Raclette is both a cheese, and a meal based around the cheese. For information about the cheese, see Raclette Cheese. This entry is about raclette as a meal made at the table. It consists of a large piece of raclette cheese. You cut the rind off the cheese first so the cheese can melt easily,…
Swiss Food
Raclette Cheese
Raclette is a mild cheese with a taste similar to that of gruyère. There are French and Swiss versions. Raclette is also used as the name of a meal based on the cheese. See Raclette (Meal.) The cheese is semi-soft, and off-white in colour, with minute air bubble holes in it. It is “designed” to…
Rubinette Apples
Rubinette are small to medium-sized, somewhat flattened apples. The size of apple increases as the tree ages. They have dull golden-green skin flushed with bright red stripes, with some fawn-coloured russetting. In warmer climates, the skin is more green. Inside, they have cream-coloured, crisp, tender flesh. It has a rich flavour, with a honey-like sweetness…
Sapsago Cheese
Sapsago is a hard cheese used as a garnish or flavouring cheese. It can be grated on top of dishes, or blended into soft, fresh cheeses, or into butter, to make spreads. The cheese is sold in small 3 oz (85g) cone-shapes, wrapped in silver foil. Each cone is only about 2 inches (5 cm)…
Sbrinz Cheese
Sbrinz cheese is a Swiss cheese made from whole, raw cow’s milk. The milk is heated to 89 F (31.5 C), at which point starter bacteria and Calf Rennet is mixed in. After being allowed to curdle for 40 minutes, the curd is cut into large pieces, drained of its whey, then stirred and heated…
Swiss Chard
Swiss Chard © Denzil Green Swiss Chard, though a member of the beet family, doesn’t develop the large root that beets do. Instead, chard is grown for its leaves and thick, edible stalks, which are treated as greens or pot herbs and cooked. The plant will grow anywhere from 50 to 70 cm tall (20…
Swiss Gourmet Apples
Swiss Gourmet are medium-sized, slightly conical apples with waxy skin. There is often some russetting at the bottom. Inside, they have firm, crisp flesh. The mild taste is a balance of sweet and tart, with the tart more dominant. The tree is a good bearer. It needs thinning, though, or it may become a biennial…
Tête de Moine Cheese
Tête de Moine is a cylinder-shaped Swiss cheese that is brine-washed while it is being aged 4 to 6 months. The inedible rind is orangey and sticky; inside, the cheese is a straw-yellow colour and has a spicy flavour. The cheese cylinders are 3 inches wide x 4 inches tall, weighing 2 pounds (8cm wide…
Tilsit Cheese
Tilsit cheese is made from cow’s milk — usually partially-skimmed, but sometimes whole. The milk may or may not be pasteurized, depending on where it is made. The milk is warmed to 85 F / 30 C (95 F / 35 C if whole milk.) Starter is added, along with colour and rennet. Curd forms…
Vacherin Fribourgeois
Vacherin Fribourgeois is made from cow’s milk, either raw or pasteurized. Unpasteurized versions are sold in Europe; the pasteurized versions are sold to North America. Bacteria is added to the milk, then milk is heated to 100 F (38 C), and rennet is added. The curd is cut into large pieces, and the temperature raised…
Vacherin Mont d’Or
There is great confusion over what this soft-cheese is called. The cheese has been made since the early 1800s in an area of Europe just to the north of Lausanne, Switzerland and to the west of Neufchâtel, Switzerland. The border in that area went back and forth between France and Switzerland over the years, and…