Hosted A Fondue Party
The French word “fondue” is the past participle of the verb “fondre”, which means “to melt”. Although the first known fondue was created in 1699 (called “Käss mit Wein zu kochen” or “to cook cheese with wine”), it became a Swiss national dish in the 1930’s as a way for the Swiss cheese industry to increase cheese consumption.
Tonight, we decided to make three different fondue pots: cheese, beef broth, and chocolate. I had a lot of help putting stuff together, so I want to thank everyone (J, M, L, and J) that bought, cut, and prepped ingredients.
J made the beef broth pot.
I made the cheese one from a recipe J sent me. It was a simple three cheese fondue. I boiled the wine, made a roux (1 tablespoon each of flour and butter), combined them.
Then blended in the cheeses (Gruyere, sharp Cheddar, and Emmentaler).
We also parboiled vegetables, which I’d never done before.
We all prepped things to dip.
Mmmm.... cheese.
The beef broth with meats and mushrooms:
After the main part of dinner, I made a simple chocolate fondue with 8 ounces of cream and three different types of chocolates (milk, dark, and 72% cacao dark). We had marshmallows, pound cake, strawberries, and bananas for dipping.
This was a fun experience and delicious. I think if I ever did this again, I would be able to do it much faster. One of the benefits of a fondue party is that you can do a lot of the prep work far in advance. You can even have people bring pre-cut ingredients. The dips themselves can be done very quickly.
Cool stuff:
Great Party Fondues
Cuisinart Electric Fondue Maker
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