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A full cheese fondue set in Switzerland.
Apart from pieces of bread to dip into the melted cheese, there are side
servings of kirsch, raw garlic, pickled gherkins, onions and olives. |
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Fondue is a Swiss communal dish shared at the table in an
earthenware pot (caquelon) over a small burner (rechaud). The term is derived
from the French verb fondre (to melt), in the past participle fondu (melted). |
Diners use forks to dip bits of food (most often bread) into the warm
semi-liquid sauce (commonly a cheese mix). Heat is supplied by a wick or gel
alcohol burner, or a tealight.
There are many kinds of fondue, each made with a different
blend of cheeses, wine and seasoning, mostly depending on where it is made. The
caquelon is first rubbed with a cut garlic clove, then wine and cheese are
slowly added until melted. A small amount of potato starch (or corn starch,
cornflour or flour) is added to prevent separation and the fondue is almost
always further diluted with either kirsch, beer or white wine.
The most common
recipe calls for 1 dl (100 ml) of dry white wine per person and a 200 g mix of
hard (such as Gruyère) and semi-hard (such as Emmental, Vacherin or raclette)
cheeses. The mixture must be stirred continuously as it heats in the
caquelon.
Crusty bread is cut into cubes which are then speared on a fondue fork and
dipped into the melted cheese.
A cheese fondue mixture should be held at a temperature warm enough to keep the
fondue smooth and liquid but not so hot as to allow any burning. If this
temperature is held until the fondue is finished there will be a thin crust of
toasted (not burnt) cheese at the bottom of the caquelon. This is called
la
religieuse (French for the nun). It has the texture of a thin cracker and is
almost always lifted out and eaten.
As with other communal dishes, fondue has an etiquette. Most
often, allowing one's tongue or lips to touch the dipping fork will be thought
of as rude. With meat fondues, one should use a dinner fork to take meat off the
dipping fork. A "no double-dipping" rule also has sway: After a dipped morsel
has been tasted, it should never be returned to the pot.
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In Swiss tradition, if a nugget of bread is lost in the
cheese by a man, he buys a bottle of wine, and if such a thing happens to befall
a woman, she kisses the man on her left. |
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Left: A cheese fondue. |
Those who succeed in following the etiquette of fondue can share the cheese
cracker-like la religieuse left at the bottom of the emptied caquelon.
