Raclette AOP cheese from Valais🇨🇭

A wheel of AOP raclette cheese from Valais🇨🇭?
That’s 4-4,4kg of flower-rich alpine milk encapsulated in a divine and compact piece of cheese made of nature, savoir-faire and love.

Indeed… Our raclette cheese (“raclette ost”) comes directly from the very cradle of raclette, i.e. from the “val de Bagnes” et “val du Grand Saint-Bernard” in the Swiss Alps in Valais (Verbier, Zermatt, Crans Montana…), where raclette was invented centuries ago.

The raclette cheese is made from raw cow’s milk from the “mountain queens” as they call them: the majestic, black cows of “Hérens”.

The alpine pastures are amazingly rich in flowers. And the richness of the cows’ feed reflects in the finest cows’ milk.

The milk is gathered daily by more than twenty mountain farmers who then directly bring the fresh milk to the milk house in Orsières that produces the raclette sold here.

The milk house in Orsières was inaugurated in September 2020 and is top of its league with state of the art equipment and a passionate staff that will always make the difference between good and excellent products.

Indeed: milk is a product of nature and it takes savoir-faire to recognize when each step in production is achieved.

Once produced, a raclette cheese wheel ripens during 3 months.

As a result, this raclette cheese is a super creamy and flavorful cheese, with a unique and typical taste. Pure tradition.

Hence, this raclette is an AOP cheese (“Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée”), i.e a high-end cheese with a “Protected Designation of Origin”. That means that only raclette cheese made in the Canton of Valais can be named “raclette cheese”. Any other raclette cheese which doesn’t wear the AOP-logo is not a real raclette cheese.

You buy this raclette as tradition has it: in quarter wheels (1-1,1kg) or in half wheels (2-2,2kg). The quarter and half wheels are vacuum-packaged at the Laiterie d’Orsières.

The quarter and half wheels of raclette are “washed”: there’s only a thin soft rind left that you can eat. It is actually part of the pleasure of the cheese. (In French, it is even called “la religieuse”, “a religious” piece, just divine…).

A quarter wheel of raclette treats 4-5 raclette eaters (half a wheel accomodates 8-10 persons). It is a complete meal (in Switzerland it’s a national dish).

This makes a portion per diner SEK 110-135, which is a very reasonable budget for a first-class product.

And… with raclette, you prepare everything before your guests arrive (it’s uncomplicated and quick to prepare) and then you remain seated throughout the meal (no to-and-fro’s to the kitchen to fetch the next courses). Everyone just sits down and enjoys a cozy, shared moment.

Kids love it too.

So, in a nutshell: raclette is a perfect alternative to the “fredagsmys”. (And not only on Friday 😉.)

💡 TIP FOR YOU 💡
To very easily cut the quarter and half raclette wheels into neat slices,
use this raclette slicer HERE. Smart, and super useful!