Fondue

Cheese emulsified into wine, where the cornflour is tossed through the dry cheese and the pot is never allowed to boil.

Not vegetarian — contains emmental whose rennet the source does not name, gruyère whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 400 g gruyère, coarsely grated
• 400 g emmental, coarsely grated
• 2 tablespoons cornflour
• 350 ml dry white wine
• 1 clove garlic, halved
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons kirsch, optional
• a grating of nutmeg
• black pepper
• day-old bread, in cubes with crust on each

Method

1. THE CORNFLOUR IS TOSSED THROUGH THE DRY CHEESE, never added as a slurry. Every shred gets a dusting, and as it melts the starch is already in exactly the right place to stop the proteins clumping. Stirred in as a paste later, it goes in as lumps and does nothing where it is needed -- and by then the fondue has usually already split, which is the one failure of this dish nobody can hide.
2. IT MUST NOT BOIL AT ANY POINT. The wine is brought to a bare shiver and the cheese goes in from there. Above about 80C the proteins tighten and squeeze the fat out, and you get a stringy mass sitting in oil. If it is bubbling, it is too hot.
3. THE CHEESE GOES IN A HANDFUL AT A TIME AND IS STIRRED IN A FIGURE OF EIGHT. Each handful melted completely before the next. The figure of eight, rather than circles, keeps the cheese moving through the middle instead of spinning round the edge in a ring.
4. THE ACID IS NOT OPTIONAL. Dry wine and a spoon of lemon juice -- the acidity is what keeps the emulsion together. A soft or oaky wine makes this much harder than it needs to be.
5. AND IF IT SPLITS: off the heat, a teaspoon of cornflour slaked in a little lemon juice, whisked in hard. It comes back more often than not, which is worth knowing before it happens.
6. Both cheeses coarsely grated into a bowl, the cornflour scattered over and TOSSED through with the hands until every shred is dusted.
7. The pot rubbed hard all over the inside with the cut garlic, which is then left in or discarded as you prefer.
8. Wine and lemon juice warmed in the pot to a bare shiver. No bubbles.
9. A handful of cheese in, stirred in a figure of eight until it has gone.
10. Repeated, handful by handful, over 8 to 10 minutes. It will look thin and separated at first and come together.
11. Kirsch, nutmeg and pepper stirred in. No salt.
12. Taken to the table over its burner on the LOWEST setting.
13. Bread cubes each with a piece of crust, which is what the fork grips -- all-crumb cubes fall off into the pot.
14. Kept stirred as people eat. The crust that forms on the bottom at the end lifts out in one piece and is the best thing in the pot.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes