Raclette machines advice

Food & Drink, Events and Entertainment
1
I'm looking at getting a raclette machine, but what sort? Can anyone please tell me the pro's & con's of the stone v's metal ones, and any recommendations for a machine, best place to get one etc.... my tummy will be eternally grateful

2
I my opinion the grill ones are better if you want to do meat on them too. The traditional ones are only for cheese as far as I know. The meat grill is something that came along later.

You can do it the outdoors way too. Light a fire, melt the cheese and scrape it onto some bread!!!

3
Metal one, with a grill to keep potatoes hot would certainly be the best solution!!

4
From a linguistic perspective, if you don't scrape ( racler ) it, it ain't raclette

5
Even with the electric ones you scrape the cheese from the pan.

6
When I first arrived in Zurich, I managed to buy a LOT of furniture and household things from a woman who was leaving Zurich. One of the items that I bought was a raclette maker. It must have been made in the '70s, and the brand is Stockli (don't they make skis now?)...

You put the cheese in small ceramic dishes (4 slots), and you can put your accoutrements on top to warm up. For the Americans out there, it is like the Ronco brand that you bought on late night TV. I think they sold fondue pots, in fact.

But the thing works like a charm and comes with all the tools/forks/small dishes. I highly recommend it.

As it is 220v, we will have to sell it someday when we return home...

fduvall

7
We were lucky to find a Sigg Raclette Machine, I think they call it a cheeseboard. I would not want to get the stone top one since it takes longer to heat up (and cool) and it is heavier. I grilled zuchinies on it the other day and they were done in 10mins.

Sigg is fantastic, great and functioning design (the guy who made it got a national design prize for it), easy to wash, etc.

We were looking for the big wheel thingie at first but who eats such a huge amount of cheese at once (even with friends), the little shovels are practical. We put it through a thorough test, loved it so much we made Raclette every day for a week. You will get hooked. It is practical to make just a bit of cheese if you happen to have guests, not to go through the whole shibang of dragging and prepping the half wheel of cheese.

8
Raclette supplies online

http://www.raclettieren.ch/

We hired this guy for two days catering at our store opening and after eating his raclette (for two days!!) I learned there is a big difference between melted cheese and raclette!! I don't know about his website but it does have a good selection of raclette machines, personally I like the gas one, if your going to melt it you gotta give that sucker maximum heat rrrrrrrrr. My wife politely pointed out I should look in the garage at some of the other useful gadgets I couldn't live without before "investing in a nuclear powered raclette machine" mmmmmmmm I hate the voice of reason....

9
What does raclette have to do with a machine? The original way to do it: Hold half a wheel of cheese over an open fire (the cut side towards the flames) until the cheese starts to melt. Now hold the wheel over a plate and let the melting cheese flow onto it. You'll definitely note the difference once you have done it this way. See here:

[](http://images.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=http://www.martigny.info/info/site-images/raclette.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.martigny.info/info/tradit.html&usg=__MttXLcVO4LdopwEGEdnqApQa6Co=&h=605&w=603&sz=52&hl=de&start=40&um=1&tbnid=wfdOwWtRYb2E2M:&tbnh=135&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Draclette%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Dde%26sa%3DN%26start%3D36%26um%3D1) [](http://images.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=http://archiv.rz-online.ch/news2003/Nr23-19juni/bilder-aktuell/foto011.jpg&imgrefurl=http://archiv.rz-online.ch/news2003/Nr23-19juni/index.htm&usg=__2dIs2XcKR7IBR-Cn0NXU6YCdN8s=&h=294&w=400&sz=30&hl=de&start=67&um=1&tbnid=RHrdbLP9N-AcCM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Draclette%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Dde%26sa%3DN%26start%3D54%26um%3D1)

If you don't have a fireplace in your appartment: There are electrical machines on the market that give in about the same feeling. Pictures of such a model:

