How to Make My Family's Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue

My Family's Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue is a combination of three cheeses, good wine, and a dash of Kirish. It uses no fillers allowing this Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue to be creamy and allows it to soak into the bread making each bite, a delight.

Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue - the Family Story

Full Disclosure - This recipe for Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue is not so traditional.

It IS traditional because this is the way my family has made fondue all my life.

It's NOT traditional in that, it contains no flour or cornstarch or other thickeners as most other recipes you find do.

My grandparents on my father's side were Swiss. My grandfather, a watchmaker, was solicited to come to America by Bulova Watch Company. He moved with my grandmother, a country girl, to NYC in 1926. My father was born there in 1929.

Being Swiss they knew their fondue and my grandfather taught my father the family recipe which we enjoyed every Christmas Eve. As a small child, it was limited to a few bites after we had had a proper dinner. As we got older, the tradition of fondue was so ingrained in our Christmas Eve festivities that the three of us children would eschew any dinner prior, insisting on joining the adults at the "fondue table". Fondue in my home was a stand-up dinner.

But being a part of the adult fondue table, we were limited in our choices of drink. My grandmother believed that if you drank a cold drink, the cheese would "harden in your stomach causing great amounts of pain". Science might not have been her strong suit. So we were offered either wine, with some water mixed in, or hot tea.

Hot tea with hot cheese...no thank you very much.

So the three of us would opt for the watered-down, but still very much winey-tasting cold drink and make frequent runs to the bathroom where we would gulp down large mouthfuls of water from the tap.

Not a tummy ache amongst us.

Jump to:

• Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue - the Family Story
• The Year of the Worst Fondue Ever
• Tips for Sucess in Making the Best Traditional Swiss Fondue - Ever
• The Cheeses
• The Wine
• The Bread
• For the Rest
• Other Key Factors to Consider
• The Recipe that isn't and the Technique that is
• FAQ
• Making Traditions
• Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue

The Year of the Worst Fondue Ever

Each year we would make the fondue the traditional way and stand around the table saying "This is the best fondue EVER".

Except for one year.

That was the year my mother read a recipe to my dad for fondue, from Redbook or some such, which had you "tossing the cheese with 2 tablespoons of flour".

Interesting. Would thicken things right up.

Yep, it did. Worst Fondue EVER.

So don't do this. Don't add any flour or cornstarch. It makes the fondue grainy. It makes it so it doesn't soak into the bread properly.

It's horrible. OK, maybe not horrible, but certainly not as good as mine. Our traditional Swiss cheese fondue is the best.

Really.

Ours is a homogeneous creamy gooey cheesy pot of yum.

Tips for Sucess in Making the Best Traditional Swiss Fondue - Ever

The Cheeses

Being a cheese fondue, you can imagine the cheese is important. The cheese is actually the key ingredient with your choice of wine being a close second. We'll get to the wine in a minute.

There is really no such thing as "Swiss" cheese. It's a generic name given to cheese that is riddled with holes, and it's only called Swiss cheese in North America. So for the Swiss cheese, I use the Swiss named cheese for Swiss cheese, which is Emmental. Along with that, I use an equal amount of aged Gruyere, another type of Swiss cheese. For added creaminess, I add a small amount of Jarlsburg which is considered a Norwieigien Swiss Style Cheese. While not traditional to the original family recipe, I found it does add to the richness of the dish.

Grate the cheese at least an hour before you plan to make the fondue so it has time to come to room temperature. It doesn't work so well trying to add cold cheese to the wine as with each addition you compromise the wine's heat. I usually grate mine in the morning and let it sit for hours. And please use good, whole milk, not pre-shredded, packaged cheeses.

So step one, good cheese, grated, at room temperature. Toss it with a little salt and freshly ground pepper.

