Raclette de Savoie

Appearance & taste

Raclette de Savoie is a round wheel 28 to 34 cm in diameter and 6 to 7.5 cm high. For sale in pre-packed slices it may also be made as a block with sides of the same length. The smear rind is yellow to brown, the paste white to straw-yellow, firm and creamy, with occasional holes.

Cold, the cheese is firm. When heated it becomes viscous and melts delicately; in doing so it releases hardly any fat and can be spread. The specification describes it as considerably more viscous than other raclette cheeses; it melts in the mouth and is hardly sticky. The cheese contains at least 56 % dry matter, 48 to 52 % fat in dry matter and less than 2.2 % salt.

It is sold as a whole wheel, loose as a wedge or in slices, and pre-packed in slices. The label shows the name, the EU symbol for PGI and the name of the certification body.

Production

The roughage of the basic ration must come entirely from the area of origin; coarse fodder from outside is limited to an annual average of 4 kg of dry matter per cow per day. Only feed from a positive list is permitted, and it may not be labelled as genetically modified. The milk traditionally comes from the Abondance, Montbéliarde and Tarentaise breeds, which are adapted to slopes, summer pasture and dry fodder in winter.

The master cheesemakers adapt production to the milk. To control the fat content, the milk is occasionally partly skimmed. It is inoculated with selected thermophilic cultures; the curd is washed and pressed, which controls the pH. According to the specification, the thermophilic cultures and the washing of the curd contribute to the pronounced viscosity, and the fat content determines how it melts and spreads. Traditionally the cheese ripens for at least eight weeks on wooden boards. Milk production, cheesemaking and ripening take place in the area of origin.

Origin & history

The area mostly lies between 200 and 2,500 m above sea level, on soils of crystalline rock and limestone. The mountain climate brings long, often harsh winters and hot summers; with an average of 1,000 mm of precipitation a year, up to 1,500 mm at the foot of the Pre-Alps, plenty of good grass grows. Pastures and hay meadows have a rich Alpine flora.

According to the specification, its origins go back to the Middle Ages, when herdsmen in summer melted half a wheel of cheese in front of a wood fire. The name “raclette”, from the French racler (to scrape), only arose at the beginning of the 20th century: the melted surface was scraped off and spread on potatoes. With its medium size, the cheese gradually complemented the other Savoyard varieties: unlike with very large wheels, even small quantities of milk could be preserved this way. The dairies run jointly by the farmers, the “Fruitières”, shaped the cheese culture of the region.

Around 1975 raclette grills were developed in Savoy, helped by the plentiful electricity from hydropower; the cheese was now heated on special plates instead of at a wood fire. With winter-sports tourism in the 1970s, Raclette de Savoie became known as the cheese eaten on these occasions.