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Help Me Break In My New Raclette!


divalasvegas

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I received this a couple of days ago and have yet to break it in. As some of you may know I have a disability that makes it difficult for me to stand for long periods of time. Because of this I'm always on the lookout for multi-tasking cooking tools. I admit I had been lusting after this device for some time and when it went on sale with free shipping and handling, well, I just couldn't resist. :rolleyes:

Anyway I was planning on breaking it in tomorrow, doing something totally boring like pancakes, bacon, sausage and eggs, using the little pans to heat up the maple syrup. Like I said: BORING. So I've come to the brilliant minds of eGullet for help. Any suggestions? I'd especially like suggestions on the best types of melting cheeses to use. Wolfgang Puck demonstrated the raclette live and made all types of yummy stuff including Philly style cheesesteaks and one of those rectangular Belgian crepes.

Any and all ideas welcome. Bring 'em on! :smile:

Edited by divalasvegas (log)

Inside me there is a thin woman screaming to get out, but I can usually keep the Bitch quiet: with CHOCOLATE!!!

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Cheers, Ms. Diva! :smile:

This is just totally off the top of my head, so I don't know if some of these would work or not ... most of these involve the grill plate, because that's the type of gizmo I'm most familiar with ...

1. Julienne an assortment of veggies (including something from the onion family), toss in olive oil and seasonings of choice, and grill. Or toss in a neutral oil spiked with toasted sesame oil, and add some slivered ginger before grilling.

2. Instead of or in addition to the named pork products, try some fancier stuff--prosciutto, random salumi, whatever that's thin-sliced and has some inherent fat content to it.

3. Grilled smoked fish. Yum. Ya gotta like that fishy fragrance, though. :smile:

4. More onions. Anything in the onion family is fair game. Mushrooms too. In fact, I would be tempted to give just about any vegetable, and a number of fruits, a go on the grill--most anything should go, if sliced to the right thickness/thinness.

5. Are there any Mexican markets in your area? Here I can walk in and buy pre-marinated carne asada meat all ready to grill ...

6. The veggies would be good with cheese melted on them.

7. Any breadstuff you'd want to eat with any of the above would be nice buttered/oiled and then toasted on the grill or the griddle. Tortillas would be terrific.

That's all I've got right now. Have fun!

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Cheers, Ms. Diva! :smile:

This is just totally off the top of my head, so I don't know if some of these would work or not ... most of these involve the grill plate, because that's the type of gizmo I'm most familiar with ...

1. Julienne an assortment of veggies (including something from the onion family), toss in olive oil and seasonings of choice, and grill. Or toss in a neutral oil spiked with toasted sesame oil, and add some slivered ginger before grilling.

2. Instead of or in addition to the named pork products, try some fancier stuff--prosciutto, random salumi, whatever that's thin-sliced and has some inherent fat content to it.

3. Grilled smoked fish. Yum. Ya gotta like that fishy fragrance, though. :smile:

4. More onions. Anything in the onion family is fair game. Mushrooms too. In fact, I would be tempted to give just about any vegetable, and a number of fruits, a go on the grill--most anything should go, if sliced to the right thickness/thinness.

5. Are there any Mexican markets in your area? Here I can walk in and buy pre-marinated carne asada meat all ready to grill ...

6. The veggies would be good with cheese melted on them.

7. Any breadstuff you'd want to eat with any of the above would be nice buttered/oiled and then toasted on the grill or the griddle. Tortillas would be terrific.

That's all I've got right now. Have fun!

Wee!!! Thanks mizducky, great ideas. I can totally see grilling some of the season's finest vegetables on this thing, especially asparagus using suggestion #1. Ah yes, melted cheese prepared in the bottom of the raclette to anoint those lovely grilled vegetables. Yum. We don't have a huge Mexican population--largest group is from El Salvador--, but we do have many Hispanic people here from many different countries and lots of stores that carry those types of foods; I'll have to do research on whether or not carne asada is available here (or make it myself). And as for suggestion #3, I LOVE THE FISHY SMELL, so no worries there. #7 sounds delicious as well; the idea of making my own fajitas using decent meat and seasonal vegetables sounds delicious.

