This dish is potato gratin turned up to eleven: potatoes, crème fraîche, bacon, wine, and an entire wheel of cheese. You cannot travel through the Savoie without running into tartiflette—named after the old Savoyard word for potato, tartifle. Reblochon comes from the verb reblocher, which means “to milk a second time” (resulting in more cream in the milk). Only three breeds of cow produce the milk used to make AOC (Appelation d’origine controlée) Reblochon: the Abondance—you’re well acquainted with these girls—the Montbéliarde, and the Tarine. All of these cows can happily navigate mountainous terrain, which is crucial in the summer when they are moved up to Alpine meadows and milked at higher altitude for the season.
Reprinted with permission from Alpine Cooking, by Meredith Erickson, copyright © 2019. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
Photographs copyright © 2019 by Christina Holmes.