Swiss Cheese Fondue

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By: Andrew Chase

Fully ripened cheese and good-quality wine make for the best fondue. This is my personal favourite combination of cheese; do go to a cheese store to buy the cheese and if they have cave-ripened Emmenthal or Gruyère cheese, it is worth the extra money.

Appenzeller cheese comes in three levels of aging and I usually taste each to decide which one is best at that moment. I like to search the wine stores for Swiss white wine made from Chasselas grapes, such as Fendant or Dezaley, but sometimes there just isn't any around; in that case I usually use a bone dry Riesling from Alsace or Canada or a white wine from the Haute Savoie if I can find one. Kirsch, or cherry eau-de-vie, is the most traditional flavouring, but plum eau-de-vie (pflümli in Swiss-German, pruneau in French or Slivovitz in Eastern Europe) is also recommended.

Ingredients

1 clove garlic

2 cups (500 mL) dry white wine

2/3 lbs (350 g) Emmenthal cheese, shredded

2/3 lbs (350 g) Gruyère cheese, shredded

2/3 lbs (350 g) Appenzeller cheese, shredded

2 tbsp (30 mL) cornstarch

1/4 tsp (1 mL) black pepper

Pinch freshly grated nutmeg

2 tbsp (30 mL) kirsch

1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon juice

2 baguettes or other crusty bread, cut in 1-inch (2.5 cm) cubes

Preparation

Cut small slits in garlic clove; rub clove all over inside of fondue pot. Pour in all but 2 tbsp/30 mL of the wine; bring to simmer over medium heat on stove top.

Add Emmenthal, Gruyère and Appenzeller cheeses; stir with wooden spoon until melted. Dissolve cornstarch in remaining wine; stir into fondue pot along with pepper and nutmeg. Bring to simmer, stirring; simmer for 1 minute. Stir in kirsch and lemon juice.

Place over medium-low heat of fondue burner on table, adjusting heat as necessary to maintain low simmer and stirring often. Serve with bread to skewer and dip into cheese mixture.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Variations

Appenzeller Fondue: Replace Gruyère cheese with Appenzeller cheese. Replace wine with dry hard cider. Double the lemon juice.

Fribourgeois Fondue: Replace Gruyère and Appenzeller cheese with Vacherin cheese from Fribourg, Switzerland.

Garlic Fondue: Instead of rubbing the pot with garlic, add 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced, to wine at beginning of cooking.

Serving(s): 4 to 6

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