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.