Baked Mont d'Or, the hot box that warms up winter

“Mont d'Or is the only cheese that comes with its own baking dish. The box is the recipe.”

When the spruce boxes return to the counter, we know winter has arrived. Baked Mont d'Or is the simplest dish in the world and one of the most comforting: you score the rind, slip in a garlic clove, pour over a splash of white wine, and the box goes into the oven just as it is. Twenty-five minutes later, the cheese flows under the rind like a fondue you never had to watch over.

In the Haut-Doubs they call it the boîte chaude. It is served with potatoes, mountain charcuterie and a sharply dressed salad, and nobody asks for dessert.

This version uses a raw milk Mont d'Or AOP, in its original box. No special dish needed, just an oven.

Ingredients for 2 to 3 people

Preparation: 10 min — Cooking: 25 min

One cheese, one garlic clove, a glass of white wine, pepper: the list fits on one hand.

• 1 Mont d'Or AOP of about 500 g, in its box
• 600 g waxy potatoes, small ones (baby potatoes, Amandine, Charlotte)
• 1 garlic clove
• 5 cl dry white wine: a Jura wine to stay local, or, as here, a Muscadet
• Freshly ground pepper (here a five-berry blend)
• Coarse salt for the potato water

To serve:

• Mountain charcuterie: viande des Grisons (air-dried beef), cured ham or dry sausage
• A green salad with mustard vinaigrette
• Gherkins and pickled baby onions

The recipe step by step

1. Start the potatoes

Wash the potatoes without peeling them and put them in a pan of cold salted water. Bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes: they should be almost done, with the tip of a knife still meeting slight resistance. Drain. They will finish in the oven next to the cheese.

Preheat the oven to 200 °C, fan.

2. Score the rind

Take the Mont d'Or out of its wrapping but leave it in its box, band included. With a small knife, score the rind in a cross or a grid, 1 cm deep, without going down to the bottom. The garlic and wine will seep into the cheese through these cuts.

A cross or a grid, without piercing the bottom.

3. Add the garlic

Peel the garlic clove and cut it into thin slivers. Push them into the cuts, spread over the whole surface. One clove is enough: the garlic cooks gently in the cheese and adds flavour without taking over.

The garlic slivers sink into the cuts.

4. Pour in the white wine

Set the box in an ovenproof dish (it catches anything that might overflow) and pour 5 cl of dry white wine slowly over the rind so it seeps into the cuts. No more: too much wine and the cheese turns runny instead of creamy.

A splash of dry white into the cuts, not a whole glass.

5. Season with pepper

A few turns of the pepper mill over the top. No salt: the cheese brings enough.

Freshly ground pepper, and that is all.

6. Bake with the potatoes

Arrange the drained potatoes around the box in the dish. Put the lid back on the box: it holds in the heat and stops the rind drying out. Bake for 25 minutes at 200 °C.

Lid on, potatoes around it: into the oven.

25 minutes, 200 °C, hands off.

7. Serve with a spoon

Remove the lid: the rind has puffed up and turned golden, and the cheese quivers beneath the surface. Lift a corner of the rind with a spoon; the cheese should flow like thick cream. If it resists, give it another 5 minutes.

Out of the oven: golden rind, liquid cheese underneath.

Put the box in the middle of the table; everyone dips in their spoon and pours cheese over their potatoes. Charcuterie, gherkins and salad on the side.

The string that never ends: the sign it is perfectly cooked.

Our tips for a perfect boîte chaude

The box goes in the oven, but protect it if it is fragile

Take it out of the fridge an hour before

An ice-cold Mont d'Or takes longer to melt at the centre, and the rind burns first. At room temperature, 25 minutes is enough.

The wine: dry, and not too much

A Jura white (Chardonnay, Savagnin) is the local pairing. A Muscadet, an Apremont from Savoie or a Chasselas also work very well. Avoid oaked or sweet whites. And 5 cl is the right amount: the cheese should stay creamy, not drowned.

Potatoes in their skins, not peeled

Cooked with the skin on, they stay firm and do not soak up water. Par-boiled for 15 minutes, then roasted in the oven with the cheese, they take on a slight crispness that stands up to the creaminess.

And without an oven?

Mont d'Or can also be eaten cold, with a spoon, at room temperature: that is often how people in Franche-Comté prefer it. Taken out an hour before, it is already runny.

Mont d'Or AOP: the winter cheese of the Haut-Doubs

Mont d'Or, or Vacherin du Haut-Doubs, is an AOP from the French Jura mountains, made from raw cow's milk in an area above 700 m altitude. What makes it special: it is only made from 15 August to 15 March and sold from 10 September to 10 May. The rest of the year, the milk goes into Comté. Do not confuse it with Vacherin Fribourgeois, a Swiss semi-hard cheese made for fondue.

This washed-rind soft cheese is so creamy that it cannot hold its shape on its own: hence the spruce band around it and the box that carries it. The wood gives it that resinous note you find again when it bakes. Its Swiss cousin, Vacherin Mont-d'Or from the canton of Vaud, is prepared in the same way.

Choose a box whose rind is wrinkled, ivory to light ochre, and whose cheese bulges slightly under your finger. The one in our photos comes from the Fromagerie du Val d'Usiers, in the Doubs; ours always arrives in its original box. As it is a raw milk soft cheese, it should be avoided during pregnancy, unless thoroughly cooked to the core: our guide cheese and pregnancy sets out the facts.

Three variations on the boîte chaude

• Classic: garlic, white wine, pepper, as above.
• Honey and nuts: replace the garlic with a drizzle of honey and a few crushed walnuts or hazelnuts on the rind before baking; no wine. A sweet-and-savoury version for children.
• Lardons and shallot: fry 50 g of lardons and a sliced shallot, spread them over the scored rind with the white wine. Heartier, perfect for a winter dinner.

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