Pre-ordered Raclette de Savoie and Morbier Bichonné Duo by Fromagerie Beillevaire

TAST­ING NOTES FROM THE CURATOR

Melt­ing cheeses have gone from a Euro­pean tra­di­tion to inter­na­tion­al phe­nom­e­non. Fro­magerie Beill­e­vaire, known for its curat­ed cheeses from every region of France, offers two par­tic­u­lar vari­eties in one pack, ready for you to slice up and set on a hot grill.

• Raclette de Savoie – This semi-soft cheese comes from the unpas­teur­ized cow’s milk and is matured in spruce for at least 8 weeks. The wood imparts a nut­ty fla­vor and reg­u­lates the mois­ture of the rind. The pâté is creamy and dot­ted with small holes. It is smooth, nei­ther salty nor sharp. This cheese is made on both the Swiss and French side of the Alps, though the French ver­sion, aside from being soft­er than its Swiss coun­ter­part, pos­sess­es a strong, pun­gent aro­ma accom­pa­nied by a sub­tle earth­i­ness and fruitiness.
• Mor­bier Bichon­né – This del­i­cate but fla­vor­some semi-soft cow’s milk cheese was orig­i­nal­ly made from left­over curd used to make Comté cheese, with a line of pro­tec­tive veg­etable ash run­ning through the mid­dle before the Mor­bier wheel would be press-mold­ed. Nowa­days, Mor­bier is made from a sin­gle milk­ing and pro­duc­tion begins with­in 24 hours. It is aged for 100 days in nat­ur­al stone cel­lars. Beneath its pale rind, the pâté is but­tery and elas­tic, with the fra­grances of hay, mush­rooms, and flow­ers. It is fruity, with a del­i­cate, creamy taste — and the dis­tinct dark line in the cen­ter remains.

PREPA­RA­TION OR PAIRINGS

Raclette gets its name from the French word ​“racler”, mean­ing to scrape. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, raclette as a dish is made by melt­ing the cheese over a fire or off a spe­cial machine. Those at home use a raclette grill to achieve this effect with either the cheese of the same name or Mor­bier. The melt­ed cheese is then scraped onto bread as an open-faced sand­wich, or else over pota­toes and cured meat. Add cor­ni­chons and pearl onions for an added tart­ness of flavor. 

For those who don’t want to melt their cheeses, these can be served as an appe­tiz­er on crack­ers or toast­ed baguette slices with chut­ney on the side. What­ev­er you decide, we rec­om­mend a glass of Ries­ling or a chilled Sai­son beer to go with your meal!

A CHEESE FROM A REGION OF ITS OWN

Pas­cal Beillevaire’s ethos is that the best of each region should be show­cased as much as pos­si­ble. The Raclette is made by their part­ner, Lai­terie La Savo­yarde in Savoie. The Mor­bier is a result of their part­ner­ship with Fro­magerie Hervé Poulet in Granges-sur-Baume for pro­duc­tion and Cave de Machecoul in Machecoul for the cel­lar-aging process. Noth­ing but the best goes into cheeses with the Beill­e­vaire stamp on them.

DIS­CLAIMER ON AVAIL­ABIL­I­TY OF PRE-ORDERED AIR-FLOWN ITEMS

This is a pre-ordered item at The Bow Tie Duck and will only be avail­able while the pro­duc­er from over­seas is able to sup­ply and allow air-flown deliv­ery. In case of deliv­ery delays, deliv­ery can­cel­la­tions, ​“out of stock” notices, or ​“out of sea­son” notices after pur­chase, you will be con­tact­ed by our Sup­port Team. You will receive a refund or prod­uct replace­ment, or you can choose a new deliv­ery date for your item. In choos­ing to place an order, you agree to the terms and have read that this par­tic­u­lar prod­uct is not on-hand. After a short wait, you will receive your orders fresh from the source.

Storage Instructions

Cheeses (except brined ones in jars) should be stored in the crisper or the but­ter draw­er of a refrig­er­a­tor, not on the shelves them­selves. This is to help reg­u­late their tem­per­a­ture and humid­i­ty lev­els — and pre­vents the for­ma­tion of mold. Once opened, they should not be kept in their orig­i­nal pack­ag­ing. Semi-hard cheeses (includ­ing blues) should ide­al­ly be wrapped in cheese paper after open­ing. An alter­na­tive is to wrap them tight­ly in parch­ment paper to allow them to breathe, then loose­ly in alu­minum foil to keep mois­ture out. Don’t for­get to write up a label with the date you first opened the pack­age. Replace the parch­ment paper every time you open the cheese, and it will be fine for up to one month. Beill­e­vaire cheeses are air-flown from France on demand. They are meant to be con­sumed with­in 1 to 2 weeks of their arrival at your residence.