This year, with New Year's Eve/Day being in the middle of the work week and returning from our weekend in Philly, we hadn't given a lot of thought or effort to what we'd do for New Year's. But as we were spending our last day in Philly standing in DiBruno Brothers' Rittenhouse Square outpost with Patti asking, "What are you going to do with all of that cured meat you always buy here but never finish?" we had our answer: Raclette.
For the uninitiated, Raclette is both a stinky and melty cheese from Alpine France/Switzerland, and a meal prepared with said cheese in which large quantities of it are melted and poured over various other foodstuffs, usually charcuterie, steamed potatoes, cornichons and steamed broccoli -- at least traditionally. It's big with the après-ski crowd and, years ago after we were invited over to a Raclette-centric gathering hosted by a work colleague who's married to a Frenchman, we were smitten. After all, it's a meal whose principal parts are melted/burnt cheese and cured meats. What could possibly be wrong with that?
Our Raclette machine |
The cheeses: From left to right: Swiss, American and French |
And to make it a little geekier, we found no fewer than three types of Raclette at DiBruno Brothers -- a Swiss version, a French version and a domestic version from Vermont. Meaning we could have a Raclette taste-off!
The meats! |
Cheese-wise, the Swiss was our least favorite. It was just plain too stinky. Don't get me wrong, I like stinky cheese, but this was too much. The American version was tasty, but tended to not melt well, breaking like a sauce instead of becoming all gooey. The French version, on the other hand, was just right. The right sharpness, melted nicely and tasted really good when it was a little burned.
We accompanied our meal by dipping into our wine collection for a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape that we brought back from France in 2011, and a bottle of Grand Cru Champagne we'd been saving on account'a it was New Year's.
All-in-all, it was a great way to ring in the New Year -- a fun little experiment in cheese, a light effort in terms of cleanup, and a relaxing evening. If you'd like to try Raclette yourself, I know people who have used their broiler. If you live in the DC area, I also know Cheesetique in Del Ray and Shirlington rents them out -- something like $50 for the machine and a certain amount of cheese. Or you might be able to borrow ours. After all, we don't use it that much. But we're glad we have it.
Happy New Year, everyone!
La toute ensemble! |
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