Our Canadian friends, Claude and Linda Garneau sent us pictures recently of their latest “toy” – a raclette melter. Claude gave it to Linda for their 40th anniversary and it struck us as the perfect holiday gift for cheese makers.
Linda Garneau melting a raclette she made herself
What is Raclette?
Raclette comes from the French word “racler”which means “to scrape.” In that sense, it means a dish with any melted cheese scraped onto it. (When you invite people over for a meal where cheese is scraped onto the food, you call the whole experience a raclette.)
A serving of potatoes and gherkins with melted cheese on top at Camden Market in London
It is also a category of cheese, originally made in France and Switzerland – a semi-firm, cow’s milk cheese which melts beautifully when heated and scraped. To make it yourself, see our recipe.
If you’ve ever been to London, chances are you’ve been to Borough’s Market or any number of places where raclette is sold. The cheeses vary, but the process of scraping the cheese onto the plate is the same. The cheese isn’t just melted- it’s broiled, so there is a little bit of crispiness on the surface.
Raclette at Kappacasein in Borough Market. Photos (above and below) by Carey Jones at Serious Eats
Now, there’s even a raclette restaurant in New York City-
Where are they sold?
There are all kinds of cheese melting grills on the market, but we’re kind of old-school, so, unless you can “broil” the cheese and scrape it off the surface, we don’t consider it raclette.
Many of the models below are available on Amazon, at WalMart, eBay, Jet.com, Kitchen Institute, etc.
Features:
This is made by NutriChef, as is the next one (the model Claude bought). We don’t know for sure what the difference is between this model and the next one, but this one appears to take up less space on the table.
Features:
It has a maximum temperature of 482F, and the temperature is adjustable.
600 watts.
It’s made of stainless steel.
It can be taken apart easily for storage.
A note on my previous comment, you have to use slices of cheese, rather than melting some off of the entire pieces, but it still seems like a nice unit for small amounts!
I thought about including that in the article, but it really isn’t a raclette melter because the only heat source is at the bottom. It is a cheese melter, however, so thanks for mentioning it.
Alicesays
Would also like to recommend this smaller personal raclette, by Boska Holland, that uses tealights to melt the cheese:
A note on my previous comment, you have to use slices of cheese, rather than melting some off of the entire pieces, but it still seems like a nice unit for small amounts!
I thought about including that in the article, but it really isn’t a raclette melter because the only heat source is at the bottom. It is a cheese melter, however, so thanks for mentioning it.
Would also like to recommend this smaller personal raclette, by Boska Holland, that uses tealights to melt the cheese:
https://www.boska.com/usa/life-partyclette?___from_store=usa
You can find videos of it being used and it looks great for smaller spaces, or for single person use!