra portions sometimes come in handy.) 

We recommend grilling vegetables as listed above on the grill, as well as sausage, thin cuts of beef, pancetta, or salami. 

In Swiss tradition the melted raclette is usually served over boiled potatoes with pickled onions on the side. Some Swiss will even chop up potatoes and place directly into the coupelles. It is also Swiss tradition to serve a plate of cold charcuterie (salami, ham, dry-cured meat, etc) as an accompaniment. Dry white wines like Chardonnay or Riesling go well with raclette. 

Atlanta locals, come on in to purchase this Raclette while its in stock in our cheese shop

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