Thanks so much again for your suggestions.

Inside me there is a thin woman screaming to get out, but I can usually keep the Bitch quiet: with CHOCOLATE!!!

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Asada seems pretty easy to manage, even if you don't have a market or butcher to do it for you. Citrus (my butcher uses oranges), onion, and a bit of seasoning. My butcher seems to use cumin. Skirt steak is ideal, but there are probably plenty of cuts that would work. I haven't tried making my own because the butcher's is so good. If I buy plain skirt steak, I tend to make a salsa verde and sear the steak to serve with the salsa. Your new toy seems well suited to that too :).

I'd not try a cheesesteak on it, unless you have a butcher who can do *very* thinly sliced beef for you. The meat needs to sear and steam, and really, Cheez Whiz is best. No need for a cheese warmer, tho I suppose you could be degenerate and add provolone. It just doesn't seem to have enough cooking area to do more than one cheesesteak at a time, and you'd have to pregrill the veggies if you lean towards peppers and onions.

Emily

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Asada seems pretty easy to manage, even if you don't have a market or butcher to do it for you. Citrus (my butcher uses oranges), onion, and a bit of seasoning. My butcher seems to use cumin. Skirt steak is ideal, but there are probably plenty of cuts that would work. I haven't tried making my own because the butcher's is so good. If I buy plain skirt steak, I tend to make a salsa verde and sear the steak to serve with the salsa. Your new toy seems well suited to that too :).

I'd not try a cheesesteak on it, unless you have a butcher who can do *very* thinly sliced beef for you. The meat needs to sear and steam, and really, Cheez Whiz is best. No need for a cheese warmer, tho I suppose you could be degenerate and add provolone. It just doesn't seem to have enough cooking area to do more than one cheesesteak at a time, and you'd have to pregrill the veggies if you lean towards peppers and onions.

Emily

Thanks for the tips on carne asada Torrilin. Sounds pretty easy and delicious. As for the cheesesteaks, you're right, very thinly sliced would be the only way to go. However, I think I could probably manage the fixins for two cheesesteaks at a time since the cooking surface is approximately 18 x 12 inches and gets incredibly hot. The stuff they were demonstrating was sizziling quite noticably and the onions and peppers appeared to be raw not precooked and were done in no time.

Thanks again. :smile:

Inside me there is a thin woman screaming to get out, but I can usually keep the Bitch quiet: with CHOCOLATE!!!

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My eyes are set on the grill portion of this raclette. You can make a lot of things on it. For things that I usually make:

1) Get some thinly sliced beef or pork, marinate them with chopped garlic, shallot and fish sauce, plus a squeeze of lime juice. Grill the beef/pork slices. You get Vietnamese. (Eat with white rice or briefly soaked rice papper)

2) Get some chicken breasts or beef slices, marinate with just salt and pepper. Grill some sliced onions, bell peppers, tomato, jalapeno and such. Sprinkle some salt and cumin powder and squeeze some lime juice, mix with the chicken/beef. You get some Mexican Fajita! Eat with tortilla, of course.

3) Slice some Italian squash, egg plant, red/orange/green bell pepper, etc.. Grill them, and brush on some extra virgin olive oil, some pressed garlic, sprinkle on some salt and pepper and some fresh herbs. You get some Italian. Eat with pasta?

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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My eyes are set on the grill portion of this raclette.  You can make a lot of things on it.  For things that I usually make:

1) Get some thinly sliced beef or pork, marinate them with chopped garlic, shallot and fish sauce, plus a squeeze of lime juice.  Grill the beef/pork slices.  You get Vietnamese.  (Eat with white rice or briefly soaked rice papper)

2) Get some chicken breasts or beef slices, marinate with just salt and pepper.  Grill some sliced onions, bell peppers, tomato, jalapeno and such.  Sprinkle some salt and cumin powder and squeeze some lime juice, mix with the chicken/beef.  You get some Mexican Fajita!  Eat with tortilla, of course.

3) Slice some Italian squash, egg plant, red/orange/green bell pepper, etc..  Grill them, and brush on some extra virgin olive oil, some pressed garlic, sprinkle on some salt and pepper and some fresh herbs.  You get some Italian.  Eat with pasta?

