Do you Fondue? share stories and recipes and whatnot.

[What Exit?]

Simple poll and conversation thread.

We'll be having a fondue tonight. We’ll run probably two oil pots and one cheese. Usually we have beef and chicken for the meats. Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower are the basics for the veggies. There will usually be a simple batter and of course bread for dipping in the cheese. We have even done chocolate fondues. We sometimes make the cheese ourselves but just as often buy the fondue cheese in a box. The first time we did this, the box was actually dusty. It seems fondue is more popular now. There is usually a selection of cheese and no more dust.

Fondue was very popular when I was a kid in the 70s. I’ve noticed the melting pot chain seems to be doing fairly well.

[OneCentStamp]

My parents fondued with cheese occasionally, and did tempura with hot oil frequently. I haven't really done either as an adult.

[Myrnalene]

Oh, I thought fondue was just were you melted a bunch of cheese and dipped bread in it. You will be deep frying meat and veggies, too? That sounds good.

I have never participated in an evening of fondue fun, but I would if the opportunity ever arose.

[What Exit?]

Oh, I thought fondue was just were you melted a bunch of cheese and dipped bread in it. You will be deep frying meat and veggies, too? That sounds good.

I have never participated in an evening of fondue fun, but I would if the opportunity ever arose.

We almost always did both. That was pretty common.

When I first got married, my wife and I picked up several fondue pots very cheap at garage sales and flea markets. I imagine they still turn up at these places. The one pot was not only still in the box but still unopen and unused and was probably given as a gift in the 70s though we bought it around 1993. The book that came with it was printed in 1973 I believe I saw.

[WhyNot]

LOVE fondue. The trick to the oil ones is keeping the oil hot enough so things cook without taking on a lot of oil. If it takes more than 2 minutes to cook a bite sized bit of steak, your oil's too cold.

My favorite cheese fondue is my mom's, made with Jarlsburg swiss and a splash of sherry, but the kids aren't so fond of the pungency.

A really fun and different fondue is this Pizza Fondue, which I make with this recipe for "Papa John's" Pizza Sauce instead of canned sauce. We dip bread, of course, and also little meatballs, balls of mozzarella wrapped in basil leaves (AWESOME!) and baked "fried" mushrooms, broccoli and carrots. The kids, of course, love this like crazy!

Chocolate fondue is easy as can be. I like to use two parts Ghiaradelli dark chocolate chips, one part milk chocolate chips, and enough vegetable oil to make it a bit thinner than the melted chips want to be on their own. Dip marshmallows, pretzels, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, those layered wafers they used to stick on sundaes, dried apricots, fresh strawberries, fresh or canned pineapple...and, of course, near the end of the pot, fingers! (Only for family dinners, I promise. I never stick my fingers in party fondue!)

[Cluricaun]

Fondue is fun, my parents do a great beer/cheddar one from time to time when we come over but really it's a lot of mess (especially if you do oil) and a lot of prep work cutting everything up. If and when I'm ever in the mood we just go to a fondue place and let them take care of the hard part and just focus on eating. The fact that it costs over $100 for two is testament to what a pain in the ass it is.

[OneCentStamp]

You'd think that fondue would be more popular in the United States, considering that we're so obsessed with melted cheese here that even our restaurant versions of Italian and Mexican cuisine are chiefly identified by the whole plate spending three minutes under a broiler before serving, just to melt the blanket of "four italian cheeses."

[redtail]

We did fondue a few times some years back. It was fun, but a bit of a PITA. We usually have too many people over now for that, it would get out of hand.

So the first time we decided to do a fondue (about 10 years ago), we had everyone bring over their fondue pot so we'd have enough to do lots of different stuff. Almost everyone had one or two, all in lovely shades of 70s.

The problem was that none of the pots went home again! We got them all washed up, but no one would admit which was theirs. They lived in the garage for years. Although we did get a couple more fondue parties out of them, so it wasn't all bad.

[What Exit?]

Harvest Gold, that 70s Green, Deep Orange and maybe a plain Red. Those are the colors I recall the old pots coming in. Later I saw Stainless.

[OneCentStamp]

Harvest Gold, that 70s Green, Deep Orange and maybe a plain Red.

No such thing. If it was the 70s, it must have been "Fiesta Red."

[What Exit?]

They could indeed have been Fiesta Red. Searching for the Shade I mostly came up with Guitars though.

Here is the green:
The red:
The yellowish: Not sure if that is Harvest Gold.
The orange:

[Feirefiz]

I love cheese fondue, but as a vegetarian I'm not that interested in the other kind. We got our family recipe directly from Switzerland because lived there briefly when I was a little child.
It is traditional holiday food in our family but on my own I don't eat it very often. I don't make it alone and unfortunately it is a little polarizing in my current circle of friends.

[artifex]

I had no idea fondue involved oil. I thought of it as:
1. Dip a bunch of stuff in melted cheese (and presumably not even good cheese, but the Velveeta sort that will happily stay homogeneous while melted), then
2. Dip more stuff in melted chocolate

And I never understood how you could make a whole food concept out of that, much less a restaurant.

