Cheese fondue

Ingredients

• Gruyère — coarsely grated400 g
• Vacherin fribourgeois — coarsely grated400 g
• Dry white wine300 ml
• Cornflour2 tbsp
• Garlic1 clove
• Kirsch2 tbsp
• Lemon juice1 tbsp
• Nutmeg and pepper1 pinch
• Firm-crumbed bread — cubed, with crust600 g

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Rub the inside of the pot with a cut clove of garlic and leave it in.

   2 min

2. 2

   Toss both grated cheeses with the cornflour by hand until every shred is coated.

   4 min

3. 3

   Warm the wine with the lemon juice until bubbles appear at the edge, but not to a boil.

   4 min

4. 4

   Add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring in a figure of eight until each is fully melted before the next goes in.

   10 min

5. 5

   When the mass turns even and strings from the spoon, add the kirsch and season with nutmeg and pepper.

   3 min

6. 6

   Move it to the burner and keep the flame at its lowest. The bread is speared through the crust rather than the crumb.

About the dish

The acid is chemistry rather than flavour. It binds the calcium in the cheese, the protein strands separate, and the mass turns even instead of splitting into rubber and a pool of fat.

The starch is tossed through the cheese before any heat, not stirred into the wine. It coats every piece and holds the emulsion together for as long as the fondue sits on the table.

The flame stays low and the stirring is a figure of eight, never a circle. Circular stirring winds the mass up and splits it; a figure of eight mixes without spinning.

Worth knowing

• — If the fondue splits anyway, take it off the heat, whisk it hard and stir in a teaspoon of cornflour slaked in wine.
• — The wine has to be acidic and dry — Chasselas, Riesling, Muscadet. A sweet or oaked wine will not supply the acidity.
• — The crust left at the bottom of the pot is called la religieuse. It is scraped off and shared: the best part.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

880 kcal

Protein

48 g

Fat

52 g

Carbs

48 g

More from Switzerland

• Rösti — A potato cake of coarsely grated potato fried crisp on both sides. The potatoes are boiled the day before.