France and the Alps · Volume 16, Altitude, Cheese and a Border the Kitchen Never Drew
Malakoff
Vaud, the Côte, specifically the five villages of Eysins, Begnins, Bursins, Luins and Vinzel
Illustration
- Time
- 3 hours
- Researched
- 22 sources cited
Vaud, the Côte, specifically the five villages of Eysins, Begnins, Bursins, Luins and Vinzel. See the history section above for the unconfirmed Crimean War legend and the better-documented Larpin family layer.
As tradition built it
Serves 4 as a starter. The cheese marinates a few hours.
Ingredients
- 400 g mild Gruyère, in 1cm slices or thumb-sized sticks
- 3 dl white wine (Chasselas de la Côte)
- to cover flour, to dredge
- 200 g flour, for the batter
- 3 egg yolks
- 1.5 dl milk
- 3 egg whites
- to taste salt and pepper
- as needed oil, for frying
To serve
- to serve green salad and pickles
Method
- Marinate the cheese in the wine for a few hours.
- Whip the egg whites to firm peaks.
- Mix the flour, yolks and milk, fold in the whites, and season.
- Drain the cheese, flour it lightly and dip it in the batter.
- Deep fry at 180°C until golden. Drain, and serve with green salad and pickles.
Notes
The recipe is chef Stéphane Décotterd's (23 February 2012); Switzerland Cheese Marketing gives the same. Both separate it from the beignet de Vinzel, a grated cheese mixture domed on bread and fried, and Swissmilk's "malakoff" is a third thing again, crumbed balls of grated Gruyère.
What a modern chef changes
A twice-fried structure for a more stable shell, and the marinade rebuilt with a longer contact time
Rung 6
Method
- Extend the wine marinade to two hours, refrigerated, rather than a brief dip, giving the cheese sticks genuine time to absorb the wine's acidity through to the centre, the same protein-dispersing logic rung 1 identifies in fondue, applied here before any heat is involved at all.
- Fry in two stages: a shorter first fry at a lower oil temperature to set the batter's structure without over-browning, followed by a brief rest, then a second, hotter fry immediately before service to finish the colour and crispen the shell further. This two-stage approach, standard for anything battered where the centre needs real heat penetration without the exterior burning, protects the cheese's own melting point from being reached before the batter has fully set around it.
- Serve with a small dish of the reduced marinating wine, lightly thickened, rather than nothing at all, giving the dish a considered sauce element in the same spirit as the reduced braising liquids used elsewhere in this chapter's modernist versions.