I’m going to make a cheese fondue soon enough and I’d like suggestions. Is there anything you’ve tried that you particularly liked?
I’m thinking of using vegetables in addition to bread. Which vegetables work best? How about meats? Would fruits possibly work?
Any good cheeses to use aside from Emmenthal and Gruyère?
What alcohols/wines to use?
Presume little cooking skill on my part but willingness to experiment and learn.
I prefer the emmenthaler/gruyere combination in about a 2:1 ratio. Use a fairly dry white wine, and rub the pot with a halved garlic before adding it. Usually about a cup and a half of wine is plenty for about a pound of cheese or so. If you’re not sure about the wine, add a little lemon juice as the wine is heating. Heat the wine on low heat and start adding the cheese just when bubbles start forming on the bottom of the pot. Dredge the shredded cheese in a tablespoon or so of flour and add by handfuls while stirring constantly and letting it melt. If it gets too thick, add a small amount of heated wine. When all the cheese is melted, add a dollop (~1/4 cup) of brandy, cognac or, if you’re being a purist, kirsch, while stirring. Add a bit of grated nutmeg and a little salt and ground pepper, if you like.
As for dippers, anything works other than juicy fruits. Apples are good, French bread, of course, veggies (but leave them in the cheese until they’re warm through, cooked or dried sausage. I also like to have some toasted sesame and poppy seeds to dip the cheesy bread in. I also like fennel seed, but it’s not for everybody.
My parents had Swiss friends who introduced them to Swiss cheese fondue shortly after they were married, and it has been our family’s standard Christmas Eve dish since.
While making it from scratch is always better, the packaged fondues are actually quite acceptable. If you are making it yourself, invest in an authentic bottle of kirsch (cherry brandy) which is an essential ingredient.
In my family, we always used a good French bread to dip. When my wife and I got married we continued the Christmas Eve tradition, and she added ham cubes, apples, and pineapple chunks to the options. They go REALLY well.
Thirding the apple suggestion. I’m partial to bell peppers and broccoli too (get it warm like Chefguy recommends). I like a milder dried sausage; spicy ones overwhelm the cheese IMO.
ETA: and my favorite suggestion from a recipe - be sure to drink only wine when eating it. If you drink water, the cheese will supposedly form a solid ball and just sit in your stomach. Complete (or mostly) BS, but I like using it as an excuse.
Just don’t take a big slug of the kirsch. It doesn’t taste like cherries.
I like using beer instead of wine. A dark stout like Guinness is excellent, but it will change the flavor from the traditional fondue. Lighter beers will have flavors more similar to the white wines that are commonly use. I haven’t seen a combination I wasn’t happy with, so I just use whatever beer is on hand. (Which, given my taste in beer, tends toward the Guinness end of the spectrum.)
Swiss is sort of my default for the cheese, but Gruyere and Gouda are both good too. A little smoked gouda goes a long way, but it’s amazing.
And that’s pretty much my recipe. Maybe some seasonings, but beer and cheese is pretty good.
For veggies, I think broccoli (raw) is a great way to go - all the little florets do a good job of trapping lots of cheese. (And really, anything you dip into fondue is just an excuse for transporting cheese to your mouth without getting your fingers messy, isn’t it?)
Jicama is good too.
Nuts are great, though they’re a little hard to tip without getting your fingers messy. I’m still trying to find a polite way to dip almonds, but the flavor is really good.
Have nut pieces on a plate. Dip bread in cheese, then dip into nuts of choice. Eat.
And don’t forget to buy the bread the day before you’re going to eat it. If it’s too fresh, it tends to fall apart in the cheese.
I’ve also used different types of bread in the past, like a dark rye and others.
In our family, the rule was that, if you lost the bread in the cheese, you had to kiss the person on your left. As most of us around the table were siblings, we were appropriately grossed out by this, at least until we started bringing significant others into the mix.
When we make cheese fondue, we always prepare the following:
[ul]
[li]Baguette[/li][li]Broccoli[/li][li]Deep-fried breaded cherry tomatoes[/li][li]Hash brown balls (similar to tater tots)[/li][li]Brown button mushroom[/li][li]Apples[/li][/ul]
All of these are good, but the real treasure is the cheese crust/cracker you get at the bottom of the pot after a perfect fondue. We do the fondue in two batches just so we can get two of them.
As for cheese, sometimes, (when we can find it), we add Swiss Valais to the second Emmental and Gruyere mix to give the fondue a little more tang to it.
Use a champagne-style wine, extra brut, it lightens the fondue. Or white wine tempered with a cup of dry vermouth. Don’t forget some cornstarch, this is essential to stop the cheese splitting. Or you can go with Chefguy’s dredging in flour, same difference.
While it is usually used in, and named for, that other Swiss melted cheese dish, Raclette is a good melter and I’ve had it in fondue along with the usual cheeses.
Small boiled potatoes are a good veg addition.
And the only correct forfeit is “Into the lake, with weights on his feet!”
My standard dippers are pear, raw broccoli, and French bread.
Yeah, that would work. Especially if I used slivered almonds that would stick very easily.
Don’t forget, if you stick your fork in the pot and the bread slips off, you have to . . . let’s see . . . floor open for suggestions as to penalties; humiliating, obscene and/or physically painful preferred.
We like to dip in jumbo shrimp.
“Splitting”?
Separating (I believe it’s the fat separating from the proteins). Cornstarch helps prevent that.
You’re basically making a cheese sauce. If it ‘breaks’ you end up with a grainy, nasty mess with oil floating on top. That’s why directions always say to stir constantly after you start adding the cheese, and to also dip the bread in a figure eight to continue to stir it. It can also do that if you don’t use good quality cheeses.