Thanks Ah Leung. Great suggestions, especially the Vietnamese option. Grilling some marinated shrimp for spring rolls would also be doable. Maybe for the Italian option I could use the vegetables you suggested to make a grilled ratatouille.

Thanks again for your ideas. :smile:

Inside me there is a thin woman screaming to get out, but I can usually keep the Bitch quiet: with CHOCOLATE!!!

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5. Are there any Mexican markets in your area? Here I can walk in and buy pre-marinated carne asada meat all ready to grill ...

One place I've been able to get asada (beef or chicken) is at Trader Joe's. I've also discovered that they have thinly sliced beef for cheessteak sandwiches. Both would be great for the grill!

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Sorry, maybe I'm an idiot, but I always thought that raclette was an upright sptit roasted cheese thing that the melted cheese was scraped off and slathered over boiled potatoes? Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but I swear I thought it was like a gyro, but with cheese. Am I nuts, or what? :shock:

"Commit random acts of senseless kindness"

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Sorry, maybe I'm an idiot, but I always thought that raclette was an upright sptit roasted cheese thing that the melted cheese was scraped off and slathered over boiled potatoes? Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but I swear I thought it was like a gyro, but with cheese. Am I nuts, or what? :shock:

No, you're right. What you mentioned is the traditional raclette. Since most people don't eat enough to get a whole wheel of cheese, the raclette set mentioned here is made for melting a small amount of cheese in small, individual trays. Here's an article on the local paper where I read about it.

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Sorry, maybe I'm an idiot, but I always thought that raclette was an upright sptit roasted cheese thing that the melted cheese was scraped off and slathered over boiled potatoes? Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but I swear I thought it was like a gyro, but with cheese. Am I nuts, or what? :shock:

I'm afraid I'm not 100% sure of what you mean by "like a gyro but with cheese" ... but venturing in anyway ... :smile:

My understanding is this: traditionally, raclette-the-dish involved taking a big wheel of raclette-the-cheese, cutting it in half, and positioning its cut surface near an open fire so that the exposed cheese started to melt; the melted cheese was then scraped onto waiting plates of boiled potatoes. I guess that is kind of like cutting off strips of gyro meat from the big chunk, eh?

Anyway, seems that in more recent times raclette-the-dish has expanded to have other foods besides potatoes be the recipients of the melted scraped cheese; plus there's been a whole bunch of gizmos invented to do the cheese-melting a bit more conveniently. Ms. Diva's new toy is one such example of these new-style raclette gizmos, sometimes called a "raclette grill", but sometimes just called a "raclette", even if that is kind of confusing the name of the dish (and the cheese) with the utensil for making the dish. In this kind of grill, instead of wrangling a huge half-wheel of cheese, you put chunky slices of cheese in the little warming dishes and position them adjacent to the grill, where they melt, and can then be scraped onto whatever you're cooking on the grill's cooking surface.

Edited to add: oops! cross-posts R us! :biggrin:

Edited by mizducky (log)
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Oh no judiu you are most certainly not an idiot and your description of the traditional raclette "like a gyro, but with cheese" is quite appropriate. Like annachan and mizducky said, the traditional one is for melting a large quarter or half wheel of cheese. The device I have is sometimes called a raclette and sometimes not. Here's a link which shows some of the traditional ones:

Traditional Raclettes

mizducky's description of my gizmo is spot on. It allows one to do a lot more than the traditional raclette, going way beyond potatoes and melted cheese.

Thanks for the Trader Joe's tip annachan. I had no idea that they had properly sliced cheesesteak meat.

Thanks to you all. :smile:

Inside me there is a thin woman screaming to get out, but I can usually keep the Bitch quiet: with CHOCOLATE!!!

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Sorry, maybe I'm an idiot, but I always thought that raclette was an upright sptit roasted cheese thing that the melted cheese was scraped off and slathered over boiled potatoes? Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but I swear I thought it was like a gyro, but with cheese. Am I nuts, or what? :shock:

No, you're right. What you mentioned is the traditional raclette. Since most people don't eat enough to get a whole wheel of cheese, the raclette set mentioned here is made for melting a small amount of cheese in small, individual trays. Here's an article on the local paper where I read about it.

