North American ski resorts boast great snow, fantastic terrain, and lots of their own charms, but they can’t really hold a candle to one aspect of the European ski vacation – cheese. Close your eyes and draw a mental picture of the Alps, and chances are good it will include fondue pots and cow bells, iconic parts of the visitor experience. While the ski heart of the Alps spans several countries, including France, Switzerland and Italy, one thing they all agree on is the magnificence of cheese dishes and how well they go with skiing and wine – these are the folks who invented the term après ski, after all. Herewith, our definitive guide to the melted cheese phenomenon.

Fondue

Après ski comfort food for sharing and camaraderie, the basic concept is straightforward: a pot of rich melted cheese dip, into which you immerse cubes of bread on long forks until thoroughly coated. But after that it gets a lot more confusing. Bread is the staple, but dipping tools often include other things that taste great covered in melted cheese, including gherkins, potatoes, pearl onions, and sliced sausage or air dried beef. As for the cheese itself, there are as many recipes as there are cooks, and each household is just as passionate.

The most common is gruyere, and the most typical variation is a half and half mix with emmental, but some think a more esoteric local Swiss specialty cheese, vacherin, is more traditional than emmental, while others prefer appenzeller. In the French parts of the Alps they often use their beloved comte instead of gruyere, alone or in a blend. Whatever cheese is used, it is typically melted with a dash white wine, but some go further and add garlic, cream, or cornstarch to help maintain consistency, and kirsch (a cherry liqueur) is a very common addition too. If you are not cooking it yourself, this questions hardly matter, since most restaurants will simply offer fondue their way, and it will be delicious. The one custom that is important to remember is that losing your bread cube in the pot is an offense punishable by picking up the check.
Go to the French Alps

Raclette

Think reverse fondue – instead of dipping food in melted cheese, you spread melted cheese on top of food – which is fine by us. Raclette is a particular kind of cheese, so the recipe is simple, but the preparation varies. Traditionally, a large wheel of raclette cheese was sliced in half, and then places adjacent to a roaring fire. Diners would then load their plates with an array of edibles from a buffet-style spread, including boiled potatoes, gherkins, pearl onions, mushrooms, and assorted cured meats. As the edge of the cheese melted, guests would take turns scraping it off with a special wooden paddle the width of the wheel, depositing the paddleful of melted cheese on top of the food on their plate. Today most restaurants have electric raclette machines for each table, with a special bulb as the heat source.

You can remove the cheese from the heat when you need a break, then start again. It is a fun, communal and delicious experience. Some places have just one raclette machine in the kitchen, and come out with individual plates loaded with a pool of melted cheese and accessories. This is not as much fun, but allows solo diners the chance to still experience the dish.
Go to the French Alps

Reblochonnade 

More difficult to find nowadays and very similar to raclette, reblochonnade uses its own special tabletop machine, in which small pans of cheese are inserted under a broiler to melt, than scraped onto assorted tidbits. As the name suggests, it always uses reblochon, a soft, washed rind, raw AOC cow’s milk cheese from the Savoy region of France, known for its nutty aftertaste. With its AOC designation, real reblochon cannot be made anyplace else, and unlike gruyere, comte and raclette, it cannot be imported into the U.S., (as it is made from raw milk), so is worth trying out on vacation if you see it on the menu. Keep an eye out too for Berthoud. Usually served as an individual main course, this is a ramekin of melted, seasoned, Swiss abondance cheese with a plate of assorted sausage, cured meats, and potato.

Tartiflette 

As you may have noticed by now, Alpine fare tends to be hearty, dating back to a tradition of feeding hard working farmers, and tartiflette is another rib-sticking example. It is a casserole made by layering thick slices of reblochon cheese with sliced potatoes, onions and pork lardons, baked in the oven until it melts together. This is alpine comfort food, and can be shared or enjoyed as an individual main course. In parts of Switzerland, they make a buckwheat pasta called Crozet di Savoie, thin sheets cut into tiny squares. When substituted for the potatoes used in tartiflette, this creates a hyper-regional variation called croziflette. The pasta is also cooked and mixed with shredded local cheeses like tomme for an Alpine version of macaroni and cheese.
Go to the Swiss Alps

Berner alpkase/ hobelkase 

Not all alpine cheese specialties are for melting, especially in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland region (Gstaad), where they specialize in hard (alpkase) and extra-hard (hobelkase) cow’s milk cheeses, both of which are made only in summer and carry AOC designations as regional specialties. Their consistency requires the use of a special tool to cut and serve the cheese called a cheese planer, which has a razor-like blade inset into a flat surface. As a wedge is pulled across the blade, it shaves off a paper thin strip that naturally rolls into a cigar shaped tube. These hollow and ethereal cheese tubes accompany local sausage and air dried beef, and serve as appetizer platters perfect for sharing, like a heartier take on the traditional Italian antipasto spreads.

Images: Le Petit Chalet; Alex Toulemonde/flickr

The post Say Cheese! On the Fondue Trail in the Alps appeared first on Luxury Retreats Magazine.