--- title: Cheese for Raclette and Potato Gratin description: Which cheese should you choose for raclette or potato gratin? Explore flavour, melting and four cheeses that deserve a place at dinner. image: https://www.cheeseorbit.com/hubfs/Canva%20images/Ogelshield.jpg --- [Skip to content](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/cheese-bites/cheese-for-raclette-and-potato-gratin#main-content) [![Cheese Orbit logo](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/hs-fs/hubfs/cheeseorbit-logo.webp?width=90&height=90&name=cheeseorbit-logo.webp)Homepage](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/?hsLang=en) - About - [Cheese Orbit](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/about/cheese-orbit/?hsLang=en) - [Andreea Popa](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/about/andreea-popa?hsLang=en) - [Courses](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/courses?hsLang=en) - [Academy of Cheese Level 1](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/courses/academy-of-cheese-level-1?hsLang=en) - [Academy of Cheese Level 2](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/courses/academy-of-cheese-level-2?hsLang=en) - [Resources](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/en-gb/resources?hsLang=en) - [Guides & Ebooks](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/en-gb/resources?hsLang=en) - [Blog](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/cheese-bites) - [Contact](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/contact?hsLang=en) [Study cheese](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/courses?hsLang=en) - About - [Cheese Orbit](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/about/cheese-orbit/?hsLang=en) - [Andreea Popa](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/about/andreea-popa?hsLang=en) - [Courses](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/courses?hsLang=en) - [Academy of Cheese Level 1](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/courses/academy-of-cheese-level-1?hsLang=en) - [Academy of Cheese Level 2](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/courses/academy-of-cheese-level-2?hsLang=en) - [Resources](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/en-gb/resources?hsLang=en) - [Guides & Ebooks](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/en-gb/resources?hsLang=en) - [Blog](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/cheese-bites) - [Contact](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/contact?hsLang=en) [Study cheese](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/courses?hsLang=en) ![Ogleshield cheese in Borough Market ](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Canva%20images/Ogelshield.jpg?width=1530&height=1020&name=Ogelshield.jpg) # Cheese for Raclette and Potato Gratin ![Andreea Popa](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Jimmy-1.jpg?width=48&height=48&name=Jimmy-1.jpg) Andreea Popa November 6, 2026 Choosing cheese for cooking means thinking about flavour and texture together. Raclette du Valais AOP and Ogleshield suit a meal built around melted cheese and potatoes; Comté and Le Gruyère AOP are useful choices for a potato gratin. Moisture, acidity and changes during maturation influence how a cheese responds to heat, so age alone is a poor guide to what will happen in the pan. There is something slightly unfair about reserving the good cheese for the cheeseboard while asking whatever is left in the fridge to take care of dinner. We choose a piece carefully, talk about its producer, admire its texture and then hesitate at the thought of putting it anywhere near an oven. It seems a waste. Although, looking at a dish of potatoes with a bubbling, golden crust and cheese tucked between the layers, we all give in. Cooking changes cheese, of course. The experience will be different from tasting a freshly cut piece on its own, and some of the subtleties we enjoy at the counter may be less apparent in the finished dish. But there is pleasure in what happens when cheese becomes part of a meal: the way it coats a warm potato, brings savouriness to cream or gathers into the browned edges that everyone quietly hopes will land on their plate. A few potatoes, an onion and a well chosen cheese can take us quite a long way. The interesting decision is which cheese to choose, because even with such a short shopping list, dinner could go in several very good directions. ## Raclette: when the cheese is the main event With raclette, there is very little for the cheese to hide behind. A potato, split open on the plate, receives a warm layer of it; a cornichon or pickled onion waits alongside. Each mouthful gives you plenty of opportunity to notice whether the cheese is actually worth eating, however beautifully it melts. Raclette du Valais AOP belongs naturally here. Made with raw cows’ milk in the Swiss canton of Valais, it can be served by heating the cut face of a half-wheel and scraping the softened cheese onto a warm plate. A tabletop raclette grill brings the meal into a more manageable domestic setting, with slices melting in little pans while the potatoes are passed around. The official serving suggestions include potatoes cooked in their skins, cornichons and pickled onions. It is a remarkably convincing arrangement for ingredients that require so little ceremony.   ![Domestic setting for serving raclette with potatoes, cheese cubes and plenty of cheese on the table](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Canva%20images/Raclette%20at%20home.jpg?width=688&height=459&name=Raclette%20at%20home.jpg)*Raclette served at home* For a British choice, I would consider Ogleshield, made at Montgomery’s in Somerset from Jersey cows’ milk. Beneath its washed rind is a supple cheese that Neal’s Yard Dairy describes as milky and savoury, with a character reminiscent of broth. That gives us something more interesting to consider than its ability to melt: a flavour that can make a plain boiled potato feel like a very deliberate choice.   ![Ogelshield cheese in Borough Market, face cut opened and surface heated and melting](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Canva%20images/Ogelshield.jpg?width=688&height=459&name=Ogelshield.jpg)*Ogleshield - Borough Market* Ogleshield also has a small piece of cheesemaking history attached to its name. Originally called Jersey Shield, it became Ogleshield after William Oglethorpe, then working at Neal’s Yard Dairy, suggested washing its rind with brine. The name records the contribution of someone who helped shape the cheese we now eat. ## A potato gratin deserves good cheese all the way through A gratin offers a different pleasure. The spoon breaks through the surface, lifts the soft potato layers and brings up some of the creamy interior beneath them. The golden top gets most of the attention, particularly in photographs, but I want the mouthful underneath to be just as rewarding. ![Close up of a potato gratin with golden cheese top](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Canva%20images/Potato%20Gratin.jpg?width=688&height=459&name=Potato%20Gratin.jpg)*Potato gratin* Comté gives us a lovely way to build that flavour through the dish. The Comté association’s potato gratin uses slices of cheese between the potatoes and grated cheese over the surface, so its contribution continues below the crust. It is an approach worth borrowing when the cheese is something you have chosen with care.  Le Gruyère AOP is another good candidate, used in the Swiss cheese organisation’s own potato gratin. These are starting points for a choice at the counter, where tasting can help you decide what you want in the finished bake. Would you like a gentler dairy character, something nuttier, or a more pronounced savoury flavour? The name of the cheese narrows the possibilities; the piece in front of you makes the decision more interesting. ![Tartiflette dish seen from above on a wooden table](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Canva%20images/Tartiflette.jpg?width=688&height=459&name=Tartiflette.jpg)*Tartiflette dish* And this is where the onion earns its place. I would soften it gently before adding it to the layers, allowing its sweetness to join the potatoes and cheese. Beside raclette, I would take it in the sharper direction of a pickle. The same ingredient can change the balance of the meal depending on how you prepare it, which is a useful reminder when the shopping list looks almost suspiciously simple. ## What do we actually mean by “melts well”? Watching cheese soften under heat can suggest that everything is heading towards the same result. Then one cheese spreads across the plate, another stretches from the fork, and another releases a little pool of oil. All have been heated; they have behaved quite differently. Cheese contains a protein network that holds water and fat, and its behaviour under heat depends partly on moisture, acidity and the calcium associated with that network. Maturation changes the structure too, as [proteins are broken down.](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/cheese-bites/en/is-it-salt-or-is-it-umami?hsLang=en) Those changes can help a cheese flow while reducing its ability to stretch or hold fat within the structure. A more mature piece may therefore behave differently from a younger one, without either being the better choice for every dish. ![a slice of bread on a black background, from the corner of the slice a big piece of melting cheese is flowing down](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Canva%20images/Melting%20Cheese.jpg?width=688&height=459&name=Melting%20Cheese.jpg)*The infamous melting cheese* This matters at the cheese counter because “I need a cheese that melts” leaves quite a lot unsaid. Cheese flowing over a cooked potato and cheese browning on a gratin are doing different jobs. Describing the meal gives the cheesemonger somewhere useful to begin, especially if you also explain the flavour you enjoy. “I’m making a potato gratin, and I’d like the cheese to be properly noticeable” is a perfectly good request. So is asking which of the cheeses on the counter they would put in a raclette pan. There may be a familiar answer, or something you would never have thought of taking home for that purpose. That is part of the pleasure of buying good cheese: discovering what you might do with it. Sometimes it deserves a quiet moment on its own, when you can follow its flavour without anything else competing for your attention. Sometimes the potatoes are ready, the onion is softening and a baking dish is waiting. I would happily buy the good cheese for that because good cheese deserves a place in the oven. ## Share this post [mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cheeseorbit.com%2Fcheese-bites%2Fcheese-for-raclette-and-potato-gratin](mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cheeseorbit.com%2Fcheese-bites%2Fcheese-for-raclette-and-potato-gratin) ## Keep reading ### [![Țaga cheese ripening in Țaga natural cave](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/hs-fs/hubfs/DSC_2030.jpg?width=2048&height=1365&name=DSC_2030.jpg) Cheese Styles Romanian Cheese Țaga Cheese: Cave Maturation and a Romanian Cheese Tradition](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/cheese-bites/taga-cheese-cave-maturation-and-a-romanian-cheese-tradition?hsLang=en) ### [![](https://www.cheeseorbit.com/hs-fs/hubfs/DSC_1839.jpg?width=2048&height=1434&name=DSC_1839.jpg) Cheese Styles One Solar Eclipse. One Heatwave. 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