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Cheese fondue – serving and enjoying

Cheese fondue is almost always eaten in groups with good friends. The heated mixture is placed at table in a special pot of mostly ceramic, the Caquelon, on the rechaud. Participants place bread or boiled potato pieces on a long fork, hold them in the liquid cheese, and make circular movements until the bread or potato is coated.

The pieces of bread are cut or plucked from white bread. Each piece of bread should have some crust, as this makes it easier to fix the pieces on the fork. Fresh bread is considered less suitable. The Swiss trade also offers special fondue breads, flat, pre-notched white breads.

In some regions, the fondue is not eaten with skewed pieces of bread, but the bread pieces or potatoes are doused with the liquid cheese by means of a ladle. This type of preparation creates a bridge to raclette.

Originally, no side dishes were served with the fondue. Today, however, sour vegetables, cucumbers, onions, cornichons and mixed pickles are often used, as well as Bündnerfleisch in eastern Switzerland and canned or fresh fruit in Ticino. In French Savoy, raw ham is widely used as a side dish.

Traditionally, dryThe dry matter refers to that portion of the cheese that remains after removal of the water contained. The more water is removed from the cheese, the lower its dry matter and vice versa. » More info white wine (in Switzerland Fendant, Savoy wine in France) or tea is drunk with the cheese fondue. Often the fondue is accompanied by a glass of brandy with kirsch, which – a popular misconception – is used as a remedy for hard-lying cheese. If the cheese mass is too thick, add sodium bicarbonate (or soda) in small quantities. This forms carbonic acid in the fondue with the liquid and makes it more airy and easily digestible.

At the bottom of the caquelone emerges a croûton, religious or nun or grandmother called crust, which can be scratched out and eaten. In Lower Valais, it is customary to mix the last fifth of the fondue mixture with anise brandy and egg yolk, which makes it particularly strong.

Fondue is also served as a late breakfast in the Romandie countryside and elsewhere in the Alps.

Cheese fondue – history and legends

The fondue is said to have been invented by alps dairy men. They would have, cut off from the environment, tried new recipe variants with the food available to them – cheese and bread. However, it can be assumed that this is just a legend.

From stories it is clear that monks were not allowed to eat solid food during Lent; By meltingMelting cheese is a proven process to refine and make it more durable. » More info cheese, hunger was quenched without breaking the fasting rule. In Switzerland, the explanation is widespread, the originProtection of origin or protection of origin are statutory regulations. » More info of the fondue lying in the Kappeler milk soup, which was eaten at peace in the first Kappelerkrieg.

The exact origin of the cheese fondue is unclear. Both Switzerland and Savoy in France (where it is known as a fondue savoyarde as a national specialty) raise the claim to the origin of the fondue. The cheese fondue as a Swiss national dish has only existed since the 1950s – only with the inclusion of the court in the army cookbooks fondue became known throughout Switzerland. The military men brought the recipe from military service to the families. To this day, fondue cooking is a men’s business in many households.

Probably the first fondue recipe in German comes from the cookbook of the Anna Maria Gessner from Zurich, which she wrote in 1699: “Thu a half glässlin full of wine in a leaf and the glutpfann and thu geschabten or torn old feke käss darein and let him cook in the wine , he bit off gantz and you do not feel the wine in the kusten anymore. ”

The first fondue as a finished product was launched in 1955. In the 1970s and 1980s, a broad advertising campaign was conducted in Switzerland under the motto “Fondue isch guet and git e gueti luune” (Fondue is good and makes a good mood). You could rent sets with caquelon, rechaud and forks in almost every cheese dairy for a small fee. Today, this service is superfluous, as a complete set is available in most Swiss households.

Preparing cheese fondue outdoors at a cooking fire

An important aspect of fondue dining is social gathering, starting at best with the preparation of the dish and supported by factors such as the simplicity of the meal and cooking over an open flame. For example, in the Romandie, fondue is often prepared in summer over a cooking fire.