Raclette is a semi hard cheese with a slightly firm texture containing a few tiny bubbles. It has a buttery flavour.
The unique taste of the cheese is from herbs that are eaten by cows.
There is more than one way to eat it but typically (using the Alpine method) the huge cheese is halved with one half placed next to a wooden fire. When the cheese melts, the racleur scrapes the melted cheese onto a plate.
It’s then eaten with potatoes, bread and sliced dried meats (charcuterie) and served with warm tea or a wine called Fendant made from the chasselas grape.
Vacherin du mont d’ or has yellow-grey rind with a firm, creamy and very rich centre (40% – 50% milk fat).
It’s a cheese made during the cooler times of the year in the mountains between Switzerland and France.
The curd is poured into thin hoops in which the cheese is washed and matured. From there it’s put into a pine box that’s vital for its distinctive taste.
Vacherin Fribourgeois is a strong, hearty cow’s milk cheese with a firm texture.
Vacherin d’alpage is a rich Vacherin, and is very rare to come by. It’s made by hand, only in very remote chalets from the milk of cows grazing in the Alpine meadows.
Vacherin du Haut du Mont d’or is a wood infused, unpasteurised cheese with a soft and creamy texture.
These cheeses can only be made between the 15th of August (when the cows return from the mountains) and the 31st of March.
They’re wrapped in cloth, packed into protective ‘baskets’ made of spruce bark and washed in brine for 3 weeks.
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