Cheese Fondue

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photo by Peter J photo by Peter J
photo by Peter J
photo by Fiddler photo by Fiddler
Ready In:
30mins
Ingredients:
7
Serves:
6
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ingredients

  • 1 garlic clove, halved crosswise
  • 1 12 cups dry white wine (preferably Swiss, such as Fendant)
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 2 teaspoons kirsch
  • 12 lb emmenthaler cheese, coarsely grated (2 cups)
  • 12 lb gruyere, coarsely grated (2 cups)
  • Accompaniment

  • cubes French bread, on fondue forks or long wooden skewer
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directions

  • Rub inside of a 4-quart heavy pot with cut sides of garlic, then discard garlic.
  • Add wine to pot and bring just to a simmer over moderate heat.
  • Stir together cornstarch and kirsch in a cup.
  • Gradually add cheese to pot and cook, stirring constantly in a zigzag pattern (not a circular motion) to prevent cheese from balling up, until cheese is just melted and creamy (do not let boil).
  • Stir cornstarch mixture again and stir into fondue.
  • Bring fondue to a simmer and cook, stirring, until thickened, 5 to 8 minutes.
  • Transfer to fondue pot set over a flame and serve with bread for dipping.

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Reviews

  1. This is a great basic fondue recipe! A couple tips: instead of mixing the cornstarch in the kirsch, put it in a large plastic bag or tupperware container with the cheese and shake. This makes the melting of the cheese much less likely to ball up. If the melting cheese just isn't getting smooth, try adding a touch of lemon juice--the acid cuts the proteins and prevents balling (if this happens, next time use a drier, more acidic wine). Blanched veggies, such as cauliflower or carrots, are also good as dippers.
     
  2. this is the original fondue i remember from the 70's- i did add some tidbits of leftover gouda and herbed cheddar, excellent
     
  3. We LOVED this recipe! I did mix the cornstarch with the shredded cheese per other reviews and didn't have Kirsch, so I used Brandy. I will be using this recipe for our Christmas Eve Cheese Fondue going forward. Thank you!
     
  4. great social dinner. this was my first ever attempt at fondue, had a couple of (good) friends round and it turned out pretty well. 4 people (2 boys who eat heaps and 2 girls who dont eat much) finished off the whole bowl. followed recipe exactly except as per captain apollo's instructions about adding cornflour to cheese not kirsch. Taste was great, quite strong, but apparently very true to what french fondue tastes like. Texture was a little off - too runny. Only thing i could think of was that i measured the cheeses using 2 cups of grated cheese for each. Next time i would significantly decrease amount of wine or increase amount of cheese/cornflour. We served it with: french bread stick cubed, raw mushroom, raw red pepper, raw baby tomatoes, lightly steamed broccoli, cauliflower and baby carrot stirfried chicken pieces and stirfried spicy choritzo sausage pieces. Managed to finish off all the dipping pieces, favourites were bread, the sausage, chicken, mushrooms, broccoli, but everything went well. Rating - i asked the guests to rate the meal, they said 3.5 stars. They can be quite harsh raters thou so im rounding up to 4 stars - presuming that if i get the texture right it would be 4 stars. Thanks for this recipe Mimi - it was a really fun dinner
     
  5. I threw a fondue party for my sister's 30th birthday and this recipe was a huge success! We used french bread, fuji apples, and carrots and celery as dippers. Everyone loved the sides and said how good the cheese was. I would warn you, though, that if you add the cheese too soon to the wine, it will clump up a little. Wait for the wine to simmer! And to prevent clumping, put a little flour in with the cheese. It keeps the temp change from clumping the cheese. Enjoy!
     
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Tweaks

  1. We enjoyed this meal very much. A fabulous, get the family together around the table, fun meal. Very important to use the garlic as stated. We served with very lightly steamed broccoli, raw mushrooms, radishes, baby corn, red pepper, asparagus, carrot and bread. Love the tip from Captain Apollo about adding the cornflour (cornstarch) to the cheese. Also instead of Kirsch I used a brandy with a tiny spoonful of stone fruit jam.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Very busy nanny/au pair, working for a very rich and snooty family, in a very large home, in a very snooty village. Just in case my employer comes here, please don't ask where I am from, or I'll be sacked like the last nanny was. ;-) I take care of 4 gorgeous, and darling kids. 3 girls and a boy. The boy is the youngest (and my favorite). They are great children, very, very active. (Hyper) I love to cook. I guess that's a given, why else would I be here. Part of my job is also to prepare meals for the family. The more they like my food, the longer I get to stay. (just a little joke) On my day off, I usually go out to the cinema or some dance clubs with the other au pairs in this town. That's about it I think.
 
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