The Wine

Fondue is wine and melted cheese. Therefore the wine you use will certainly affect the flavor. While the wine doesn't have to be expensive, it should be a fairly good bottle of wine. I like to use a Fume Blanc which is a derivative of Sauvignon Blanc. Another good choice is Pouilly-Fume, a French wine. If using a Sauv Blanc do not use one that is from New Zealand as those tend towards being grassy. You want a wine that is not grassy and not overly oaked.

These are also great wines to serve with a Swiss Cheese fondue.

So step two is - to use a flavorful but not grassy white wine.

The Bread

The bread you choose is also a factor. Get a good French baguette with a hard crust and a lot of nooks and crannies. Cut the bread so that there is crust on EACH piece, this is for sticking the fork into it to hold it on while you are dunking it into the hot liquid. It's best to cut your bread at least 2 hours before you want to serve so it crisps up a bit and isn't too soft.

Do NOT use a sourdough bread.

So step three is to use a good French Baguette and cut it into bite-sized pieces at least an hour in advance. DO NOT use sourdough bread.  

For the Rest

A couple of cloves of garlic.

A shot of Kirschwasser, a clear brandy liqueur made from cherries.

Some freshly ground nutmeg. Just at the end, and just a dash.

Other Key Factors to Consider

The Pot

I have a handy fondue pot that was a gift from my parents when I moved into my own home. If you don't, you could use some Corningware or another glazed earthenware pot. I don't find metal to hold and distribute heat properly, although I'm sure a Dutch oven would, but the pot itself cannot be too large. I would say not more than a 2-quart pot.

The Heat Source

Once the fondue is hot and ready to serve, it must be kept hot, and bubbly. You can accomplish this in a couple of ways.

• The best way to accomplish this is by using sterno. Sterno is a cheap source of energy. Most fondue sets come with a tray for sterno to keep it off the tabletop. If your's doesn't be sure to put it on a tile or other heat-resistant surface.
• Some fondue sets come with electric heat, which can be convenient if you have a plug nearby that you aren't afraid someone might trip over the cord.
• Another option is to keep it hot over a low flame on the stovetop and you could all stand around and dip and eat there.
• Or try to use a candle under the stand, although the heat would not be quite as good as sterno.

Remember: If the fondue cheese isn't bubbling, it's going to become a cold hard piece of cheese quickly. So keep the fire under it, and use your bread and fondue fork to keep the mixture moving in the pot.

The Recipe that isn't and the Technique that is

• The recipe is more of a ratio of wine to cheese. So for each pound of cheese you use, you will need 1 ¼ cups of wine. A pound of cheese is about right for 4 people. The amounts are guesstimates; I almost always grate too much cheese so only add as much as I need and save the rest for a nice omelet or ham and cheese sandwich.
• Rub the bottom and sides of the pot with a clove of garlic that has been lightly smashed. You can remove the garlic, or, if you are like us and like garlic, leave it in.
• Place the pot over medium heat and add the wine. When the wine comes to a simmer start slowly adding the cheese; very slowly, a handful at a time, and stir the cheese in until each addition has melted before you add the next one. When stirring use a figure 8, a circular stirring will only cause the cheese to fold onto itself into a ball. So figure 8 is key to keeping the cheese in motion.
• Keep adding the cheese until you have a nice thick sauce, with still a little wine on top; usually about 15 minutes from the first addition of cheese; then add the Kirsch and nutmeg.
• Place the fondue over your heat source and dip away. Be sure to stir the pot with your bread each time you dip to keep it from burning.

FAQ

Making Traditions

Sharing a fondue is a fun way to spend an evening with friends. It encourages conversations while you dip and enjoy the cheesy goodness; and a glass of wine, or two. In my family, we always ate standing around the table, but now, we sit around the coffee table while we enjoy the bowl games. Yes, Fondue has moved from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day. But it's still a tradition.

And make sure you get that bread onto the fork well. If you drop it into the cheese, you must kiss the person on your right. Of course, if you really really like the person on your right, maybe loose bread is a plus.