I'm fond of you

December 2, 2022 10:20 AM

How Fondue Was Invented. Ok, but for real: How A Swiss Cheese Cartel Made Fondue Popular. Fondue in the 70s. The canonical fondue pot. Le Chalet, Restaurant of the Pavilion of Switzerland, New York 1964 World's Fair, dejeuner menu
posted by gwint (40 comments total)

IT IS DECIDED.

Fondue for dinner tonight.
posted by Keith Talent at 10:24 AM on December 2, 2022 [8 favorites]

Oh man, too weird. Had the Gruyere, Ementhaler, and a touch of Montamore cheddar for tonight's festivities and they cancelled!! More for me, I guess....
posted by repoman at 10:38 AM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

As my sainted Italian grandmother would say: Va fondue!
posted by Splunge at 10:44 AM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

WHAT am I GONNA DO with ALL this CHEESE and WINE?
posted by Going To Maine at 10:47 AM on December 2, 2022 [5 favorites]

(Cheap hack, but Trader Joe’s has pre-made European instant fondue, v. tasty.)
posted by Going To Maine at 10:48 AM on December 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Requiescat in pace Dante Stephensen.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:53 AM on December 2, 2022

I love fondue. It was a tradition in my family to have fondue for dinner the night of the first snow of the winter (usually sometime in October or November, in northern New Hampshire where I grew up.) I sustained that tradition through the years I lived in Illinois and even North Carolina (where it might be in January or February, or some years not at all) but I have been living in South Florida for the last ten years and the forecast is 0.0% chance of fondue. (I know you can eat it when there is no snow on the ground, but it just doesn't feel right.)
posted by Daily Alice at 10:59 AM on December 2, 2022 [10 favorites]

As is right and proper, the fondue pot is the go-to prize on ROHOG. Anyone choosing otherwise is a heretic.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:00 AM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Going To Maine, you got my hopes up but I'm not finding fondue at traderjoes.com. :(
posted by mpark at 11:05 AM on December 2, 2022

Daily Alice, in our family we had fondue on Christmas eve. Living mostly in the south, snow dependent Fondue would have been more like Overdue. (/me injures tendon reaching for joke)
posted by taz at 11:05 AM on December 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

Going To Maine, you got my hopes up but I'm not finding fondue at traderjoes.com. :(

Maybe you just have to get lucky at the store? This is the thing.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:18 AM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Taz, our family tradition is Christmas Eve fondue too. My next-gen family doesn’t have a fondue pot (haven’t been to a thrift store in ages) so we do Welsh Rabbit which is the worst* parts of fondue.

*worst is still absolutely amazing and we lick our plates but doesn’t include open flame or sharp pointy objects
posted by hydrobatidae at 11:21 AM on December 2, 2022

If not TJ's, Aldi has a rather nice Emporium Selection pre-made fondue as well.
posted by repoman at 11:25 AM on December 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Fondue was my mom's post-divorce Christmas Eve choice! Big pivot from the piergoi my dad's family went for. I learned how to make my mom's fondue from a vintage recipe card that had you make a roux first. She insists that the best thing to dip is cocktail sausages, specifically, lit'l smokies. Any good veggie versions of those around?
posted by carrioncomfort at 11:29 AM on December 2, 2022

Ok, one - that "invented Fondue" video is hysterically awkward.

Two, my mom's coming to town for Christmas for the first time ever, maybe it's time to make a fondue. Time to hit the Goodwill!
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:35 AM on December 2, 2022

There used to be a fondue restaurant here in town. It was great. But, it was also one of the priciest restaurants around, which I could never quite understand.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:38 AM on December 2, 2022

Somehow we came into possession of two fondue sets, so when we make fondue, it's usually one pot for cheese and the other for chocolate. My wife keeps trying to get rid of them because we don't use them very often, but I insist on keeping them, because you never know when the urge will strike.
posted by briank at 11:39 AM on December 2, 2022 [5 favorites]

Hot tubs, wicker armchairs, ski cabins and fondue. The (pre-disco) 70s in a single phrase.
posted by morspin at 11:48 AM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

The canonical fondue pot

I have my mother's set from the 1960s/70s, when I was a little kid. The pot does look exactly like that but then it has a wooden turntable with smoked glass dishes to set it on. I really do want to try using it someday, but when Mom shipped it to me it wasn't really packed well, so the turntable is cracked. I keep meaning to get my woodcraft-y friend to try and fix it.
posted by dnash at 11:50 AM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

WHAT am I GONNA DO with ALL this CHEESE and WINE?

{polite cough} Looks pointedly at passport, plane booking website.
posted by Wordshore at 11:51 AM on December 2, 2022 [9 favorites]

I've had fondue only a handful of times, but each time I have the same reaction: this is awesome. Fondue is the food of the future. I can eat this every week! And then I promptly forget about fondue.

