Make the most of melted cheese with these golden, bubbling recipes

Telegraph

29-03-2025

Blessed are the cheese makers. I say this because of all the foods produced by professionals – bread, patisserie, smoked fish and charcuterie – cheese is the one I will never be able to make. I can do a limited range of the others – after much practice and many non-starters – but cheese? Nope.
I'm interested in what kind of personalities are driven to certain areas in food. I find that bakers are good at detail, driven (some could be described as obsessive) by the love of what they do. They also have – in my experience – big hearts. Of course they're working with science, but cheese makers even more so and that's where I lose the plot. The measuring of all the variables that go into cheese – temperature, moisture content, the method of salting, the time of day the cows have been milked – requires focus and you need to be a perfectionist, but this has not diminished my love.
At this time of year, the dishes on the ski slopes are made with great melters such as Gruyère, Emmental, Comté and Beaufort.
So, what makes 'good melters'? When cheese is heated the protein structure breaks down releasing fat and water. Cheeses with higher fat and moisture content tend to melt well. Those with high acidity, such as feta, don't. It's better to have the cheese you want to melt at room temperature and not to heat it too fast (this produces pools of fat – you'll have noticed these on cheddar cheese on toast made with slices rather than grated cheese).
These cheeses aren't just good at melting, they have distinctive flavour profiles too. Beaufort tastes of apples and milky hazelnuts (in fact, with an apple or pear, green salad and a few hazelnuts, it's one of my favourite lunches on a Saturday). Comté, from the Franche-Comté region, is slightly more elastic and tastes milkier but is similar. Raclette, made in Switzerland but also cooked in France, is simply heated under a grill in a cast-iron pan (you don't really need special equipment) and served with little boiled potatoes, charcuterie and cornichons.
Then there are the soft cheese melters. Vacherin Mont d'Or, with its downy, apricot-coloured crust, comes wrapped in a strip of bark (this imparts a slightly resinous flavour). You can create a mini fondue by wrapping this (box and all) in foil and baking it for 20 minutes. Take the lid off, cut a circle out of the top and pour in a glug of white wine. Summon your beloved to dip boiled waxy potatoes in the molten cheese. Look for reblochon too – it's the one that's used for tartiflette. The rind smells farmyardy but the cheese inside is subtler – creamy and mouth-filling.
Italy has its melting cheeses too. There's fontina – beige rather than creamy coloured – from Piedmont. It's not quite the same as the Gruyère-like cheeses – they're nuttier – but in terms of texture they're good substitutes. Then there's taleggio – a favourite – which comes in a brick-like shape and has a bright orange rind. It's robust with a great tang. If you can't get hold of it, you can use French reblochon in its place, though taleggio has become easier to find.
You might remember that map of France – we had one hanging in the classroom where we were taught French – of the 1,000 types of cheese they produce? Many more of them are available now than when I was a teenager, and you'll find online companies who know how to pack and send them so that they arrive in good condition.
If you want to try British versions of the cheeses I've suggested, go to nealsyarddairy.co.uk and look at the 'Intercontinental' section. They suggest Ogleshield if you like raclette, Little Rollright for Vacherin Mont d'Or and Lincolnshire Poacher in place of Comté. Don't want to cook? Just unpack them and eat.