Switzerland: Basic Fondue (Fondue Neuchateloise)

It's astonishing to consider how little known fondue was outside of Switzerland before the 1950's. But then a pioneering Swiss-born chef named Conrad Egli brought the fondue concept to his New York restaurant Chalet Suisse, and the rest, as they say, is history. Within a few years the dish had exploded across the North American continent, and by the Sixties it seemed as if every pile of holiday presents or wedding-shower goodies had a fondue pot in it... sometimes several.

Like many other famous dishes, fondue has peasant roots. The word fondue comes from a French root that simply means "melted", and the dish harks back to a time when Alpine families would get together around the kitchen table after work and dunk chunks of the previous day's bread in melted cheese made from the milk of the family's cows. In Switzerland, the types of cheese used haven't changed much with the centuries. The standard "Neuchateloise" recipe calls for Emmenthal and/or Gruyere, and the other favorite variant, the moitié-moitié or "half-and-half" fondue mixture, is still half Emmenthal and half Vacherin, as it has been for hundreds of years.

It has to be mentioned in passing that the Swiss scoff (and rightly) at the dinky, unstable fondue pots routinely sold in North America. Almost without exception, the pot they use themselves is the caquelon, a big earthenware or metal pot with a handle, like the one in the picture on the right. But no matter what kind of pot you're using, even a common saucepan will turn out great fondue with the original, traditional recipe below! Click on "read more" for the method.

The below measurements are for each person. Multiply by your number of guests.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 fluid ounces dry white wine

• 5 1/2 ounces Emmental and Gruyere cheese, grated and mixed half and half
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• A shake of pepper
• A grind of fresh nutmeg
• 6 oz white bread (French bread / baguette or Italian bread by preference), cubed
• 1/2 fluid ounce Kirsch

Kirsch (also known as kirschwasser, "cherry water", is actually a Swiss cherry firewater: clear and dry-tasting -- not a "cherry brandy", which is sweet. Most good liquor stores should carry kirsch, at least one of the US brands like Hiram Walker or Bols. While kirsch aficionados -- and there are many -- will argue about favorite brands and the virtues of the new designer kirschwassers now popping up, probably the best readily available Kirsch is the Swiss brand Dettling. Another good one (possibly more widely available) is Etter. (That last site is a commercial one: just a reminder that this isn't an endorsement of them -- we're just pointing out where they are. The Etter home site unfortunately doesn't seem to have an English-language side.)

By the way, if you're concerned about the alcohol in the kirschwasser, bear in mind that it will boil off during the process of cooking the fondue. The purpose of the kirsch is both for flavoring and to make the fondue more digestible, which can be an issue when you're eating something with so much cheese in it.

For the pot, you'll also need:

• 1 clove garlic

The Swiss tend not to use fondue pots of the kind usually sold in North America, which tend to be on the small side and sometimes unstable. Fondue in Switzerland is very often prepared and served in a caquelon like the one in the image above -- an earthenware or cast iron dish with a short handle, glazed or enameled inside. (These are widely available online if you're interested in getting one.) However, the Swiss would be the last ones to get overly fancy about what is originally a peasant dish: and you don't have to either. Any enamelled saucepan can be used to make the fondue -- or a not too shallow fireproof dish. Afterwards you can always pour the finished fondue into a fondue pot if you like, or any other flameproof dish that you can have standing on the table with a heat source underneath it.

To make the fondue:

Cut the clove of garlic in two and rub the inside of the pot, pan or caquelon with one or both the halves, depending on your preference. Then let the pot dry until the rubbed places feel tacky. Put the wine in the pot 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 a chafing dish or a stand 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. (There's something strangely inequal about this equation: but then the women's rights movement arrived a little late in Switzerland.)

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 us 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.