There used to be a fondue restaurant here in town. It was great. But, it was also one of the priciest restaurants around, which I could never quite understand.

Decent quality cheese and wine isn't cheap.
posted by zardoz at 11:51 AM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Still does not answer the question; Was Jane Fonda fond of fondue?
posted by indianbadger1 at 12:01 PM on December 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

Fondue is nice and all, but give raclette a try. One step above.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:19 PM on December 2, 2022 [10 favorites]

My mom bought a fondue pot when I was a kid. I only remember doing it once and never again. I don't know why cause I loved it. Everyone loved it. It just didn't happen after that night. Now I want fondue...
posted by downtohisturtles at 12:21 PM on December 2, 2022

We once got a very low-end fondue set as a gift for some reason (it stays heated with a votive candle underneath; I genuinely have no idea where it came from). About 10 years ago, we were celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, eating outside in our little hut, and the lights went out. On inspection, the cord was unplugged - Maybe a woodland creature, maybe annoying neighborhood kids (it was in the driveway so anything's possible). Rather than eat in the dark, we brought candles outside. My stepdaughter, around 10 at the time, asked if we could toast marshmallows over them. Which we all decided was an excellent idea.

But if you give a mouse a toasted marshmallow, he's going to want to make a s'more. So the next year we intentionally brought out candles and marshmallows and chocolate and graham crackers for one meal of the holiday, because now it was a Thing. And it was good. And after a couple years of this, we had a guest who didn't like marshmallows, but wanted to have some of the melted chocolate on a graham cracker if we could figure out a way to do that? And that, grandchild, is why it is our family tradition that on the second night of Sukkot we always have fondue.
posted by Mchelly at 12:34 PM on December 2, 2022 [21 favorites]

Came here to say: raclette people, raclette.

But JoeZydeco beat me to it!

[also, meat fondue. It was the traditional Christmas Eve meal at my parents' house; easy to pause and open presents.]
posted by chavenet at 12:36 PM on December 2, 2022 [6 favorites]

also, meat fondue.

Seconded! The cheese is a nice appetizer but it's overwhelming for a whole meal. Doing small pieces of chicken, steak, or shrimp in a hot oil (or, more safer for kids, an onion broth) with dipping sauces on the side is really good for a main course.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:43 PM on December 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

it's GOD'S SAUCE
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:43 PM on December 2, 2022

How Fondue Was Invented.

My extensive primary school research says it's much older than that¹.

¹Goscinny. (1970). Asterix in Switzerland. Hodder & Stoughton.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 12:51 PM on December 2, 2022 [10 favorites]

Fondue pro-tip from the locals from my time living in the very heart of French Alpine cheese-country... when you're down to near the end, tip the rest of your cubes of bread into the pot and crack in an egg. Stir and scramble, scoop out and share as a "lighter" finish to the meal...

If you have raclette in a restaurant there, it'll be a single large chunk of cheese rather than the individual slices you put in little trays under a domestic raclette machine. This chunk is spiked onto a frame and has a heater arrangement we referred to as "cheese on a sunbed" to do the melting - you can see the setup from about 20 - 30 seconds in this youtube vid.

The first time my wife, who moved from the UK to the Alps a few years after I'd moved there, saw restaurant raclette we were dining à deux, and on the table behind me a party of 4 were all having it. That meant well over half a wheel of raclette - probably getting on for 4 kilos.

I can still vividly remember her looking over my shoulder, first interested in the setup of the kit, then noting the arrival of the accoutrements (bread, potatoes, charcuterie, cornichons)... then progressively taken aback at the intimidating size of the piece of cheese as it was installed, engaged with the care and attention with which the sunbed was adjusted to get just the right rate of melting, and finally full-on open-mouthed rubbernecking-a-car-crash disbelief as the first oozing tide of glorious golden goodness was scraped off the surface onto the waiting plate.

All British rude-to-stare reserve forgotten, she kept eyes like saucers fixed behind me and faintly whispered... "it's like they're making it do world's biggest, cheesiest dump..."

♥ Ahh, la classe ♥
posted by protorp at 1:36 PM on December 2, 2022 [6 favorites]

There's a quite expensive fondue restaurant near me which does the full sequence, meat fondue, cheese, and then chocolate to end. The only disadvantage is that it's all so more-ish you end up overstuffed at the end.
posted by tavella at 2:45 PM on December 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

My husband and I still talk about the fondue dinner we had a Le Bistrot des Alpes in Amsterdam several years ago. They also do raclette, but we opted for the fondue.

