Swiss recipe
How to make Cheese fondue
Fondue
The Swiss Alps and western Switzerland
Cheese melted with white wine and a little cornflour in a heavy pot called a caquelon, kept warm at the table. Everyone dips cubes of bread on long forks. A classic mix is 'moitié-moitié', half Gruyère and half Vacherin Fribourgeois.
Ingredients
- 1 clove of garlic, cut in half
- 300 ml dry white wine
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 400 g Gruyère cheese, grated
- 400 g Vacherin Fribourgeois cheese, grated (or more Gruyère)
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- 2 tablespoons kirsch (cherry brandy), optional
- Pepper and a little grated nutmeg
- 800 g day-old white bread, cut into cubes with some crust on each
Method
- Rub the inside of a fondue pot or heavy saucepan with the cut garlic.
- Pour in the wine and lemon juice and warm them over medium heat until just steaming. Do not let it boil hard.
- Add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring in a figure of eight with a wooden spoon until each handful melts.
- Mix the cornflour with the kirsch (or with 2 tablespoons of wine) and stir it in. Keep stirring for 2 to 3 minutes until the fondue is smooth and creamy.
- Season with pepper and nutmeg and set the pot over a burner on the table, on a low flame so it just bubbles.
- Spear the bread cubes on long forks, dip and stir, and use the fork only to carry the bread to your plate. Note: not all the alcohol cooks off, so leave out the kirsch and use apple juice instead of wine if you cook for children or anyone avoiding alcohol.
Made it at home? Tick it off and it goes into your kitchen passport.
The oldest known recipe for cooking cheese with wine is in a Zurich cookbook of 1699. The crisp crust of cheese left at the bottom of the pot is called 'la religieuse', the nun, and is usually shared at the end.
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