[QUOTE=sproulio, post:40, topic:286001]
Can I use this with my new iPowerPro 150 Watt UltraSlim Universal Power Inverter in the car for an on the go snack?
[/quote]
Please do, toss a video on youtube. I’ll be thoroughly impressed, especially if it’s a convertible =D
[QUOTE=noslensj, post:58, topic:286001]
This item looks to me to have all of the marks of future wootoff killer.
[/quote]
Too right it does… And it isn’t even great like the woot-off killer kai-shuns that I love so much..
Speaking of, hey Woot, yeah, you.. I want to see more Kaji Fusion.. I’ve missed the damn things every time, this is no good. I need those.. Oh and make sure you time it to coincide with payday ok? 
Am I alone in thinking this looks like a grownup version of a E-Z-Bake oven?
[QUOTE=drnoo, post:37, topic:286001]
Is this energy efficient? What’s the wattage of these things?
[/quote]
There is a lot of energy lost to heat, so not really. Then again, if you can figure out a way to make use of that waste heat it might not be too bad.
I’m not much of a cheese fanatic, but seeing this raclette machine combined with all the wonderfully detailed, and emotionally evoking comments, has made me feel the super need to get a raclette fix.
I’ve already called my local Whole Foods out here in Las Vegas, to make sure they have an authentic Swiss made raclette cheese for my husband and I to try tomorrow, even though it’s hot as an oven out here seasonally speaking.
I’m excited because this will be our first experience with raclette cheese, and so we will base our decision as to whether or not we will purchase a raclette grill in the near future.
Although, I realize not having the appropriate mini pan and grill might not make for an ideal raclette occasion, for now, our broiler and miscellaneous small baking pans will have to temporarily surfice.
All I have left to say to you all is: THIS RACLETTE CHEESE BETTER BE OFF THE HOOK!!! Because, that’s how I’m imagining it to be right now!
Is this 220V? Or is it the 120V model? It does make a difference! THANKS!
Thank the Gods!
Finally this cheese melter has come to woot!
My prayers have been answered.
This would be such a great wedding present. “Hey, remember when uncle Alvin gave us that cheese melter thingy?” Ol’ Uncle Alvin always had such a twisted humor."
Quick! Somebody plan a wedding!
Will it work with a Mac?
//sorry
In for 2.
I also experienced raclette in Zurich, for me, it was last year. Wonderful! I’ll get one for myself and save one to give away for a great Christmas gift. Nice woot! Rock on!
[QUOTE=screwjack, post:45, topic:286001]
I think I may be able to codify and amplify some of the above.
I had never heard of raclette until I spent about half a year in Zurich and was invited to a few home-cooked dinners with Swiss friends.
Fortunately, my inquisitiveness was not met with typical Swiss-German reserve…
Traditional Raclette is, like fondue, a winter-only hearth meal - a half-wheel of gruyere-ish cheese is melted near a fire, and the melted portion is scraped over potatoes. These days you can still buy machines meant for half and quarter wheels (http://www.pourlacuisine.com/im/articles/raclette%204.jpg) but they are generally only used in banquet situations or by dudes like this guy selling at street fairs or near ski areas(http://turosdolci.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/cheese.jpg).
As it was explained to me, there are slight regional variations on the meal with respect to garnishes. However, as Raclette is a very social meal enjoyed over the holidays with extended family, there is also a strong familial component - if your mom hated gherkins, you probably don’t think of them as required.
Therefore, in general and at risk of mortally offending someone’s mother, I venture to describe a basic Swiss-German raclette meal.
First - on the cheese. The quality and variety of cheese available in Switzerland is legendarily good. When choosing cheese for raclette, the Swiss are, inexplicably, as likely to go for pre-packaged, pre-sliced, hermetically sealed supermarket variety as one of the life-changingly good artisanal choices. Why? Price and convenience. Point is, there is no need to sweat the cheese selection - at the end of the day, how bad can melted cheese taste?
The table is set with small compartmented plates (http://www.raclettecorner.com/product/F66102), forks and knives at each place. Each person is also given their own little raclette dish/pan. There is a plate of pre-sliced raclette cheese, and small bowls of pickled gherkins and onions. There is also generally some sort of meat - often mini-sized veal bratwurst or pork sausages. Yes, I know, here in the states we think bratwurst = pork, but in Switzerland, bratwurst = veal.
