Four generations of raclette

June 19, 2020

The pandemic has put me in a very nostalgic mood. With much more time on my hands, I have taken to going through old family photo albums. Many of these albums belonged to my grandfather and my great grandmother, who came from Quebec to the United States during the middle of the last century.

I have fond memories of childhood visits to Rosemont, the neighborhood in Montreal where my great grandmother grew up. I remember the whimsical looking staircases in front of the apartment buildings, the way the air smelled, and the soft patter of Canadian French being spoken. My relatives eventually moved out to Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Granby, where I have the most special memories of cooking on the raclette.

My great-great Uncle Emile was a kind and jolly man. He lived in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and every time we would visit him, he would prepare the raclette. There was an unspoken formality to raclette, despite it being served in the most casual setting. Adults went first, cooking the meat and vegetables on the grill top while drinking vin rouge and handing off slices of baguette and apples to the children.

We, the children, would wait patiently for our mothers to assemble little plates of food for us -- pieces of beef fillet, buttery mushrooms and potatoes, and grilled zucchini -- all topped with delicious, melted raclette cheese. If we were lucky, we were afforded the opportunity to cook on the raclette ourselves. I will always remember feeling so mature, sitting among the adults, listening to the intermingling of French and English (often a discussion about the International Balloon Festival of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, which we often attended), and hearing the sizzle of the food as I turned it over on the grill top.

My grandfather maintained the custom of having raclette at home in New Hampshire. It was almost always a summertime and early fall affair, usually outside on the deck. When our family would visit from Quebec, my grandfather made sure that we would have escargots and fresh oysters from Great Bay to accompany the raclette feast.

During this quarantine, while going through old photos of my Quebecois family, I was reminded of the raclette and how much joy it brought me. I ordered a new raclette grill and my boyfriend and I spent a long time cooking, eating, and conversing. It felt like an actual date. It was something we had planned and looked forward to.

There is an immense comfort in cooking on the raclette -- it forces you to slow down and truly share a meal together. Food and conversation are perhaps the two most fundamental aspects of quarantine society, and the raclette marries them together so perfectly.

You will need a raclette grill (you may find them in some specialty kitchen stores or online) and you will need to pre-assemble a fair amount of fresh ingredients for the grill. The items used tend to vary. Use what you have on hand first, and then find what suits your taste.

These items often include:
Raclette cheese (a semi hard cheese)
Baby potatoes, boiled and tossed with melted butter
Mushrooms (cremini or button)
Pieces of beef fillet
Sausages
Zucchini
Asparagus
Oil for cooking -- olive or vegetable work fine
Salt, pepper, and any herbs and spices that will complement your ingredient list

Assemble ingredients into separate bowls or plates, and place them on a communal table with the raclette grill in the middle. The potatoes and cheese can go into some of the warming trays that are underneath the grill top. Everyone at the table cooks their own food according to their own taste. Everything can be grilled, and food can be placed in the trays to keep warm. The cheese, once melted in the warming trays, can be liberally poured over the top of cooked meat.

On the side, slice up some apples and squeeze fresh lemon juice over them -- eat these in between items as a palette cleanser. Also on the side, have a nice fresh loaf of baguette, some butter, pickled onions, pickled beets, and sour pickles.

Ashley grew up in New England on an historic apple orchard. She is a former public history student and when she isn’t cooking, she is busy at work in an academic library.