I'm doing a fondue, your tips please

[Katiekitty]

I'm planning a fondue for Saturday night.

Any tips?

I have all the fondue kit and forks and what knot.

I'm veggie, so tips on what to dip into the fondue are most welcome.

p.s. It's for a hot date! I've decided to woo a man by cooking him a fondue! Will it work?

[Catsmamma]

tis not really a meal...more of an entertainment!

are you going cheese or chocolate?

[Katiekitty]

Cheese!

[sommewhereelse]

A very tiny bit of kirsh is good for flavour, white wine, cornflour for thickening
Don't use any emmenthal, it makes it stringy ideally mix gruyère, conté and appenzell roughthly a third of each
bread, lightly steamed or (if you like it) raw cauliflower, raw button mushrooms.
I like to dip chunks of apple, I have a thing about cheese and apple together.

The Swiss tradition is that if the someone loses their bit of bread or whatever from their stick, they have to kiss someone else who is sharing the fondue.

Final tip, if you find yourself getting carried away with that tradition, turn off the burner. Grilled cheese smells good. Burnt cheese not so seductive!

[Katiekitty]

Ooohh, Somewhere, I have so many questons!

Can I get those other cheeses at a big supermarket or are they speciality items?

Will definitely be adding apple to the list of things to dip, thanks for that.

I have a Fondue cookery book from 1971 that I'm using for recipe ideas. Frankly, I need all the help I can get.

Have noted your other words of wisdom too

[iklboo]

Can you do fondue in a slow cooker? Really fancy trying it.......

[MaureenMLove]

I love a fondue! It's such a fun and sociable meal. Great idea. I haven't got much to add really, other than maybe some gerkins for dipping!

Have fun!

[CMOTDibbler]

I love gherkins with cheese fondue. In fact I love fondue generally - in the US there is a chain of fondue restaurants called The melting pot that I go to a lot with colleagues

[Katiekitty]

Am adding gherkins to the list. Fab!

Big ones, or those small ones?

[Katiekitty]

Don't know Ikleboo - it might be worth a try as it seems you heat the cheese in a findue pot under a very, very low heat.

*disclaimer: I have never cooked a fondue before

[CMOTDibbler]

Small gherkins. Tiny new potatos are nice too

[FoxtrotFoxtrotSierra]

You can cheat and buy fondue in the cheese section in Sainsbury's. It tastes just as good as the stuff you get in the Alps and means you don't have to grate tonnes of cheese.

Bread to dunk, a bit of charcuterie, gherkins. Yum.

[Katiekitty]

Tiny new potaotes sound ace!
They're definitely on the list now too.
This fondue is going to be good stuff

[whatinthewhatnow]

oooh, grew up in switzerland and my mouth just waters thinking of fondue. we really did eat it all the time!!

As it is my mum who makes it I have no useful tips on cooking it, so sorry. I remember lots of garlic, white wine and kirsch, and lots and lots of stirring. I think it's pretty tricky to get right, so I've never tried myself. I know when we moved back mum used to go to the swiss centre in london to buy the cheese, but I don't know if that's still even there, and you can prob get fondue cheese all over the place now.

really good bread to dip in it
cornichons (little gherkins) are lovely (being english we used to dip pickled onions in too, yum! although not so good for a date)
carrot sticks
red pepper

My dad dips the bread in kirsch before the cheese. it blows your head off but might be funny? If you drop your bread in you have to kiss the person to your left. (well, that's what we played, anyway).

Don't burn it, but keep it warm enough that it doesn't go stringy, or it's really hard to salvage.

I love love love cheese fondue. A much under-appreciated dish.

Can I come?

[nemno]

Broccoli and cauliflower florets work well, possibly lightly steamed first.

[Katiekitty]

Will check out the (shhhh) fondue cheese Foxtrot - I hadn't thought about grating it all. [dim]

[Grockle]

I love fondue. I am veggie and we have:

loads of good bread
grapes
apple

and sometimes:
celery/ peppers/ raw fruit/ cooked new potatoes

I used to live in the US & love The Melting Pot

[Katiekitty]

Whatinthewhat - top tips there.

Am deffo adding pickled onions to the dipping list.

In your honour, I will suggest doing that kirsch bread thing and see what happens.

[Katiekitty]

Nemno - cauliflower sounds nice too (broccoli is like spinach to me, it gets in me teeth!). Cauli is on da list!

Grockle - grapes sound lovely, they're going in that fondue too!

You can all come round!

[Zoomania]

Rub the empty pot with a garlic clove first. Add cheese, cornflour and White wine, kirsch. Serve with bread cubes and small gerkins (cornichons) .

If you lose your bread you forfeit a kiss. Get just drunk enough that you forget/ don't care that you have just consumed 2 blocks of cheese otherwise thinking about it can make u feel slightly ill! Mmmm I love fondue.

Incidentally fruit eg strawberries and bananas dipped in melted toblerone works well for dessert!

[Katiekitty]

Good tip Zoo about rubbing the pot with garlic - far more subtle than adding it into the fondue.

I will try hard not to eat all the cheese myself. It's easily done and is a bit of a worry.

[R2PeePoo]

Love a good fondue. We lived in Switzerland for three years and I always get DH to bring the cheeses back when he goes back.

We were told not to drink ice cold drinks with the fondue, something about making the cheese firmer and harder to digest in the stomach, so lots of alcohol. Don't know if that is true but we enjoyed that bit!

Also the Swiss we visited had lots of spices (paprika, chilli powder etc), herbs, ground pepper and Aromat on the table that they sprinkled onto their plate. They dipped the runny cheese and bread into the spices etc before putting it in their mouth.

[sommewhereelse]

Grate the cheese in the food processor.

Sorry, I don't know about sourcing cheese. I'm in France so get lots of choice in the supermarket.

[summerintherosegarden]

You can definitely get all the necessary cheeses at Sainsburys - expect at the other big supermarkets too. Appenzell perhaps not over here but even if you go 50/50 gruyere and comte you will get a good fondue.

R2PeePoo - I was also told that about having cold drinks with fondue! Ideally vin chaud should be drunk - also kirsch - a dangerous combo!

[Katiekitty]

Will be heading off to Tesco tomorrow as it's the closest massive supermarket to me, so will be making this list:
Fondue Cheese or Gruyere and Comte
Any of the speciality cheeses Somewhere mentioned
Kirsch
Nutmeg
White pepper
Garlic - for rubbing around fondue dish as per Zoomania's ace tip

For dipping:
Fancy posh bread to cut into chunks
Cornichons
Apple
Grapes
Cauliflower to steam into nice florets
Tiny new poatoes to pre cook
Peppers
Carrots to carve into neat sticks
Those mini sweet corn
Small pickled onions (well, you've got to, haven't you?)

To drink:
Dry white wine
Nowt too cold

Thank you everyone for your fabulous tips!
Let's hope this wonderful fondue works its magic

[couldtryharder]

Lucky fella I reckon! We love a fondue, not that we do it often coz of the gigantic calorie count. But hey, you can work it off . When it gets to the crispy bit at the bottom towards the end, we sometimes crack and egg into the pot and whisk it about. Get a lovely cheesey scrambled egg with bits of cheesy crispyness in it. YUM! Don't forget a really good bottle of red (or two). Hope it goes well! And if it doesn't hope that you can both laugh.