There is also a basket of boiled, skin-on waxy potatoes. The basket itself is impossibly quaint, has no obvious analog stateside, and looks like this: (http://www.raclettecorner.com/product/KF-77500).
Raclette, like fondue, is always accompanied by alcohol, generally white fendant wine. Fendant is generally awful, but considered necessary for digestion of all that cheese. Your choice is either wine or Swiss schnapps (Kirsch), which is almost exactly unlike what we think of as schnapps. It tastes like lamp oil with essences of sour cherry and arsenic. Me, I’ll stick with the nasty wine.
In Zurich, there is a long, uncomfortable pre-prandial pause where everyone looks everyone else in the eye, before (finally) the spell is broken by the host, who says “en guete” (which means “have a nice meal”) and the feast begins.
Everyone takes a few garnishes, throws a mini-brat or two on the top of the grill, drops a slice of cheese into the raclette pan and places the pan on the bottom rack of the grill. Polite conversation is made while the meat and cheese cook. Once the cheese bubbles, you take a potato and cut it up on your plate, fetch the raclette pan, scrape the cheese over the potatoes, sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika, and dig in.
It really is a lovely, social, tasty, filling meal. Which makes this little device a real head-scratcher. Raclette for two, in all honesty, smacks of quiet desperation and paralyzing loneliness; like a fully-decked Christmas tree in a old widow’s home. This little machine calls to mind an image of a elderly, childless couple sharing a wordless meal, early on a drizzly Christmas eve, where the most fleeting eye contact would lead to a night of sobbing regret.
Too creepy. That’s why I’ll order two and vow never to eat alone.
[/quote]
You, sir, are brilliant! (I’m assuming you’re a sir.) Excellent post. I hope you get a Q P cred for it. Or at least a bacon rasher. The parting image, admittedly, made me tear up a bit.
[QUOTE=NightGhost, post:57, topic:286001]
Why not? Even if the pans are 1/2" deep, they’ll still hold a lot of cheese, and there are 2 of the pans. Now if you’re hosting a party at the White House…
[/quote]
Dude, you are aware of the effect that a lot of cheese has on the digestive sytem, aren’t you?
[QUOTE=sproulio, post:40, topic:286001]
Can I use this with my new iPowerPro 150 Watt UltraSlim Universal Power Inverter in the car for an on the go snack?
[/quote]
Well why bother with the raclette set when you have a sizzling engine block? My bro-in-law would take a foil-wrapped, seasoned pot roast, complete with cut up potatoes, carrots, and onions use a couple of bungee cords to secure it to the engine block, and drive to Ensenada from just north of San Diego. About the time he got to Tijuana he could really smell all that good stuff cooking, and it was perfectly done (it’s pot roast, you could cook it for a year!) by the time they got to the house in Ensenada. VERY energy efficient, and tasty too!
[QUOTE=redspecial, post:72, topic:286001]
What double post?
[/quote]
[QUOTE=redspecial, post:71, topic:286001]
Dude, you are aware of the effect that a lot of cheese has on the digestive sytem, aren’t you?
[/quote]
Indeed:
440x360
http://www.easyvigour.net.nz/fitness/pilatessketches/BadSit1.gif[/img]
[QUOTE=reggaemyelitis, post:48, topic:286001]
Hey, maybe you could convince Pat’s or Geno’s to serve up some Cheez-wiz raclette…
[/quote]
Jim’s. You gotta try Jim’s Steaks on South Street. Steakalicious goodness.
[QUOTE=mbmanaus, post:11, topic:286001]
Woot is reading my mind! Just yesterday my wife and I had a conversation about how much we wanted a Raclette maker but it would be ideal if we could get a small one. I didn’t know they existed until now. Emphatically in for one!
[/quote]
please tell me you don’t have children … because if you do, I’m gonna feel really bad that my husband and I barely have the time to carry on a conversation all week, much less discuss how much we would like a small Raclette maker…
[QUOTE=screwjack, post:45, topic:286001]
I think I may be able to codify and amplify some of the above.
I had never heard of raclette until I spent about half a year in Zurich and was invited to a few home-cooked dinners with Swiss friends.
Fortunately, my inquisitiveness was not met with typical Swiss-German reserve…
Traditional Raclette is, like fondue, a winter-only hearth meal - a half-wheel of gruyere-ish cheese is melted near a fire, and the melted portion is scraped over potatoes. These days you can still buy machines meant for half and quarter wheels (http://www.pourlacuisine.com/im/articles/raclette%204.jpg) but they are generally only used in banquet situations or by dudes like this guy selling at street fairs or near ski areas(http://turosdolci.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/cheese.jpg).