Sorry, maybe I'm an idiot, but I always thought that raclette was an upright sptit roasted cheese thing that the melted cheese was scraped off and slathered over boiled potatoes? Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but I swear I thought it was like a gyro, but with cheese. Am I nuts, or what? :shock:

I'm afraid I'm not 100% sure of what you mean by "like a gyro but with cheese" ... but venturing in anyway ... :smile:

My understanding is this: traditionally, raclette-the-dish involved taking a big wheel of raclette-the-cheese, cutting it in half, and positioning its cut surface near an open fire so that the exposed cheese started to melt; the melted cheese was then scraped onto waiting plates of boiled potatoes. I guess that is kind of like cutting off strips of gyro meat from the big chunk, eh?

Anyway, seems that in more recent times raclette-the-dish has expanded to have other foods besides potatoes be the recipients of the melted scraped cheese; plus there's been a whole bunch of gizmos invented to do the cheese-melting a bit more conveniently. Ms. Diva's new toy is one such example of these new-style raclette gizmos, sometimes called a "raclette grill", but sometimes just called a "raclette", even if that is kind of confusing the name of the dish (and the cheese) with the utensil for making the dish. In this kind of grill, instead of wrangling a huge half-wheel of cheese, you put chunky slices of cheese in the little warming dishes and position them adjacent to the grill, where they melt, and can then be scraped onto whatever you're cooking on the grill's cooking surface.

Edited to add: oops! cross-posts R us! :biggrin:

Oh no judiu you are most certainly not an idiot and your description of the traditional raclette "like a gyro, but with cheese" is quite appropriate.  Like annachan and mizducky said, the traditional one is for melting a large quarter or half wheel of cheese.  The device I have is sometimes called a raclette and sometimes not.  Here's a link which shows some of the traditional ones:

Traditional Raclettes

mizducky's description of my gizmo is spot on.  It allows one to do a lot more than the traditional raclette, going way beyond potatoes and melted cheese.

Thanks for the Trader Joe's tip annachan.  I had no idea that they had properly sliced cheesesteak meat.

Thanks to you all. :smile:

Thanks, ladies! Nice to know that I was close, anyhow! :laugh:

"Commit random acts of senseless kindness"

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Where was this thing years ago when I foolishly consented to do a "raclette dinner" for a long-time client? She had tried it several times, once in Europe and a couple of times at the ski place in CO that they go to after Christmas every year.

The only one I was familiar with was the big heater gizmo which would hold a nice two lb. half-wheel or so, plenty for four for dinner with jacket potatoes, steamed asparagus, artichoke leaves, maybe Brussels sprouts or steamed broccoli---what I had eaten and had seen done in a couple of restaurants (and in Bon Appetit, so I thought I must be a PRO by then). Hah.

She had had the thing ordered by the ski resort restaurant, delivered, and it was still in the box when I arrived about an hour and a half before the guests. What she had and what I thought I was going to cook with were Mars and Venus in comparison.

The thing resembled half a tabletop fan, just the cage part, cut into a half-circle, and had its own skewers which matched to slot A and B, AFTER you inserted the half-round of cheese. You slid in the cheese, poked the skewers through the appropriate holes to ensnare it, and set the whole thing up ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE FIREPLACE. On the hearth. And cooked like Ma Ingalls, only wearing your Winter uniform of starched white shirt, navy vest, slacks and bow tie.

It had a little fairy-sized garden hoe to scrape with, but required exposing your knuckles and any tender hand-skin to the heat of a December fireplace, over and over and over. And every time you scraped, the cheese receded and you had to remove those redhot skewers and reposition the whole thing in front of the flames. Those people ate for two hours, consuming the entire five-lb. block of Gruyere, probably ten pounds of cooked vegetables, and almost that much ruffly-thin pink ham.

The wine went round and round, bottle after bottle, and I cannot remember what was for dessert. They probably all staggered out so carb-loaded that they went to sleep at the wheel.

