Raclette
Prep Time 25 minutes 
Cook Time 20 minutes 
Total Time 45 minutes 
Servings 4Ingredients
Fondue
- 1 kg Raclette cheese 250g per person
- 800 gr firm-fleshed potatoes
On the side
- 200 gr pickled gherkins cornichons
- 150 gr pickled onions
Equipment
Instructions
1. Prepare the potatoes
- Wash the firm-fleshed potatoes and boil whole in salted water until tender (about 20-25 minutes). Drain and let cool slightly.
2. Prepare the salad
- In a small bowl, whisk together Dijon mustard and vinegar. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking until the dressing emulsifies. Season with salt and pepper. Toss the dressing with the mixed lettuce leaves just before serving.
3. Slice the cheese
- Cut Raclette cheese into 5mm thick slices if not pre-sliced. Arrange on a plate ready for melting!
4. Heat the raclette grill
- Preheat your raclette grill.
5. Assemble and serve
- On each plate, arrange potatoes, pickled gherkins, and onions. Pour the melted cheese over the potatoes and accompaniments. Add a portion of dressed salad for freshness.
6. Melt the cheese
- Place a slice of cheese in the individual raclette tray and slide it under the heating element. Let it melt until bubbling and golden (about 3-5 minutes).
7. Repeat and enjoy
- Continue melting and scraping cheese, pairing with more potatoes and pickles throughout the meal. Share, chat, and enjoy!
Notes
- Raclette means “to scrape,” the traditional way to serve melted cheese over food.
- Firm or waxy potatoes hold up perfectly to the cheese, unlike floury ones which break down.
- The crisp salad with mustard dressing cuts through the cheese’s richness and refreshes the palate.
- Vegetarian friendly, simple, and endlessly satisfying!
About this recipe
Raclette is the best winter dinner to share with family and friends around the table. The raclette cheese is completely addictive, and the waiting for it to melt is a whole game of anticipation that just wakes up your taste buds. You will eat too much of it, but that’s just how a raclette evening should go. I’m not a huge fan of winter, but this dinner makes it a lot more bearable! I grew up with it as a Christmas dinner tradition in the south of France, and it still feels like a special occasion every time we do it.
Where raclette comes from
The word raclette comes from the French verb “racler,” meaning to scrape, and that single gesture is really the whole history of the dish. Dishes of melted cheese were already being mentioned in medieval texts from Swiss convents as early as 1291. Cow herders in the Alps, particularly in the canton of Valais in Switzerland, would carry cheese with them when moving the cows up to mountain pastures in summer. In the evenings they’d place a half wheel of cheese next to the campfire, wait for one side to melt, and scrape it onto their bread or potatoes. The whole dish, invented out of pure practicality.
At the time it was called “fromage rôti,” meaning roasted cheese, or “Bratchäs” in Swiss German. The name raclette only became the official term in 1875. From the Swiss mountains it gradually crossed into Savoie and Haute-Savoie, where the tradition of Alpine cheesemaking was already well established, and it became just as embedded in French mountain culture as in Swiss. The Raclette de Savoie has held IGP status since 2017, so the French version now has its own protected identity, separate from the Swiss Raclette du Valais AOP.
It was the arrival of electric raclette grills in the 1970s and 80s that really brought this dish to family tables well beyond the Alps all the way to little me in Southern Nice. Before that, you needed a fire or a specialist heated device to do it properly. The electric grill made raclette dinner something anyone could do at home.
The raclette cheese
The raclette cheese that defines this dish is a semi-hard washed-rind cheese from the Alps, produced on both the French and Swiss sides of the border. French raclette comes primarily from Savoie and Franche-Comté, and it has a pale yellow interior, a mild and slightly nutty flavour when cold, and a deeply savoury, intensely aromatic character once it melts. The rind washing during ageing is what produces that characteristic smell, which people either love immediately or come to love fairly quickly once they’ve tasted it hot!
As the cheese is your whole meal, you kind of have to pick the best one. A good french raclette cheese melts smoothly, develops golden edges if you leave it long enough, and coats the potatoes with something incredibly flavourful. A poor quality one will melt, but the result will be flat, and you’ll notice immediately. Trust me, I’ve been there as I’ve tried many brands and visited a lot of cheese mongers.
What makes raclette dinner special
Unlike fondue, where everyone dips into a shared pot, raclette is communal but still individual. Each person melts their own cheese in a small pan under the grill, to exactly their own preferred degree of doneness, and that’s what makes it so fun.
Some people pull their pan out the moment the cheese melts. I wait. I love my cheese with the rind on, and I like to leave it until it goes extra golden and crispy on top. You can also buy raclette cheese without the rind if you prefer, but for me the rind is half the flavour. The longer it cooks the more intense it gets, and that’s a big part of the pleasure.
It’s also really entertaining to see the difference in everyone’s approach. Some people go full crispy, some go soft and barely melted, some pile their plate high, some build it carefully one layer at a time. Everyone is doing their own thing at their own pace, checking their pan, deciding whether to wait just a little longer, scraping the cheese over the potatoes and loading up another portion straight away. It’s a meal where an hour passes without anyone noticing. Just brilliant.
This vegetarian version raclette recipe
This recipe is vegetarian, which strips the dish back to its essentials: the cheese, the potatoes, and the pickles plus side dishes. The potatoes need to be firm and well-cooked, small enough to eat whole or cut in half, and hot when they reach the table. The cornichons and pickled onions are there to provide the acidity that cuts through the richness of the melted cheese. That’s what makes it possible to eat considerably more than you planned to.
That said, this dish’s traditional roots are firmly tied to charcuterie. If you want to add charcuterie, smoked sausage or ham both work really well alongside the cheese and bring a smoky depth to the table. That is the official most traditional way.
What to drink
A dry white wine from Savoie is the traditional pairing, something like Apremont or Abymes, which have the freshness and acidity to cut through the richness of the cheese. A Riesling from Alsace works really well too. Keep it dry, Alpine if you can, and keep it cold!
Share your feedback and spread the love!
If you try this recipe, I’d love to hear how it turns out! Leave a ★★★★★ rating and your thoughts in the comments, it helps fellow French foodies discover this recipe too. Snap a photo and tag @obviously.french on Instagram. Come talk about it in our Facebook group. And don’t forget to save this recipe to Pinterest so you’ll always have it handy for your next French-inspired meal!
Disclosure: Just so you know, this post contains sponsored content and/or affiliate links, If you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission. Doesn’t cost you anything extra. I only link to things that are actually worth your time. All opinions are my own!
