We love communal eating here at home. We do hot pot, fondue and tabletop grilling although not nearly as often as we’d like.
If, like most families, yours is at home to stay away from that pesky bug that has caused serious health concerns worldwide, and you’re thinking of ways to make meals more fun, the idea of grilling meat right on the dining table and pouring melted cheese over it might appeal to you.
My husband gave me this tabletop raclette grill for our wedding anniversary in 2017. I wrote about it before but, given the current situation, I decided to rewrite the post to give you, readers, more ideas for home cooking and dining. We all want our daily routine to be less redundant. We all want top give our waking hours more ooomph so we don’t dwell on negative thoughts, right?
So, instead of the old post about what a wonderful wedding anniversary gift the tabletop raclette grill was (but it was, really), this is an informational piece about how to make the most of your raclette grill.
You can cook an entire meal on a raclonette
Although raclette grills — known as raclonette in Switzerland — come in a variety of designs and sizes, most are fashioned to be more than just an appliance for melting cheese.
Most tabletop raclette grills consist of three parts: the electric coils that provide the heat, a grilling surface on top, and trays for melting cheese.
In our case, above the the electric coil, there are a non-stick grill and a natural stone grill (perfect for making mini pizzas!). Below the coil are slots (four on either side) for eight trays for melting cheese.
The best way to use the grill is to plan your meal so that you use every cooking surface at the same time. You don’t waste electricity that way (electricity is soooo expensive in my part of the world). Plus, everything is cooked at around the same time so every part of your meal is hot when it lands on your plate.
What can you cook on a tabletop raclette grill?
Meat (including sausages), seafood, bread, eggs, vegetables, mushrooms… even fruits. No kidding. Did you know that grilling pineapple slices make them doubly good?
And because a raclette grill has trays for melting cheese, you can pour melted cheese over your meat, seafood, bread…
And just because the appliance is called a raclette grill doesn’t mean raclette is the only cheese you can melt on it.
Raclette is a cheese but it isn’t the only cheese you can melt on a raclette grill
Might as well clarify a few things.
Raclette is a semi-hard cheese from Switzerland.
Raclette is also the name of a dish that consists of melted raclette served with traditional accompaniments like potatoes, pickled onions and dried meat.
I have heard a lot of people refer to any cheese melted the way raclette is traditionally served as raclette. Well, that would be melted cheese served a la raclette, but the melting — even when done on a raclette grill — doesn’t transform other cheeses into raclette.
But that’s just an aside. This about tabletop raclette grill and the point is that you can melt just about any cheese on these little trays.