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A - History of Fondue & Tips

Source of Recipe

Internet


List of Ingredients

Fondue originated in Switzerland as a way of using up hardened cheese. Deriving from the French verb fondre, meaning "to melt," fondue was a classic peasant dish. Accounts vary on how fondue was originally created. Traditional fondue is made with a mixture of Emmenthaler and/or Gruyere cheese and wine, melted in a communal pot. Cherry brandy is added to the melted mixture, which becomes a dip for pieces of stale bread and crusts.

French gastronome Brillat-Savarin mentioned fondue in his 19th century writings, but fondue really hit its heyday in 1956, when chef Konrad Egli of New York's Chalet Swiss Restaurant introduced a fondue method of cooking meat cubes in hot oil. Chocolate fondue followed in 1964.

Tips and Hints:

The addition of alcohol to fondues lowers the boiling point so that cheese proteins will not curdle, but take care not to boil it. When multiplying fondue recipes for larger crowds, remember there is less surface area to evaporate liquids, so you will not need as much as double the liquid of the original recipe.





Recipe

TIPS FROM THE PROS:

Use the right pot. Use a large ceramic pot for cheese and large batches of dessert fondue, a metal-lined pot for oil-based or fried fondues. Small ceramic pots are perfect for desserts. For cooks put off by the teetering pots of old, the new generation of fondue pots is sturdier and more versatile. Rick Rodgers likes those by Calphalon and Le Creuset.

Do the two-step. Cook the fondue in a pan on your stove, then transfer it to the fondue pot for serving.

Always make the cooking liquid a little acidic. Use a dry or semi-dry wine. The acids help the proteins in the cheese melt smoothly, Rodgers says. And use flavorful liquids and seasonings - beer or broth, not water.

Go beyond bread cubes for dipping. Rodgers suggests dipping bagel chunks into a fondue of cream cheese and smoked salmon. "Why not chunks of cooked chicken or shrimp with a traditional Swiss fondue?"

Not all cheeses make good fondue. Work in families of cheeses. "I might mix a Swiss and a cheddar," says Van Aken. "But I wouldn't mix Swiss, cheddar and Gorgonzola."


FONDUE POTS:

Williams-Sonoma reintroduced fondue pots to last year's holiday catalog and nearly sold out. Needless to say, they're back this year, and in Crate & Barrel's holiday catalog.

Sales of Le Creuset cast-iron fondue pots are up 20 percent over last year, the biggest surge in five years.

As West Bend's fondue sales bubble, a 3-quart pot, the Entertainer, was just added to its line of electric pots.