The oil part sounds simultaneously interesting and scary. I tend to treat deep frying as a serious caution kind of thing, not a "party! let's have all some drinks and fry some shit!" group activity.

[WhyNot]

presumably not even good cheese, but the Velveeta sort that will happily stay homogeneous while melted), then

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! *sob*

Good cheese. Always good cheese. There should be no yellow in your fondue cheese, IMHO. A classic fondue is swiss with some sort of white wine in it (like I said before, Mom uses Jarlsberg and sherry), with just a rub of a split garlic clove inside the pot before you start. This is close to Mom's recipe, but with the more classic kirsch instead of sherry. Another amazing one is Guinness and cheddar, but I insist on using white cheddar 'cause I'm a snobby snob. And yellow looks too much like Velveeta.

The oil fondue is technically deep frying, so yes, you do have to be careful. Never fill the pot over half full, only cook a couple of pieces of food at a time (both so you don't raise the level of oil too high and so you don't cool the oil with overloading) and keep a fire extinguisher handy, just in case. The difference between fondue and what we probably think of as deep frying is that things aren't generally battered or coated. You do things like bite sized bits of fillet mignon, broccoli or cauliflower florets, carrots sliced thin, sliced onions or scallions, asparagus, squash chunks, mushrooms (whole if small, sliced if large), potato slices, the kitchen sink...

[Orual]

I've only ever had it a few times, but as far as I'm concerned, fondue is the perfect food. The cheese kind, anyways.

[Glazer]

We have an excellent fondue restaurant here called Dante's Down the Hatch. They have live Jazz and a Pirate ship motif complete with a couple of live 'gators in a moat. A few years ago the place burned down, they lost everything but the 'gators. They came back better than ever but their not cheep.

[What Exit?]

I had no idea fondue involved oil. I thought of it as:
1. Dip a bunch of stuff in melted cheese (and presumably not even good cheese, but the Velveeta sort that will happily stay homogeneous while melted), then
2. Dip more stuff in melted chocolate

And I never understood how you could make a whole food concept out of that, much less a restaurant.

The oil part sounds simultaneously interesting and scary. I tend to treat deep frying as a serious caution kind of thing, not a "party! let's have all some drinks and fry some shit!" group activity.

The chocolate is pretty rare. The oil is absolutely every time. The cheese is never crap like velveeta. Yuck. Gruyere is a common one but usually something in the swiss family mix with a wine or liquor to give it a little more fluidity.

We have an excellent fondue restaurant here called Dante's Down the Hatch. They have live Jazz and a Pirate ship motif complete with a couple of live 'gators in a moat. A few years ago the place burned down, they lost everything but the 'gators. They came back better than ever but their not cheep.

Sounds like a real good place.

[Inner Stickler]

I got a fondue pot for christmas a few years ago. I've used it twice. Both times for oil. My fondue pot is electric so it's a little safer than a sterno can. I don't know that it seemed like a lot of work but both times we tried to make it the dinner and it was too frustrating trying to get everyone fed on little pieces of meat and veggie that took 2 minutes to cook apiece.

[Myglaren]

I bought some ready made custard recently and the dimmest recipe suggestion I have ever seen was "Custard Fondue" - dip stuff in custard and eat it. Do they pay people to invent stupid suggestions like this?

[What Exit?]

I bought some ready made custard recently and the dimmest recipe suggestion I have ever seen was "Custard Fondue" - dip stuff in custard and eat it. Do they pay people to invent stupid suggestions like this?

Yes, yes they do and it is damn good work if you can get it (and have no soul).

[jali]

We have an excellent fondue restaurant here called Dante's Down the Hatch. They have live Jazz and a Pirate ship motif complete with a couple of live 'gators in a moat. A few years ago the place burned down, they lost everything but the 'gators. They came back better than ever but their not cheep.

That's right down the block from my office - I didn't know that they did fondue.

We should go Glazer!

[Glazer]

That's right down the block from my office - I didn't know that they did fondue.

We should go Glazer!

Give me a call. We should go this coming week wile I can still eat food. Man am I gonna miss food.

[artifex]

The chocolate is pretty rare. The oil is absolutely every time. The cheese is never crap like velveeta. Yuck. Gruyere is a common one but usually something in the swiss family mix with a wine or liquor to give it a little more fluidity.

I hate all Swiss cheeses, so I guess I haven't been depriving myself terribly. Frying things sounds like fun, though

[Clothahump]

Kinda sorta. We love fondue, but we drive down the road to Simply Fondue and let them do all the work.

[eleanorigby]

We do a seafood fondue every Christmas Eve. It's Neufchatel, crab meat, white wine, shrimp, garlic, onion, Worcestershire sauce and a sharp aged cheese--we vary it. We then dip French bread bits, crab leg meat and shrimp into it and stuff ourselves sick. We also have a huge garden salad and more white wine (I'm partial to Pinot Grigio).


I did grow up with fondue very occasionally. No oil, but cheese and food bits. Chocolate fondue is amazing as well and a fun party thing for pre-teens and teens.