The Complete Book of Cheese Part 14

We say French instead of Swiss because the French took over the dish so eagerly, together with the great Gruyere that makes it distinctive.

They internationalized it, sent it around the world with bouillabaisse and onion soup, that celestial _soupe a l'oignon_ on which snowy showers of grated Gruyere descend.

To put the Welsh Rabbit in its place they called it Fondue a l'Anglaise, which also points up the twinlike relationship of the world's two favorite dishes of melted cheese. But to differentiate and show they are not identical twins, the No. 1 dish remained Fromage Fondue while the second was baptized Fromage Fondue a la Biere.

Beginning with Savarin the French whisked up more rapturous, rhapsodic writing about Gruyere and its offspring, the Fondue, together with the puffed Souffle, than about any other imported cheese except Parmesan.

Parmesan and Gruyere were praised as the two greatest culinary cheeses. A variant Fondue was made of the Italian cheese.

Parmesan Fondue

3 tablespoons b.u.t.ter 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese 4 eggs, lightly beaten Salt Pepper

Over boiling water melt b.u.t.ter and cheese slowly, stir in the eggs, season to taste and stir steadily in one direction only, until smooth.

Pour over fingers of b.u.t.tered toast. Or spoon it up, as the ancients did, before there were any forks. It's beaten with a fork but eaten catch-as-catch-can, like chicken-in-the-rough.

Sapsago Swiss Fondue

2 tablespoons b.u.t.ter 2 tablespoons flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1-1/2 cups milk 2-1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese 2-1/2 tablespoons grated Sapsago 1/2 cup dry white wine Pepper, black and red, freshly ground Fingers of toast

Over boiling water stir the first four ingredients into a smooth, fairly thick cream sauce. Then stir in Swiss cheese until well melted. After that add the Sapsago, finely grated, and wine in small splashes. Stir steadily, in one direction only, until velvety. Season sharply with the contrasting peppers and serve over fingers of toast.

This is also nice when served bubbling in individual, preheated pastry sh.e.l.ls, ca.s.seroles or ramekins, although this way most of the fun of the dunking party is left out. To make up for it, however, cooked slices of mushrooms are sometimes added.

At the Cheese Cellar in the New York World's Fair Swiss Pavilion, where a continual dunking party was in progress, thousands of amateurs learned such basic things as not to overcook the Fondue lest it become stringy, and the protocol of dunking in turn and keeping the ma.s.s in continual motion until the next on the Fondue line dips in his cube of bread. The success of the dish depends on making it quickly, keeping it gently a-bubble and never letting it stand still for a split second.

The Swiss, who consume three or four times as much cheese per capita as we, and almost twice as much as the French, are willing to share Fondue honors with the French Alpine province of Savoy, a natural cheese cellar with almost two dozen distinctive types of its very own, such as Fat cheese, also called Death's Head; La Grande Bornand, a luscious half-dried sheep's milker; Chevrotins, small, dry goat milk cheeses; and Le Vacherin. The latter, made in both Savoy and Switzerland, boasts two interesting variants:

1. _Vacherin Fondue or Spiced Fondue:_ Made about the same as Emmentaler, ripened to sharp age, and then melted, spices added and the cheese re-formed. It is also called Spiced Fondue and sells for about two dollars a pound. Named Fondue from being melted, though it's really recooked,

2. _Vacherin a la Main:_ This is a curiosity in cheeses, resembling a cold, uncooked Fondue. Made of cow's milk, it is round, a foot in diameter and half a foot high. It is salted and aged until the rind is hard and the inside more runny than the ripest Camembert, so it can be eaten with a spoon (like the cooked Fondue) as well as spread on bread. The local name for it is _Tome de Montagne_.

Here is a good a.s.sortment of Fondues:

Vacherin-Fribourg Fondue

2 tablespoons b.u.t.ter 1 clove garlic, crushed 2 cups shredded Vacherin cheese 2 tablespoons hot water

This authentic quickie is started by cooking the garlic in b.u.t.ter until the b.u.t.ter is melted. Then remove garlic and reduce heat.

Add the soft cheese and stir with silver fork until smooth and velvety. Add the water in little splashes, stirring constantly in one direction. Dunk! (In this melted Swiss a little water takes the place of a lot of wine.)

La Fondue Comtois

This regional specialty of Franche-Comte is made with white wine.

Sauterne, Chablis, Riesling or any Rhenish type will serve splendidly. Also use b.u.t.ter, grated Gruyere, beaten eggs and that touch of garlic.

Chives Fondue

3 cups grated Swiss cheese 3 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons b.u.t.ter 1 garlic clove, crushed 3 tablespoons finely chopped chives 1 cup dry white wine Salt Freshly ground pepper A pinch of nutmeg 1/4 cup kirsch

Mix cheese and flour. Melt b.u.t.ter in chafing-dish blazer rubbed with garlic. Cook chives in b.u.t.ter 1 minute. Add wine and heat just under boiling. Keep simmering as you add cheese-and-flour mix gradually, stirring always in one direction. Salt according to age and sharpness of cheese; add plenty of freshly ground pepper and the pinch of nutmeg.

When everything is stirred smooth and bubbling, toss in the kirsch without missing a stroke of the fork and get to dunking.

Large, crisp, hot potato chips make a pleasant change for dunking purposes. Or try a.s.sorted crackers alternating with the absorbent bread, or hard rolls.

Tomato Fondue

2 tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped 1/2 teaspoon dried sweet basil 1 clove garlic 2 tablespoons b.u.t.ter 1/2 cup dry white wine 2 cups grated Cheddar cheese Paprika

Mix basil with chopped tomatoes. Rub chafing dish with garlic, melt b.u.t.ter, add tomatoes and much paprika. Cook 5 to 6 minutes, add wine, stir steadily to boiling point. Then add cheese, half a cup at a time, and keep stirring until everything is smooth.

Serve on hot toast, like Welsh Rabbit.

Here the two most popular melted-cheese dishes tangle, but they're held together with the common ingredient, tomato.

Fondue also appears as a sauce to pour over baked tomatoes. Stale bread crumbs are soaked in tomato juice to make:

Tomato Baked Fondue

1 cup tomato juice 1 cup stale bread crumbs 1 cup grated sharp American cheese 1 tablespoon melted b.u.t.ter Salt 4 eggs, separated and well beaten

Soak crumbs in tomato juice, stir cheese in b.u.t.ter until melted, season with a little or no salt, depending on saltiness of the cheese. Mix in the beaten yolks, fold in the white and bake about 50 minutes in moderate oven.

BAKED FONDUES

Although Savarin's dunking Fondue was first to make a sensation on these sh.o.r.es and is still in highest esteem among epicures, the Fondue America took to its bosom was baked. The original recipe came from the super-caseous province of Savoy under the explicit t.i.tle, _La Fondue au Fromage_.

La Fondue au Fromage

Make the usual creamy mixture of b.u.t.ter, flour, milk, yolks of eggs and Gruyere, in thin slices for a change. Use red pepper instead of black, splash in a jigger of kirsch but no white wine.

Finally fold in the egg whites and bake in a mold for 45 minutes.

We adapted this to our national taste which had already based the whole business of melted cheese on the Welsh Rabbit with stale ale or milk instead of white wine and Worcestershire, mustard and hot peppers. Today we have come up with this:

100% American Fondue

2 cups scalded milk 2 cups stale bread crumbs 1/2 teaspoon dry English mustard Salt Dash of nutmeg Dash of pepper 2 cups American cheese (Cheddar) 2 egg yolks, well beaten 2 egg whites, beaten stiff