Cheese Fondue

Making Cheese Fondue Ahead

Refrigerate leftovers 2 days and reheat very gently with a splash of wine, stirring constantly.

Cheese Fondue: The Method

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1. Toss the grated cheeses with the cornflour in a bowl until every strand is dusted.

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2. Rub the inside of a heavy caquelon or casserole hard with the cut garlic, then leave the garlic in.

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3. Pour in the wine and lemon juice and bring to a bare simmer over medium-low heat. Do not let it boil.

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4. Add the cheese one large handful at a time, stirring in a figure of eight — not a circle, which lets the cheese ball up.

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5. Wait until each handful has melted before adding the next. The whole process takes about 10 minutes.

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6. When it is smooth and coats the spoon, stir in the kirsch, nutmeg and white pepper.

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7. Move it to the table over a low burner. It should stay just below a simmer, with the occasional lazy bubble.

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8. Spear the bread through the soft side and out through the crust so it holds, and stir as you dip — keeping it moving keeps it smooth.

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9. When only the toasted crust at the bottom is left, lift it out and share it. That is the religieuse, and it is the best part.

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Related guide: Ingredient substitutions.

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Worth Knowing

• Grate the cheese and toss it with cornflour. Cubed cheese melts unevenly and splits.
• Figure of eight, never circles. It is not superstition, it stops the strands winding up.
• Day-old bread. Fresh bread falls off the fork.

Why the Method Is What It Is

Cheese splits when the fat separates from the protein, and the two defences are acid and starch: an acidic dry wine keeps the proteins dispersed, and cornflour tossed through the grated cheese physically holds the emulsion. Adding the cheese in handfuls, each one melted before the next, is what stops the temperature spiking.

Serving Ideas

The same dry white wine · Cornichons and pickled onions · A shot of kirsch

If You're Missing Something

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
• A dry vermouth keeps for longer than an open bottle of white wine and is the closer swap than a random white left in the fridge; for an alcohol-free version, use the same amount of stock with a squeeze of lemon.

Cheese Fondue Nutrition

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

Vegetarian when made with a hard cheese made without animal rennet in place of the gruyère.

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