![]() ![]() Three half-rounds (weighing in at 7.5 kilos) of Natur cheese from Verbier -just cheese, free of fancy flavorings-served 25 people. It took three Raclette Meisters an hour to serve everyone a first helping of Raclette, so there was plenty time for conversation to get things going. Raclette cheese and Schnapps from from canton ValaisĪfter the apero, to the sound of Alphorn music from someone’s iPod, we moved into the loft for the crowd-pleasing main dish of cheese melted over potatoes, the cheese heated and scraped at a time-honored pace. And we popped the cork on a bottle of champagne to celebrate our mostly traditional mountain meal. The meats included air-dried beef from Grissons, bacon from the Berner Oberland, and home-made walnut bread from Basel. To be fair, the meaty, nutty beginning to our meal was not that of a purist. Alpine music wafted across the courtyard. The evening began with an outdoor buffet of air-cured meats, brown breads, cornichons and walnuts. Inside, they draped picnic tables and windows with red tablecloths and curtains, and hung Swiss flags and posters of the Matterhorn and Eiger, along with skis and mountain-climbing gear. ![]() They transformed bare loft above the bike sheds behind our apartment building into a mountain chalet. Abricotine schnaps how to#Not long ago, my Swiss neighbors showed me how to put on a sure-to-please Raclette evening, in an atmosphere that evoked their tradition’s rustic roots. ![]() A cheesemaker, describing the making of Raclette cheese Raclette, the modern Swiss way Last October, I visited an artisanal Raclette cheesemaker in Orsiere, and learned about the care with which each round is brought to market. Today, it is one of Switzerland’s purebred agricultural products, and for many, is preferred over Fondue, Switzerland’s other national cheese dish. With development of the wine and ski industries in the Valais, Raclette became central to après-ski and guesthouse menus. Over the centuries, this outdoor meal moved indoors and condiments were added. He probably had a rasher of air-cured beef or bacon in his pouch, and a flask of Schnapps to wash it down. Not wanting to waste a morsel of the aromatic stuff, he scraped it onto boiled potatoes. Legend has it that Raclette, a dish born in the Swiss canton of Valais in the 16th century, resulted from an accidental meltdown of hearty alpine cheese, left by a hunter or shepherd on a hot stone too close to his campfire. ![]()
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