Raclette a sophisticated answer to fondue

To serve, follow the product directions for heating and using your raclette grill. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the marinated vegetables to a platter. Arrange the potatoes and other accompaniments in bowls or on plates at the table. Guests can heat their vegetables on the top of the grill and melt their cheese using the grill’s broiler according to product directions. Top potatoes with the vegetables and melted cheese.

Per serving: 730 calories; 360 calories from fat (49 percent of total calories); 40 g fat (23 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 215 mg cholesterol; 41 g carbohydrate; 7 g fiber; 10 g sugar; 55 g protein; 1370 mg sodium

When Cowgirl Creamery breaks out the raclette on weekends in San Francisco’s Ferry Building Marketplace, people float into the store almost trancelike.

“They smell that aroma coming down the hall in the ferry building and they’re drawn to it like a cartoon,” Sue Conley, co-founder of the San Francisco-based cheese company, says of raclette — the name of a cheese, as well as a dish and the machine used to make it.

Which is surprisingly unhelpful. What is raclette? Consider it a more sophisticated answer to fondue.

Raclette — derives from the French word meaning “to scrape” — involves melting the surface of a wheel of semi-soft raclette cheese, then scraping the gooey part onto boiled potatoes and other accompaniments. A tradition of the Swiss Alps, raclette is still little known in the United States. But that may be changing.

The pungent, washed rind cheese has been made in Switzerland for centuries in the canton of Valais. Its most distinctive feature is that it becomes creamy and smooth when melted. The Swiss eat it as a meal, accompanied by boiled potatoes, cornichons and pearl onions, with liberal drafts of white wine or tea. Raclette also makes great street food, served on a slab of bread.

In the United States, it’s hard to find outside high-end cheese shops, supermarkets such as Whole Foods Market and the occasional very, very cool party. Shops such as Cowgirl Creamery sell and serve raclette. Murray’s Cheese in New York also is experimenting with it.

Raclette should naturally appeal to palates weaned on grilled cheese. But a number of obstacles have slowed its rise. Raclette traditionally has been imported, which can make it expensive and hard to find. While most raclette still is imported, some American cheese-makers do produce it.

Emmi Roth USA, the American arm of a large Swiss cheese-maker, has been making small amounts of raclette for about 20 years. Leelanau Cheese Company in Michigan began crafting handmade raclette in 1995. And last winter, Spring Brook Farm in Vermont also began offering raclette. While that means there is more of it is available, getting the word out is another story.

“It’s a matter of awareness in many cases,” says Nora Weiser, executive director of the American Cheese Society, based in Denver. “If awareness is raised and more people try it, I think people will get into it.”

Which may already be happening. It’s no longer hard to find a raclette machine. A trip to the mall and retailers such as Williams-Sonoma will do. They also are readily available online. Boska, a Dutch company that sells raclette machines, says U.S. sales of professional setups have doubled since last year. Home models have grown as much as 30 percent.

But raclette aficionados say even equipment shouldn’t stand in your way.

“You don’t need a fancy oven,” says Rene Weber, master cheese-maker and vice president of operations for Emmi Roth USA. “You can just cut a quarter-inch slice, put it in a Teflon pan, and heat it up and when it melts you put it on a plate. That’s how the Swiss eat it at home.”