Best Cheese Fondue

Fondues were extremely hip in the 50's and 60's, and seemed to have been a featured item at the dinner parties of socialites, suburban housewives, and hippy communes. You can find new fondue sets at all sorts of kitchen, life-style, and department stores in a variety of styles and within any price range. Thrift shops and antique galleries that carry mid century furnishings, though, will yield the best buys in terms of quality, price, and memories. It is pretty likely that you will come across a pot that will look like something your parents had or would have had. If you do not have a fondue pot, be sure to use a large, wide-mouthed heat-proof ceramic, porcelain, or enameled cast-iron pot.

Most basic fondue recipes call for Swiss cheese, but there are so many wonderful types of Swiss cheese, it would be a shame to use just one. This recipe combines the wonderful melting qualities and tastes of three aged cheeses: Raclette, Gruyere, and Appenzeller.

Raclette is a whole cow's milk Swiss cheese not only in name and flavor but in origin as well. It resembles the better known, and more fully flavored, Gruyere with its slightly rough, light-brown rind . The interior also is firm, pale-ivory-yellow to light-brown but has more holes. Its nutty flavor tends to be milder than gruyere. It melts wonderfully, and is best known in making raclette, where the warmed cheese releases further flavors and aromas. Years ago a friend smuggled a wheel back from his native Switzerland in his ski boot bag. Nowadays, of course, you can find it any good cheese store or on the Web. It is also called Belsano, Belalp, Bagnes, Gomser, and Valais Raclette.

Perhaps the best known of the real Swiss cheeses, Gruyere cheese comes from the Gruyere district of Switzerland. Cooks reach for it to create fondue and gougere. It is made of whole cow's milk; one pound of regular Gruyere cheese requires five quarts of milk. Its full flavor is nutty and spicy, and lend itself to a cheese plate as well as to other dishes.

Appenzeller comes mostly from the canton of Appenzell. It is made from raw and aged for approximately three months. Appenzeller is an aged cow’s milk that is perhaps my favorite snacking cheese with its smooth texture, fruity tang, and slight nuttiness. The rind of this pressed, cooked-curd cheese is completely edible, so you don't have to waste time and cheese by carving away a stone hard exterior, wax, or whatnot. Its interior has small holes, and the smooth texture fills the mouth in a most satisfying way (which is probably why I love to snack on it.) Like the other Swiss cheeses, it melts well.

Cheese Fondue (adapted from Martha Stewart--when her recipes rocked)
Serves 4

1 clove garlic, halved, green kernel removed
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons kirsch (cherry brandy) or brandy
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
12 ounces Raclette cheese, shredded
4 ounces Gruyère cheese, shredded
4 ounces Appenzeller cheese, shredded

1. Rub the garlic inside the
fondue pot. Dissolve cornstarch in brandy, and set aside.
2. Pour wine into pot, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add paprika, nutmeg, and pepper. Stir in cheese with a wooden spoon. Cook, stirring constantly in a figure-eight pattern, until completely melted.
3. Add reserved cornstarch mixture, and continue to stir until thickened and creamy.
4. Place on the lit burner of your fondue set, and serve immediately with bite-size pieces of boiled potatoes, apples, cornichons, and day-old artisan bread. (If at any time it starts to
separate, simply continue to stir in the figure 8 pattern.)

The wonderfully-delicious crusty cheese at the bottom of the pot goes to the person who has successfully not lost any piece while dipping.