Raclette makes a melty debut in World Championship Cheese Contest in Madison
MADISON ‒ In the cheese-making universe, the old world comes to Wisconsin for recognition, even when the type of cheese in question is older than Wisconsin itself.
The World Championship Cheese Contest this year added the increasingly popular raclette (pronounced rock-let), a preferably melted cheese well known in Europe, especially Switzerland and Austria, and becoming better known in the United States. Raclette originated in the Swiss Alps and is thought to be at least 400 years old.
Raclette comes from the French word "racler," which means "to scrape," and that's how raclette is typically used. It is heated and the melted part scraped onto, most often, potatoes, pasta, pickles or onions.
"I personally love it," said John Jaeggi of the Center for Dairy Research in Madison. "When it's cold, it's OK. But melted, oh my gosh, it's really good."
This YouTube video explains how raclette cheese is used.
Jaeggi and his judging partner for the championships, Richard Weiss of Obersteirische Molkerei eGen in Austria, will be the first to judge raclette in the world championship and therefore set the standard for future contests, such as temperatures and times for heating the cheese, so all are treated the same.
Raclette was included in the contest in the past, but in other categories and without being melted. The Swiss really wanted it to be melted when judged. "When we broke it off, we decided, yes, let's do what they do," said John Umhoefer, executive director of Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, the contest host.
The contest adds new categories fairly regularly. Hard as it might be for Wisconsinites to believe, cheese curds got their own category only in 2022. Sometimes cheeses like raclette are judged in other categories until the number of entries increases enough to indicate the need for a new class. More than 50 raclette entries will be judged on Wednesday.
More: The best cheese curds in the world are made by 2 Wisconsin cheesemakers
"We'll look at it as a normal cheese, then we'll take a raclette iron, we'll put the slice in and we'll melt it for about a minute and a half. We'll look and see, does it melt fully, does it free oil, does it burn, is it lumpy, how does it taste?"
It can be nutty, creamy and a bit buttery and aromatic when heated, which means judging will be in the back of the Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center exhibit area Wednesday so the smell doesn't throw off judges trying to sort out the best of many other categories.
Raclette is a surface-ripened cheese, which means it is washed with salt water and bacteria smears, which break down the protein and fat on surface of the cheese and gives it a characteristic flavor. Surface-ripened cheeses are exposed in a cave (real or man-made) with 100% humidity and temperatures of about 60 degrees. That accelerates the breakdown of the protein and fat, creating differing flavors.
"It takes a lot of experience and you've got to maintain and watch it," Jaeggi said. "I've heard it described as trying to navigate a raft down the rapids. There are things that can go wrong and you don't know until later when things go sideways."
Weiss said failures in making surface-ripened cheese are frequent. "Always," he said.
This year's championship includes more than 3,300 cheese, yogurt, butter and dry dairy products. That is fewer entries than the record of about 3,700 in 2018, but it is more than two years ago, the last time the world championship was held. Every other year, the U.S. championship is held in Green Bay.
"We are kind of in a COVID recovery," Umhoefer said. "We believe it will slowly build again."
About one-third of the entries are from European producers, but they make up in quality what they lack in quantity.
"The Americans only won one of these in the last two, three decades," Umhoefer said. "Our members recognize, this is serious competition. We've lost the world championship more than we've won it. There's respect there."
The world championship was first held in 1957 and is the largest technical dairy products evaluation in the world. Gourmino Le Gruyère, made by Michael Spycher of Mountain Dairy Fritzenhaus in Bern, Switzerland, was the 2022 champion.
Unhofer said public turnout for Tuesday's opening day was a typical or stronger crowd for the world contest.
Judging is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday as well, with free samples of the world's best cheeses available throughout.
Selection of the World Championship Cheese will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, with the selection livestreamed as WorldChampionshipCheese.org.
Contact Richard Ryman at rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Raclette makes melty debut in World Championship Cheese Contest