[](http://images.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=http://hitparade.ch/mypage/stellanera/raclette.jpg&imgrefurl=http://hitparade.ch/mypage/stellanera/&usg=__9QqZUQGqRJRA_HsLKVQgBQoNsfY=&h=400&w=400&sz=56&hl=de&start=4&um=1&tbnid=CVryd20K1D1DGM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Draclette%26hl%3Dde%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1) [](http://images.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=http://www.instablogsimages.com/images/2008/01/12/swiss-raclette-furnace_2263.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hometone.org/entry/swiss-raclette-oven-enjoy-your-cheese-the-swiss-way/&usg=__8rHOhKk17UsMJkYiqElelTDsedg=&h=551&w=550&sz=59&hl=de&start=17&um=1&tbnid=27LTuqY4s4cctM:&tbnh=133&tbnw=133&prev=/images%3Fq%3Draclette%26hl%3Dde%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1)

I used the first model myself when I used to be an air-steward for Swissair back in the 70s. For the second service in first class between Zurich and New York, we would do raclette up in the lounge. Despite the efficient air-conditioning, the whole plane afterwards was pretty smelly :-)

10
if you're interested last weekend coop had their 8 "setting" raclette grill half price

i snafooied one up and for 50chf can't go wrong

11
I found extremely useful to have in addition to a big raclette machine (recommended by zürihegel ) also a small raclette grill at home.

Of course the result will be not the same (not at all ), but preparations take less time and it is convenient if you would like to enjoy raclette alone or just with few people during cold winter period.

B.

12
This is what I was refering to above by using an open fire to melt the cheese. I've done it in the woods on a moonlit winters night and it was awesome.

13
We tried the half a wheel of cheese over an open fire (well, no open fire but using the old fashion machine we boroughed from the farmer that sold us the Raclette Wheel). It was fun to experience one time but I would never - again - want to half a large amount of guests all hungry waiting for cheese to melt...

Now we have 2 machines, one very good quality with stone on top for meat and potato, other rather cheap with metal top. It works great and you can have 10 people dining and inetracting.

I highly recomend both machines. It all depends on your budget.

When having a large number of people over for dinner, you'd rather have more then one machine.

Raclette in winter is great. You harldy need to prepare and if you feel creative you can make some sauces for the meat, etc... not very Swiss but works great!

14
Strangely as the machine I've seen is shops, and the ones I've had in peoples homes are actually labelled "raclette grill" or "raclette machine". But for clarity I mean the table top machines with either the stone or teflon coated tops, where the cheese goes into the wee tray's and the meat or veggies get cooked on the top.

That's the type I was refering to;-)

15
Grill are very useful but don't be cheap. Buy a good one with plenty of watts otherwise it takes a lot longer to heat up and melt cheese or grill meat, unless of course you like very rare steaks and solid raclette

16
I use a small 4 plate machine made by TEFAL, bought from Migros. Excellent for two people and with proper cheese from the Molki as good as the large variety of more expensive machines. It just looks cheap.

Enjoy.

17
Anyone have any thoughts on what constitutes enough watts?

THanks,

Brian.

18
All depends on how many people you're dining with and I would say the shape of your table. They come in twos, fours, long, round, even stacked I've seen in Coop City.

We have a long one for four (a Stöckli Cheeseboard ), can park the little pans under the grill part, which is useful if you want to take a break and not burn your table. The metal tray on top we hardly use, as it's a b...er to clean. And if you're doing chipolata sausages they either burn on all sides or if you add some oil, the oil spits onto the kids... nice !

19
I got my Raclette from Fust, can't remember what brand it was but it's a decent sized one and only cost around 60 chuffs. It also heats up pretty quickly and has been fine on the couple of occasions i've used it. Just don't be too over-zealous with a scraper though or you will scratch off the teflon coating. Goo for the next size up too, I bought mine without thinking when the next model up was only about 15 CHF more for about 50% extra capacity... useful if you have some people round.

Meep.

20
We have a little one for 2 people that we got out of the household goods which were distributed among the family when hubby's grandmother passed.

I've not used it yet as I am not really sure what little nibbles hubby likes with his.

Meanwhile, I kept thinking that a good "any time" thing to do with it would be to make individual trays of nachos.