Recipe for Cheese Fondue
Every year my husband and I make a delicious Cheese Fondue for New Year’s Eve. Years ago we realized that, after the November/December holiday craze, we’re very happy staying home, making a special meal. When my son was little we would start cooking after he went to bed and have a nice romantic evening.
The year our son was five, it was the eve of the year 2000, and we just had to keep him up for the event. Since then he’s become part of the celebration and so has our four year old daughter. (We make a separate, non alcoholic fondue pot for the kids. It’s delicious too!) We also added going outside at midnight and banging pots and pans, which is the highlight of our son’s night!
Here’s the recipe we like. You can add the brandy or leave it out depending upon your personal preference. It’s excellent either way. We like to dunk 1 ½ inch cubes of Italian bread and 1 inch pieces of thin sausage. The combination is great together!
Cheese Fondue
1 pound mixture of Swiss Cheese (I prefer a mixture of Gruyere and Swiss)
1 cup White Wine (I use Chablis)
1 T. Lemon Juice
2 cloves Garlic
1 ½ T. Flour
Nutmeg
Salt
Pepper
3 T. Brandy or Kirsch (optional)Slice the cloves of garlic in half the long way so the most inner surface is showing. Rub a heavy saucepan with two halves of the garlic for flavoring. Rub the fondue pot with the other two garlic halves.
Grate the cheese and mix with the flour.
Place the wine and the lemon juice in the saucepan over a low heat. Once bubbles start rising to the surface, add a handful of cheese. At this point you can raise the heat to medium. Stir constantly. If the mixture starts boiling, lower the flame.
Once the cheese melts, you can add another handful and so on until all the cheese has been added and is melted.
Add a dash of salt and 2 dashes each of pepper and nutmeg. Mix well. Stir in brandy or kirsch.
Quickly pour mixture into fondue pot and place over Sterno. Eat immediately! Spear bread or sausage with fondue fork, occasionally scraping bottom of pan with bread to keep the bottom from burning. If the cheese starts bubbling, lower flame.
Just beware! If you’re adding the brandy it can go to your head! Over the years, a couple of our guests have passed out on our couch from this meal. But maybe that was when we were younger and added more brandy to our cheese fondue than we do nowadays!
Bon Appétit!
Lisa
January 19th, 2006 at 12:47 am
wish you had included your recipe for the kids’ cheese fondue…. anyway I can get a copy? :-) Tabby
February 3rd, 2006 at 9:23 am
Any chance you could forward a copy of the non-alcoholic version? Many thanks!! Jennie
February 12th, 2006 at 1:06 am
I’ll try to type it up soon!
February 12th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Okay, I posted the Recipe for Non Alcoholic Cheese Fondue. Just click on the link and enjoy!
February 14th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
I made non-alcoholic fondue this evening following my regular fondue recipe (above), but substituting chicken broth for wine and leaving out the brandy. My daughter loved it more than the fondue recipe that’s made with milk (she’s not that into milk). My son likes both recipes.
I could taste the chicken broth. So make sure you don’t mind that taste if you make it this way.
The next time I’ll try it with half chicken broth/half vegetable broth.