It took a dish brush and half an hour just to CLEAN the thing afterward. I was tempted to stick it in the dishwasher and head home.

I went to church next morning looking as if my face had spent a long day at the beach with no PF15. And my hands peeled for a week. Never again.

And never have had the slightest inclination to taste it again either. But your new toy would make killer fajitas. Yum.

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:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

First of all racheld, I hope they paid you well for your masochistic culinary service! My knuckles feel raw and my face is burning just reading your recap. I promise my device is much more user friendly. Wow, you must've done a great job considering how much they ate. I'm trying to picture this thing, but I can't, Hellish skewers and all. Did you at least taste the fruits of your labors? Four people, 5 lbs. of cheese and 10 lbs. each of vegetables and ham? Geez. :blink:

And yes, I think fajitas will be among the first things I make.

Edited by divalasvegas (log)

Inside me there is a thin woman screaming to get out, but I can usually keep the Bitch quiet: with CHOCOLATE!!!

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diva darling

as you know

come wednesday morning

i will have one very fresh placenta.

and hell, we are practically neighbors.

what are friends for?

Nonsense, I have not yet begun to defile myself.

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diva darling

as you know

come wednesday morning

i will have one very fresh placenta.

and hell, we are practically neighbors.

what are friends for?

Oh that's right soon-to-be Daddy-oh! Congrats to you and the missus again my dear! But I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific. How would you like the item prepared in my new toy: grilled, griddled or baked? Uh, on second thought, nevermind, no need to answer that..... really....... I'm begging you. :hmmm:

Inside me there is a thin woman screaming to get out, but I can usually keep the Bitch quiet: with CHOCOLATE!!!

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Eh, okay... As requested, diva... :)

I assume this raclette is an electric cooking contraption that melts cheese, and I have no idea what else such a device could be used for. I've only ever had raclette once in my life, and I was seriously unhappy about it. I do appologize for not having any constructive advice to offer here, but if nothing else, maybe you'll find my raclette story funny.

This happened in Geneva, while I worked for a California-based company. I always like to check out the local things, and was utterly disgusted when some moron dragged us into -- of all things -- a damn Mexican restaurant (that included a horrible mariachi band, wearing sombreros). So when a German collegue claimed he knew a great local place, about a dozen of us tagged along -- and we were served raclette. This was supposed to be local, authentic stuff, the German assured us. We were stoked...

Then, we all recieved a white dinner-plate each, with a number written with some kind of a grease pencil, on the rim. In the middle of the plate, there was some melted cheese. We also got a pickle, and a boiled potato each. And we all assumed that this was some kind of a starter... I mean, we didn't want to be impolite -- it looked kinda hokey: a pickle, a spud and a blob of melted cheese -- so we figured hey, this is different, this is something we've not experienced before, this is great if you really like pickles and potatoes and melted cheese -- but the main course will surely be something really excellent, right...?

Then, the staff took away our numbered plates (we thought the number thing was kinda odd, but didn't think much else of it). We were all drinking and chatting away, and as odd as this starter seemed, no one said anything about it. But then, when the waiters returned, and placed the same, numbered plates in front of us, with a new blob of melted cheese, every single head on the table turned towards the poor German... No one actually said anything -- but I'm sure our facial expressions said more than enough. So he kind of recoiled in his seat, as if he had been accused of something horrible, and said, "What? They bring you as much as you want!" while pointing at the plate.

I have no idea why he brought us to this raclette place, nor if this is a typical way for Swiss restaurants to serve it. What I do know is, after the tradeshow was over, we had a big dinner, and everyone had to sign up for their food preferences: steak, or raclette. The decision was obvious, of course -- boring old everyday steak, or exotic and sophisticated and elegant Swiss Raqluette, whatever that might be, right? So everyone went for it -- except for the dozen or so of us, who'd been to that raclette joint earlier in the week. I thought that surely there must have been something wrong -- that the restaurant was some kind of a dive, or generally horrible place, and that their uh, method of preparing raclette was really abnormal -- surely, the place we'd booked our big dinner at, wouldn't be just serving melted blobs of cheese on a platter, with a damn spud and pickle on the side, right? But nobody were willing to chance it. We all went with the steak option.