It was a lovely meal, and we were there early and were the first table to be seated, so we had the full attention of the owner. The spread of dipping options for the fondue was extensive, almost a meal in itself. And with the lovely addition of a simple mixed greens salad with a super-acidic vinaigrette that was a nice contrast to the richness of the fondue.

When we declared, "Ok. We cannot possibly eat more. We are very, very, very full of this wonderful fondue," she asked if we wanted to take it with us.

We informed her that we were flying out very early the next morning, so no, but if circumstances were otherwise, definitely.

This led to some joking around with her about the logistics of taking leftover fondue on a plane:

- The long forks might be hard to get past security. How could we disguise them? Are there modular ones that break down like a spy weapon?
- What of reheating the fondue? Certainly open flame would be frowned upon, but look, I brought my own Sterno can, so why not? Show me where it says "No fondue" on the terms of my ticket.
- "I'll pass on the in-flight meal, but do you have any extra dinner rolls or cornichons on hand? We're out of stuff to dip. Failing that, can we just have some spoons?"

...and so on. By the end of it we were all howling. So that place was an all 'round great fondue experience, food and hosting alike.

I'm sad Artisanal in NYC is no more.

All of which is to say I think about fondue a great deal.

Was Jane Fonda fond of fondue?

Not sure if that's fondue canon. Not to be confused with a fondue cannon, which sounds kinda dangerous.

Dammit. Now I want fondue.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:10 PM on December 2, 2022 [4 favorites]

The canonical fondue pot.

Can confirm. Source: I was a little kid in the seventies.

We now have two electric fondues in this house and have at least once done the trifecta of cheese/oil (for chicken)/chocolate. I'd be happy to do this regularly, but all things considered it's probably better for my cardiovascular health that I do not.

As one of the links above mentions, it is a very low-effort approach to entertaining; indeed, I am hard pressed to think of anything else besides a very passive-aggressive barbecue where you can invite someone over for a hot meal and just hand them raw food to cook as they see fit.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:30 PM on December 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

invite someone over for a hot meal and just hand them raw food to cook as they see fit.

Oh, now I want to do that! "Here's your pork loin, there's the smoker. Grab a beer and have fun..."
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:57 PM on December 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

I used to go here (https://www.stmoritz-restaurant.co.uk/stmoritz.htm) in London with friends. Sublime!
posted by mollymillions at 4:21 PM on December 2, 2022

My beloved undergraduate lab used to hold two parties every year: one fondue, one raclette. It's a memory I've been cherishing for like ten years and vaguely wanting to repeat. And my spouse grew up with Christmas Eve and New Year's fondue, too.

So one of the first years we were able to celebrate together, they bought me two fondue sets for the holiday and we ate fondue together and if I ever get to have a lab, I'll do cheese parties myself. (Probably with a dairy free option somewhere, but the communal dipping aspect is just so damn good.) The memory of receiving the fondue set is honestly one of the best presents I've ever gotten.
posted by sciatrix at 5:30 PM on December 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

That canonical pot is so pretty, I would make fondue if I had it. In the barn, I have the old battered copper pot of my childhood in the seventies, and it is not nearly as inspiring. I remember loving fondue nights as a child, but it's not like some other seventies classics that I still cook.
posted by mumimor at 3:44 AM on December 3, 2022

It was a tradition in my family to have fondue for dinner the night of the first snow of the winter (usually sometime in October or November, in northern New Hampshire where I grew up.) I sustained that tradition through the years I lived in Illinois and even North Carolina (where it might be in January or February, or some years not at all)

I grew up in NC, and somehow we also had this tradition. It was so much fun to sit at our dining room table eating cheese and bread and watching the snow fall, or just waiting for it to start. And yes, it usually didn't happen until Jan or Feb, if at all.

Now, we live in Georgia, where it rarely actually snowed even before climate change thoroughly fucked us over, and my spouse can't have dairy. There is no good vegan fondue, as far as I know.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:32 AM on December 3, 2022

Ricochet biscuit: I am hard pressed to think of anything else besides a very passive-aggressive barbecue where you can invite someone over for a hot meal and just hand them raw food to cook as they see fit

Try hotpot/steamboat. This is sometimes annoyingly called "Chinese Fondue" even though it has a much longer history than cheese hotpot.
posted by pianissimo at 6:08 AM on December 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yeah, what pianissimo said! I've also seen it referred to as "broth fondue." You could absolutely do a vegan variant if you wanted to make a sufficiently interesting vegetable broth. Uses all the same equipment, but you use broth or oil instead of melted cheese. You still get all the fun communal eating aspects, but you can adapt broths more easily to various dietary requirements. And it's plenty yummy.

If I wanted to adapt hotpot to a vegan audience, I would be out looking for recipes for vegan ramen stock or pho, probably.
posted by sciatrix at 9:40 AM on December 3, 2022