Fondue Savoyarde
A delicious melted cheese dish that is guaranteed to warm you up after a long day performing winter sports!
Indulge in the rich and comforting flavors of Fondue Savoyarde, a classic dish from the Savoie region of France.
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Ingredients
Steps to make it
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Main Course
Recipe Cuisine:
Alpine
Servings:
4 people
For 4 people (typically about 200g of cheese blend per person)
Preparation Time:
10 minutes
Cooking Time:
This delightful melted cheese fondue is made with a blend of traditional Alpine cheeses, such as Gruyère and Emmental, along with garlic and white wine. Dip crusty bread cubes into the creamy, gooey cheese mixture for a truly satisfying and communal dining experience. Fondue Savoyarde is perfect for gatherings or cozy nights, bringing warmth and indulgence to your table.
Fondue is a melted cheese dish served in a shared pot (caquelon or fondue pot) over a portable stove. It is commonly served in the Swiss, French, and Italian Alps, but the recipes and cheese blend used to make it vary greatly by region. It is consumed by dipping bread into the cheese using long-stemmed forks.
Despite its contemporary associations with rustic mountain life, the rich cheeses used to make Fondue were a valuable commodity for export that common farmers couldn't afford to eat. It was promoted as a Swiss national dish by the Swiss Cheese Union (Schweizerische Käseunion) in the 1930s. The word fondue is based on the French verb fondre which means "to melt".
This particular recipe is one you might find in the French Haute Savoie region, near the city of Annecy, hence the Savoyarde qualification. It is typically made with local cheeses such as Emmental de Savoie, Comté de montagne, Beaufort, Abondance and Gruyère de Savoie; and pairs exceptionally well with a dry Savoie white wine. It is a popular dish in the French Alps that is typically consumed with family and friends after a long day of enjoying winter sports. If you are visiting the area, you can enjoy fondue at one of the many local restaurants serving it, or you can also purchase a pre-mixed cheese blend at one of the local cheese stores and make it yourself at home. Some places will also ship that to you, depending on where you live.
If this is not an option for you, you can try to find the closest cheeses to the ones listed below. Please note that not all cheeses will blend as well as these, substitutions put you at risk of having a blob of hard cheese floating in a pool of oil.
You'll need a suitable fondue pot (caquelon), but it can also be done with a good pot or even a rice maker.
This dish was popularized in North America in the 1960s, where the term "fondue" has been generalized to other dishes in which food is dipped into a shared pot of liquid kept hot in a fondue pot: chocolate fondue, fondue au chocolat, in which pieces of fruit or pastry are dipped into a melted chocolate mixture, and fondue bourguignonne, in which pieces of meat are cooked in hot oil or broth. But trust me, the Fondue Savoyarde is the best of them all!
Step by Step Recipe Instruction Video:
Ingredients:
- 300g of aged Comté cheese
- 300g of summer Beaufort
- 200g of Emmental, Gruyère or Abondance
- 1 clove of garlic
- 20 to 25 cl of dry Savoy white wine (apremont, jongieux blanc or chignin vielles vignes)
- 1 loaf of stale, crusty bread
- 1 pinch of grated nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons of Kirsch (cherry brandy) or marc de Savoie - optional
Steps to make it:
Preparation Steps
- Remove all cheese crusts and grate the cheese pieces so that they melt more easily.
- Cut the bread into small squares, making sure to have a portion of crust with each piece. This will ensure that the bread will stay securely on the fork when it is dipped in the fondue and gets soggy. Day-old bread works best.
- Peel the garlic clove, cut it in half, and rub the inside of the fondue pot with the cut side to permeate the garlic flavor onto the dish.
- Pour the white wine into the fondue pot and bring it to a simmer. Lower the heat, then add the cheese, little by little, stirring with a wooden spatula between each addition of a handful of cheese.
- Add some nutmeg, and pour in the kirsch if you so desire.
- Keep stirring the cheese with a wooden spoon until it is thoroughly melted, making a figure 8 with the spoon.
How to eat Fondue
The fondue is ready when the cheese is smooth and melted, bring it on the heater on the table on low heat and start dipping your bread.
- Pin a piece of bread on the long fork, from the soft inside of the bread towards the crust.
- Dip the bread into the fondue pot, making slow circles to let the bread get covered with the melted cheese.
- Pull the fork out slowly, rotating the fork until the cheese threads are all wrapped around your bread piece.
There aren’t usually any side dishes served with fondue, it is a meal in itself. It is paired with the same white wine you used to make the fondue.
Fondue Etiquette
There are a few unspoken points of etiquette considerations to keep in mind when eating fondue in a shared pot.
- The long fork that you use to dip your bread into the cheese is used only for that purpose and doesn't go into your mouth, please use another (normal) fork to slide the bread and cheese into your plate and devour it.
- Only one person should dip their bread into the fondue pot at a time, please take turns and avoid collisions and knocking each other's bread off the fork and into the pot.
- Whoever loses their bread in the fondue pot has to take a piece of clothing off each time this happens. Just kidding, strip fondue is only a myth! Or is it?
The Best Part
This is a little-known twist that is specific to the region.
Before you finish the fondue, when there is only about a quarter or less of the cheese left in the pot, chop 2 or 3 cloves of garlic and mix them into the cheese.
Then, throw enough small pieces of bread to absorb the remaining cheese into the pot, turn the heat up a bit, and wait until the bread turns golden brown, mixing and scraping the bottom of the pot periodically to make sure the cheese doesn't stick and burn.
Some people also crack one egg into the mix, but it's up to you.
Once the pieces of cheese-coated bread turn a light golden brown color (believe me, you'll smell it when it's done), resume eating responsibly.
This is actually our absolute favorite part of eating fondue!
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Nutritional information provided is an estimate only. Please consult the labels of ingredients you use for more accurate results. Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels.