Now, these end-of-the-show dinners are supposed to be a way for the managment to give thanks to the employees -- a good meal, and a reasonable, but limited amount of drink. A morale booster, within reason. But there's always the chance of some uh, "unfiltered, spontaneous feedback" escaping a drunk engineer who's just put in an 80-hour week to make the company look good at the tradeshow, while watching sales and marketing pukes sneak off early, or the executives standing around doing nothing at all if best, or making horrible decisions at worst... So sometimes things go wrong.

In this case, the raclette almost caused a riot. If it hadn't been for the dozen or so of us who ordered the steaks, maybe it wouldn't have happened. But seeing some of us digging into some nice, juicy steaks, while they were served a continous string of plates with melted cheese (with a boiled tater and a pickle) was more than they could handle. The workers demanded steak, damnit! So the chiefs went to the restaurant management and demanded every steak in the house -- which they got, but it still wasn't enough for everybody. So they did the next best thing, which was to open the bar. Which of course was the worst thing they could have done.

I'm still ashamed of the picture that was taken of me, with a promotional bag for a Finish beer called something like Lappin Kuulta on my head, while wearing lipstick. But I'm kinda proud that I got the same picture of our beard-wearing CEO sporting the same.

So eh, don't talk to me about raclette!

:blink::smile:

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You are now and will always be the BEST Grub :wub: ..................... still can't stop grinning or laughing. :biggrin: As you have obviously been scarred for life by your raclette experience you are hereby absolved from providing any tips on using my new device. BTW, I'll be breaking it in tomorrow. The good thing is that along with guidelines for how to use the different components, it also came with quite a few Wolfgang Puck recipes.

Oh man................ blobs of melted cheese, solitary pickle, nekkid boiled potato over and over and over again. :rolleyes:

Thanks.

Inside me there is a thin woman screaming to get out, but I can usually keep the Bitch quiet: with CHOCOLATE!!!

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I'm still ashamed of the picture that was taken of me, with a promotional bag for a Finish beer called something like Lappin Kuulta on my head, while wearing lipstick.

:blink:  :smile:

Oh, My!!! You win. Blistered fingers for a week and Howdy Doody cheeks in the choir do not equal this. And I looked it up---despite what HAD to be a memory lapse, or a brain cramp, your memory served you well. Lappin Kulta is exactly right---it means "precious drink" in Finnish, I think.

And there WERE more than four to the fireplace fiasco dinner---four were present at the first dinner I ever ate the stuff, and the heater at that one was a nice electric lampy thing that just glowed pleasantly over on the buffet, cozying up to the cheese and melting it into a nice tasty puddle.

There were about a dozen at the BAD evening, laughing and talking and needing MORE cheese NOW, as I sizzled and scraped and re-skewered the darn thing repeatedly in the heat of that crowded, loud, unbearably hot roomful of hungry drinkers. Kind of funny now that you remind me of it.

The deelybob looked kind of like if you took your desk fan, sliced the little cage-cover right down the middle, bottom to top, took out the fan, and slid the round side of half a cheese wheel into the handy-dandy pocket. Then there were little square holes in the half-moon cage, through which you inserted the short skewers, which kept the cheese from tumbling out or sliding out into the fire, like a drunk would slide feetfirst from a slopy chair into the floor, or a child at the end of a playground slide. The whole thing lay back into a flat holder, sitting with the cut side toward the heat. As it melted, you scraped downward into a tray or onto a plate, passing the plates back as they were re-cheesed.

No numbering. I kept up pretty well with who was who, and after a while, I was ready to call it a day, and they had had enough wine that they could have been eating it off the spokes with a spoon for all they cared.

But Grub is the hands-down champeen of THIS thread.

Just two other thoughts: Don't they have lampshades in Switzerland?

And Never, EVER, let Fresser find this thread.

Edited by racheld (log)
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First of all, I just want to say thanks to everyone who made suggestions and gave me tips on how to use my raclette thingy. I just used it for the first time today and here are the results:

- I decided to start out by making something pretty mundane and relatively cheap: bacon, sausage, pancakes and eggs over easy and I'm glad I did.

