Raclette has a smooth supple texture and excellent melting characteristics. The moisture content, in addition to its young ripening age of three to four months, gives it a silky quality and low level of fat separation when heated gently. When aged, the cheese takes on characteristics similar to Gruyère.
Raclette is traditionally eaten melted over foods: potatoes, pasta, eggs, bread, and more. Simply top your favorite dish with thin slices of the cheese, place under the broiler until melted golden and crisp and serve with pickled onions and gherkins.
Our aged raclette offers more complex flavors and is also wonderful served as part of a cheese or charcuterie board.
Raclette is a semi-soft washed-rind cow's milk cheese. The name “raclette” comes from the French "racler," “to scrape”. Raclette was traditionally a herdsman’s cheese—one made for themselves and not for the market. After allowing it to melt by the evening fire, barely encased in its rind, the cheese was scraped over hot potatoes and other mountain provisions. Now raclette is one of the most notable styles of Alpine cheese, still lending itself to the communal meal.
Both the cheese and the meal have their origins in the Alpine regions of Switzerland and France where cheesemaking and transhumance (the practice of moving livestock) have intertwined for centuries. Like many traditional cheeses, climate and other environmental conditions have more to do with its origin than modern national boundaries. However, Raclette’s Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) designation for this style is located in French-speaking Switzerland.
Unlike other aged cheeses stored in wax or plastic, Leelanau Raclette has a natural rind which is turned and brushed daily with a proprietary brine solution to preserve and develop the taste and flavor qualities unique to Raclette.