As it was explained to me, there are slight regional variations on the meal with respect to garnishes. However, as Raclette is a very social meal enjoyed over the holidays with extended family, there is also a strong familial component - if your mom hated gherkins, you probably don’t think of them as required.
Therefore, in general and at risk of mortally offending someone’s mother, I venture to describe a basic Swiss-German raclette meal.
First - on the cheese. The quality and variety of cheese available in Switzerland is legendarily good. When choosing cheese for raclette, the Swiss are, inexplicably, as likely to go for pre-packaged, pre-sliced, hermetically sealed supermarket variety as one of the life-changingly good artisanal choices. Why? Price and convenience. Point is, there is no need to sweat the cheese selection - at the end of the day, how bad can melted cheese taste?
The table is set with small compartmented plates (http://www.raclettecorner.com/product/F66102), forks and knives at each place. Each person is also given their own little raclette dish/pan. There is a plate of pre-sliced raclette cheese, and small bowls of pickled gherkins and onions. There is also generally some sort of meat - often mini-sized veal bratwurst or pork sausages. Yes, I know, here in the states we think bratwurst = pork, but in Switzerland, bratwurst = veal.
There is also a basket of boiled, skin-on waxy potatoes. The basket itself is impossibly quaint, has no obvious analog stateside, and looks like this: (http://www.raclettecorner.com/product/KF-77500).
Raclette, like fondue, is always accompanied by alcohol, generally white fendant wine. Fendant is generally awful, but considered necessary for digestion of all that cheese. Your choice is either wine or Swiss schnapps (Kirsch), which is almost exactly unlike what we think of as schnapps. It tastes like lamp oil with essences of sour cherry and arsenic. Me, I’ll stick with the nasty wine.
In Zurich, there is a long, uncomfortable pre-prandial pause where everyone looks everyone else in the eye, before (finally) the spell is broken by the host, who says “en guete” (which means “have a nice meal”) and the feast begins.
Everyone takes a few garnishes, throws a mini-brat or two on the top of the grill, drops a slice of cheese into the raclette pan and places the pan on the bottom rack of the grill. Polite conversation is made while the meat and cheese cook. Once the cheese bubbles, you take a potato and cut it up on your plate, fetch the raclette pan, scrape the cheese over the potatoes, sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika, and dig in.
It really is a lovely, social, tasty, filling meal. Which makes this little device a real head-scratcher. Raclette for two, in all honesty, smacks of quiet desperation and paralyzing loneliness; like a fully-decked Christmas tree in a old widow’s home. This little machine calls to mind an image of a elderly, childless couple sharing a wordless meal, early on a drizzly Christmas eve, where the most fleeting eye contact would lead to a night of sobbing regret.
Too creepy. That’s why I’ll order two and vow never to eat alone.
[/quote]
Thanks so much - you’ve truly made me feel better about the fact that my husband and I haven’t had any time or inclination lately to discuss raclettes, what with taking the girls to ballet or swim lessons or actually playing with them or reading with them…p.s. can you provide the names of any of your books so that I could read one? : ^ )
[QUOTE=loststream, post:65, topic:286001]
All I have left to say to you all is: THIS RACLETTE CHEESE BETTER BE OFF THE HOOK!!! Because, that’s how I’m imagining it to be right now!
[/quote]
I have never used the woot forum before, but I must delurk to weigh in here. RACLETTE IS TERRIBLE UNMELTED. It is one of my favorite cheeses, it has on a least one occasion brought tears of joy to my eyes, but if you eat a slice of it that hasn’t been melted, you probably won’t like it. Melt it if you want to give it a fair shake.
[QUOTE=rlypppbqgotqfeepsqlr, post:64, topic:286001]
There is a lot of energy lost to heat, so not really. Then again, if you can figure out a way to make use of that waste heat it might not be too bad.
[/quote]
Are you stupid? It is a HEATING element. How much of the energy do you think is lost to heat? Hopefully 100% or so. Honestly, when you say “think of a way to make use of that waste heat” do you mean something like cooking meat and melting cheese?
My God some people are idiots.
I highly recommend raclette to anyone who loves potatoes and cheese. They eat this all the time in Switzerland, Germany, etc so you will need to practice your accent while using. But with a mouth full of potatoes and cheese it is hard not to sound German.
