If You Need Comfort Food, You Need A Gruyere Recipe (PHOTOS)

If we're being honest, we'll tell you that when we think of comfort food, we think of cheese. There is one cheese that has managed to find its way into most of the classic, old-school comforts we start thinking about when the weather turns cold and we want to hibernate. We will always love cheddar and don't want it to be mad at us, but right now we are talking about gruyere recipes.

Gruyere performs an incredible magic trick just by existing -- in its natural form it is relatively firm, and while nutty and delicious, really doesn't look like much. Then heat comes in. When heat and gruyere meet, this cheese turns into a magical food blanket that complements everything it touches. From fondue to gratins to gougéres, gruyere pops up in a ton of foods we adore. We've pulled together a few of our favorite ways to use this Swiss cheese. If we missed your favorite, let us know in the comments!

Want to read more from HuffPost Taste? Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr.