vegetables

Probably few nations have ever been as crazy about their dairy products as the Irish. Gaeilge has a word for the blanket concept -- banbhianna, the "white meats" -- and the ancient Irish diet was largely based on them for centuries. Back in the day, if you wanted meat, you ate pork, or game: cows were for giving milk, and only chieftains who were busy inventing the concept of conspicuous consumption ever killed a cow that could still be useful in the dairy.

The Irish hard cheeses, ancestors to Cheddar, were famous -- the great Queen Maeve herself was supposedly killed in battle by being hit in the head by a chunk of an early grating cheese called tanag which was slung at her, at fastball-or-better speeds, by one of her nephews. And about the fame of Guinness, nothing needs to be said here. It was probably only a matter of time before someone put them together. While this dish isn't strictly traditional, if the old Irish had ever heard of fondue, someone would probably have invented this in short order. As it is, the Guinness-and-cheese-fondue concept turned up in Ireland during the food renaissance of the late 80's, and can now be found in numerous Irish restaurants and pubs as a quick, easy-to-make, and delicious break from the normal meat-heavy entrees.

While Cheddar is a good place to start, if you have access to other Irish farmhouse cheeses, especially semi-hard melting cheeses like Ardrahan, adding those to the mix is a brilliant idea. Otherwise, any good aged Cheddar will work fine. Interestingly, this dish also works well with the classic Swiss fondue mix locally called moitie-moitie, or half and half, and made of equal parts Emmental and Gruyere.

Another Swiss technique that works well with this is to mix the thickening cornstarch/cornflour in a tot of Irish whiskey, and add it to the mixture in the final stages.

Click on "read more" for the recipe.