Sunday, December 26, 2010

Une fondue massive

As is Ken's and my tradition, we made a cheese fondue on Christmas Eve. This year, however, it was a bit different in that we used cheeses not normally used in a fondue. Ken found a recipe for a fondue du Mont-Dore, a ski resort town in the Massif Central. The traditional fondue Suisse (Swiss fondue) is made with Gruyère and Emmenthal; both are cheeses made in Switzerland. In France, the traditional fondue Savoyarde (fondue of the Savoie and Haute Savoie) is made with similar French cheeses and usually includes Comté.

Our cheese fondue served with French bread and chunks of apple.

There are other fondues in that area, each made principally with its own local cheese. The fondue we made this year used cheeses from the Auvergne region in the mountains of the Massif Central. It could just as well have been called fondue Auvergnate. It's made with the local cantal and St.-Nectaire cheeses, both of which we really like. If you haven't already seen it, Ken posted about these cheeses here.

Since the cheeses come from the Massif Central, I decided we should call ours une fondue massive. A little play on words there.

It was good, but not as good as a good Alpine fondue; the cheese was very mild once it had melted and not all that flavorful. We ended up grating some Comté into it after we started eating to give it some of that sharpness and nuttiness that we like in a fondue. That worked well and we were not disappointed.

12 comments:

  1. Walt, I like the idea of using chuncks of apple with the fondue.
    Reminds me of my Gran using apple butter on cheese. Or my Mum adding curd to her apple butter on a slice of bread.

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  2. Walt, do you put schnaps in your fondue? We always did that in Switzerland ...

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  3. Hi Walt ,hope you and Ken had a good day yesterday.

    I have yet to try a Fondue .. Everyone I know that has says it is good, not sure if it is for me, but woud give it a try .. !!

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  4. love the pic of bertie.....i am always amazed that one of my cats loves to go out in the snow

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  5. I love fondue and especially like Gruyère.

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  6. I'm glad you were able to adjust your fondue more to your liking. Great pic of Bertie.

    BettyAnn

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  7. heh heh, love the play on words :)

    The photo is great. Very nice tradition :)

    Judy

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  8. Fondue! It was one of the first things that I ever cooked -- way back in 9th grade Home Economics class. It seems to have faded from popularity in homes these days.

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  9. peter, the apple is really good and gives some crunch and acidity to complement the bread.

    andy, we add kirsch, but I've never tried schnapps!

    anne, thanks! Yes, it's good if you like cheese. :)

    melinda, the snow doesn't faze him at all. Speaking of snow... how'd you all do in this storm?

    rick, yum!

    bettyann, sometimes that's what happens when you try something new.

    judy, I'm so clever.

    alewis, it's oh, so seventies, no? But tasty!

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  10. Walt and Ken are torturing me with the food photos! YUMMMMMMMM!!!!!

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  11. That looks good. I love fondue.

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  12. i love fondue; I wish to eat more of it in 2011.

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