Gruyère is sweet but slightly salty, with a flavor that varies widely with age. It is often described as creamy and nutty when young, becoming with age more assertive, earthy, and complex. When fully aged (five months to a year) it tends to have small holes and cracks which impart a slightly grainy mouthfeel. To make an 80 kg (176 lb.) round of Gruyère cheese, about 800 litres (211 gallons) of milk are used.

Gruyère is generally known as one of the finest cheeses for baking, having a distinctive but not overpowering taste. In quiche, gruyère adds savoriness without overshadowing the other ingredients. It is a good melting cheese, particularly suited for fondues, along with Vacherin and emmental. It is also traditionally used in French onion soup, as well as in croque monsieur, a classic French toasted ham and cheese sandwich. Gruyere is also used in chicken and veal cordon bleu. It is a fine table cheese, and when grated, it is often used with salads and pastas. It is used, grated, atop le tourin, a type of garlic soup from France which is served on dried bread. White wines, such as riesling, pair well with gruyère. Sparkling apple cider and Bock beer are also beverage affinities.

To make Gruyère, raw milk is heated to 34 °C (93 °F) in a copper vat, and then curdled by the addition of liquid rennet. The curd is cut up into pieces the size of a grain of rice and stirred, releasing whey. The curd is cooked at 43 °C (109 °F), and raised quickly to 54 °C (129 °F). The pieces shrivel up, and the mixture is placed in molds to be pressed. After salting in brine, the cheese is ripened for two months at room temperature, generally on wooden boards. Gruyère can be cured for 3 to 10 months, with long curing producing a cheese of intense flavour.

Raclette is both a type of cheese and, informally, a dish featuring this cheese

Traditional Raclette is a semi-firm, salted cheese made from cow’s milk. However, varieties exist made with white wine, pepper, herbs, or smoked. The cheese originated in the Swiss canton of Valais, but is today also produced in the French regions of Savoie and Franche-Comté and in Leelanau, Michigan, in the United States.

Raclette is also a dish indigenous to parts of Switzerland, Wallonia and France. The Raclette cheese round is heated, either in front of a fire or by a special machine, then scraped onto diners’ plates; the term raclette derives from the French racler, meaning “to scrape”. Traditionally, it is accompanied by small firm potatoes (Bintje, Charlotte or Raclette varieties), gherkins, pickled onions, dried meat, such as prosciutto and viande des Grisons, sliced peppers, tomato, onion, mushrooms, pears, and dusted with paprika and fresh-ground black pepper.

In the Swiss canton of Valais, raclette is typically eaten with tea or other warm beverages, or with a type of white wine called Fendant, made from the Chasselas grape. Drinking water along with your raclette is said to interfere with the digestion of the cheese, in rare occasions causing death by cheese balls forming in the stomach, although this may be an old wives’ tale as there is no scientific basis for this. It is normally accompanied by a white wine, such as the traditional Savoie wine, a Riesling or a Pinot Gris.
Raclette was mentioned in medieval writings as a particularly nutritious meal consumed by peasants in mountainous Switzerland. It was then known in the German-speaking part of Switzerland as Bratchäs, or “roasted cheese.” Traditionally, the Swiss cow herders used to take the cheese with them when they were moving cows to or from the pastures up in the mountains. In the evenings around the campfire, they would place the cheese next to the fire and, when it had reached the perfect softness, scrape it on top of some bread.

A modern way of serving raclette involves an electric table-top grill with small pans, known as coupelles, to heat slices of raclette cheese in. Generally the grill is surmounted by a hot plate or griddle. The cheese is brought to the table sliced, accompanied by platters of boiled or steamed potatoes, other vegetables, charcuterie, and perhaps seafood. Diners create their own small packages of food by cooking small amounts of meat, vegetables and seafood on the griddle. These are then mixed with potatoes and topped with cheese in the small, wedge-shaped coupelles that are placed under the grill to melt and brown the cheese. Alternatively, slices of cheese may be melted and simply poured over food on the plate. The accent in raclette dining is on relaxed and sociable eating and drinking, the meal often running to several hours. French and other European supermarkets generally stock both the grill apparatus and ready-sliced cheese and charcuterie selections for use with it. Restaurants also provide raclette evenings for parties of diners