- The suggested temperature for cooking these items I found to be too high. For instance, the guidelines provided suggested a temperature of 400 degrees for sausage which was in my estimation about 50 degrees too high. Not a problem, I just turned it down to 350 and all was well. Much better to discover this with sausage and pancakes and not more expensive items such as steak and shrimp. IMHO, it's no different from becoming familiar with any other kitchen appliance I've owned. After the minor adjustment, the food came out great. It was still so hot from cooking the meats, then the pancakes I was able to turn it off completely and cook a couple of eggs using just the residual heat.

- When set at the correct temperature, it cooks very quickly and efficiently. The non-stick surface cleans up easily and you can even use metal utensils on it.

- Overall, I really like this thing and I can see cooking a lot of different foods, especially kabobs, fajitas, steaks, seafood, and chicken. Also, with the high heat it produces, I'll definitely be doing stir fries and even fried rice. It may not achieve wok hey (sp?) but I'll bet it comes close enough.

- BTW, the griddle side can even be used as a cooktop, so that you can prepare items directly on one side and actually heat up or cook something else on the other. It even gets hot enough to heat cooking oil to the boiling point (one of the suggestions is to use it this way to cook skewered meats in a hot oil fondue). I'll have to think about that one. :hmmm:

- Of utmost importance, I highly recommend this for someone with a disability. One can definitely cook while seated (I set it up on our kitchen table) which is a Godsend to someone who uses a wheelchair or, like me, has difficulty standing for long periods of time.

Again, thanks for all your help and advice. :smile:

Edited by divalasvegas (log)

Inside me there is a thin woman screaming to get out, but I can usually keep the Bitch quiet: with CHOCOLATE!!!

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I have been enjoying all your stories.. I am especially upset that I was missing from grub's infamous photo... Sounds like you turned around a boring night into one that you will remember forever..

Whenever I see the machines, I get all excited.. There are so many things going on, and of course it satiates my biological male urge to build and work with fire.. However, I think its a lot cooler looking then it is..

There is nothing more that I want, then for this machine to be awesome... I cant wait to see what you all come up with.. Please convince me to purchase this item.. I can see the crucial parts being scattered throught my kitchen in various unfindable places.. I do love a good treasure hunt..

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I have been enjoying all your stories.. I am especially upset that I was missing from grub's infamous photo... Sounds like you turned around a boring night into one that you will remember forever..

Whenever I see the machines, I get all excited.. There are so many things going on, and of course it satiates my biological male urge to build and work with fire..  However, I think its a lot cooler looking then it is..

There is nothing more that I want, then for this machine to be awesome... I cant wait to see what you all come up with.. Please convince me to purchase this item.. I can see the crucial parts being scattered throught my kitchen in various unfindable places.. I do love a good treasure hunt..

Hmmm, I could be wrong but are you laying down a challenge Daniel, are you calling me out? Well I accept the challenge and over the next few weeks I'll be trying out a variety of foods/recipes and reporting back with the results. You say "However, I think it's a lot cooler looking than it is" huh? YOU WISH! Tell the truth: the fact is, you already know you want it...... BADLY! :raz: Admit it, even now your biological male urge, as you call it, is overwhelming every logical and reasonable argument against getting it. To make it even more tempting (and feed your biological imperative) you should know that actually this is quite a compact appliance and you won't have to worry about having to conduct any reconnaisance missions in your kitchen. :wink:

Inside me there is a thin woman screaming to get out, but I can usually keep the Bitch quiet: with CHOCOLATE!!!

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  • 3 months later...

I am bumping up this thread, hoping someone can help me..........

My husband has purchased a raclette grill and we have invited guests for a trial dinner on Saturday night. :shock:

Has anyone tried one out?

Any suggestions as to what to cook would be welcome........

We had a raclette dinner at friends a few weeks ago, and they offered a selection of prawns, scallops, chicken, fish and pork plus veggies and cheese and bread. These could be cooked on the grill or in the pans underneath and dipped into a selection of 3 different sauces.

Life is short, eat dessert first

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