Fondue is what we’re all here for, so let just get straight into where we think you should be starting – a base recipe.  For those of you that have your own recipes based on experience with fondue, you can probably ignore all this blurb.  This is just for the Fondue Virgins.

There are literally thousands of recipes out there but they all revolve around a very basic concept of wine, cheese and additional flavours.  The ratio is where it all gets interesting, as do the additional flavours that you can add either during cooking or directly afterwards.

The ratio that we think works best is 5 parts cheese, 3 parts wine and wing it with the rest.  If we use that ratio to put together a fondue for 4 to 6 people we would end up with something like this:

• 600 grams of cheese
• 375ml of white wine
• 10-15ml of lemon juice
• 10-15g of corn starch
• 10-15ml of kirsch (or fruit brandy, or any brandy as a last resort)
• Plus a clove of garlic to season your pot with.

Suggested Method

Once again, you might have your own experience in how to do this best, but for the fondue virgins, we would suggest the following method.

Chop a garlic clove in half and use it to rub all over the inside of your fondue pot.

Get your cheese ready.  Grated or chapped.  Whatever you prefer to do.

Add the wine and the lemon juice to the pot with the corn stark and give it a mix.

Place the pot on a normal heat until it reaches the point of simmering.

Turn down the heat to the lowest setting that you have.  Take note that most stoves in China are very hot even on the minimum setting, so it could make sense to either raise the pot from the heat source with a stand or use a heat diffuser.

Add your cheese.  Some people to prefer to add this gradually while other people prefer to just throw it all in.

You can probably guess which option we went for.

Keep stirring.  This is actually important or it’s likely that your cheese will burn to the bottom of the pot.

After it does through the “it looks like really bad macaroni, it will start looking like really bad porridge.

Just a few minutes later, it will start to look like Fondue.

The end result should be something that looks like this.

You could add some nutmeg or pepper on the top to spice it up a bit.  Then serve it like this.

Onto eating it.  Here’s what it looks like with some bread.

Alternatively with some cucumber.

Alternative Flavours

Swapping some of the cheese for other styles or flavours can add some real depth to the flavours.  Adding some blue cheese (Stilton for example) as 10%-30% of your cheese can work really well.  Smoked cheese or really mature cheese can also work in moderation.

Small amounts of flavours can come from things as garlic (sparingly, a single clove in a blender for example) dried herbs (again, sparingly, so as not to overpower the cheese base), sesame seed oil (literally, no more than a few millilitres) or finely chopped crispy bacon (no more than 50 grams in this volume of Fondue).

Using different things to dip into the Fondue can also be very interesting.  Dried or smoked meats work well.  Sausages of almost any type chopped into bite-sized pieces.  Steamed vegetables (broccoli or cauliflower for example).  Roasted potatoes have a surprisingly good marriage with fondue. The chances are if you like the thought of something bathed in cheese it will probably work with Fondue.

Things with a smooth surface, for example, cherry tomatoes, don’t tend to hold the cheese.  Odd-shaped chopped vegetables tend to work much better.

Would you like to try this?

If this has caught your attention and you want to try and bit of Fondue at home then look no further.  We sell Fondue Kits with everything you need to get started.  The pot, the heat source (to keep the Fondue warm enough to stop it setting) the stand, the lid, the forks, plus enough cheese and wine to get you started with.  CLICK HERE to get yourself a Fondue Kit.