Swiss Raclette with Melted Alpine Cheese, Boiled Fingerling Potatoes, Cornichons and Smoked Pickled Onions

Pickle the onions ahead: combine vinegar, water, sugar, smoked salt, peppercorns, bay leaves and thyme in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and stir until sugar dissolves. Place sliced onions in a heatproof jar. Pour the hot brine over and press down with a spoon. Cool, cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, ideally overnight. The onions soften, turn deep magenta and develop a smoky-sweet edge.

Ingredients

• For the raclette:
• 600g (1.3 lbs) raclette cheese — buy a half-wheel or pre-sliced; substitute with young Gruyère or Tilsiter only if raclette is unavailable
• Raclette must be at room temperature for 30 minutes before melting
• For the potatoes (rosti potatoes are the traditional choice; here we use the simpler boiled version):
• 800g (1.75 lbs) small fingerling or new potatoes — Swiss Bintje variety preferred
• 2 tsp coarse salt for the boiling water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp caraway seeds (optional but very Alpine)
• Coarse sea salt for finishing
• For the smoked pickled onions:
• 2 medium red onions, halved and very thinly sliced
• 180ml (3/4 cup) red wine vinegar
• 60ml (1/4 cup) water
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp smoked salt or 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• For accompaniments:
• 200g cornichons (small French gherkins)
• 150g pickled silverskin onions
• 150g pickled mushrooms (optional)
• Sliced air-dried Bündnerfleisch or coppa
• Crusty Swiss country bread (Walliser Roggenbrot)
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• Sweet paprika and ground nutmeg

Instructions

1. Pickle the onions ahead: combine vinegar, water, sugar, smoked salt, peppercorns, bay leaves and thyme in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and stir until sugar dissolves. Place sliced onions in a heatproof jar. Pour the hot brine over and press down with a spoon. Cool, cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, ideally overnight. The onions soften, turn deep magenta and develop a smoky-sweet edge.
2. Boil the potatoes: place the unpeeled fingerlings in a wide pot. Cover with cold water by 5cm. Add coarse salt, bay leaf and caraway. Bring to a boil, reduce to a steady simmer and cook for 15-18 minutes — until a paring knife slides in with no resistance. Drain. Cover with a clean kitchen towel — they must stay warm for the dish.
3. Prepare the cheese: cut the raclette into 5mm-thick slices, each roughly the size of a tarot card. Lay them on a tray at room temperature. Raclette is designed to melt at low temperature — straight from the fridge it goes greasy rather than smooth.
4. Set up the table: place all accompaniments in small bowls — cornichons, pickled onions, smoked pickled onions, pickled mushrooms, sliced Bündnerfleisch and bread. Add small dishes of cracked pepper, sweet paprika and ground nutmeg.
5. Melt the cheese (oven method without a raclette grill): preheat broiler to high. Place 4-6 slices of raclette in small individual cast-iron pans or oven-safe ramekins. Slide under the broiler 10cm from the heat. Melt for 90 seconds to 2 minutes — the cheese should be fully molten with a slightly browned blistered top. Do not over-melt or it splits.
6. Serve immediately: each diner places 2-3 hot fingerling potatoes on their plate, smashes them lightly with the back of a fork, and tips a pan of bubbling raclette directly over the potatoes. The cheese melts into the cracks of the potato and forms a brown crust where it hits the cool plate.
7. Build each bite: spoon over a generous tangle of smoked pickled onions, add cornichons, scatter cracked black pepper and a pinch of paprika or freshly grated nutmeg. Add slices of Bündnerfleisch alongside. Tear off a piece of country bread to scoop up any cheese left in the pan.
8. Eat in rhythm: the meal is paced — diners melt fresh cheese as they finish each plate, eating slowly across an hour or more. Traditional accompaniments are kirsch (cherry brandy) shots between rounds and either still water or hot black tea — never cold drinks, which solidify the cheese in the stomach.
9. Raclette takes its name from the French verb racler — to scrape — describing the centuries-old practice of holding a half wheel of cheese to an open hearth fire, then scraping the molten surface onto bread or potatoes. The dish originated in the Canton of Valais in southwestern Switzerland and was originally a meal for cowherds in the Swiss Alps, who would melt cheese over wood fires after the day's work. Raclette du Valais AOP (Appellation d'Origine Protégée) cheese is made from raw cow milk in Valais and aged 3-6 months. The Swiss-French and Swiss-German communities both claim raclette as their national dish alongside fondue, and the meal is the defining winter celebration food across the country, especially during the long ski season.