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2 1/2 fl Dry white wine
Clove garlic 5 1/2 oz Emmental and Gruyere cheese*
1 ts Cornstarch
1/2 fl Kirsch**
Shake pepper Grind fresh nutmeg 6 oz White bread, cubed
(Note: the above measurements are for *each* person.
Multiply by
your number of guests.) * Grated and mixed half and half.
** This
is Swiss cherry firewater: clear, dry-tasting — *not* “cherry
brandy”, which is dark and sweet.
Most good liquor stores should
carry it, at least one of the US brands like Hiram Walker, or else
maybe Bols.
The best Kirsch is “Etter” brand from Switzerland, but
the odds of your finding it are minuscule.
– In Switzerland,
fondue is usually perpared in a “caquelon”, an earthenware dish
with a handle, glazed inside; but any enamelled saucepan can be
used, or a not too shallow fireproof dish.
Rub the inside of the
pan with half a cut clove of garlic, and let it dry until the
rubbed places feel tacky.
Put the wine in the dish and bring it to
a boil.
Slowly start adding cheese to the boiling wine, and stir
constantly until each bit is dissolved, then add more.
When all the
cheese is in, stir the kirsch into the cornstarch well, then add
the mixture to the cheese and keep stirring over the heat until the
mixture comes to a boil again.
Add freshly ground pepper and nutmeg
to taste.
– Remove the dish to on top of a small live flame
(Sterno or alcohol burner) and keep it bubbling slowly.
Bread
should have been cubed ~- about 1-inch cubes — for spearing with
fondue forks and stirring around in the cheese.
The old custom is
that if you accidentally lose the bread into the cheese from the
end of your fork, if you’re male, you have to buy a round of drinks
for the table: if you’re female, you have to kiss everybody.
(Hmm.)
.
Other fondue info: Do not drink water with fondue — it reacts
unkindly in your stomach with the cheese and bread.
Dry white wine
or tea are the usual accompaniments.
Another tradition: the “coupe
d’midi”, or “shot in the middle”, for when you get full: a
thimbleful of Kirsch, knocked straight back in the middle of the
meal, usually magically produces more room if you’re feeling too
full.
Don’t ask me how this works…it just does.
– The crusty bit
that forms at the bottom of the pot as the cheese keeps cooking is
called the “crouton”, and is very nice peeled off and divvied up
among the guests as a sort of farewell to dinner.
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