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Fondue

Name: Fondue
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Swiss
Ingredients: 300 g gruyère cheese, coarsely grated; 200 g emmental cheese, coarsely grated; 250 ml dry white wine; 1 clove garlic, halved; 1 tbsp cornflour; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 1 tbsp kirsch (optional); black pepper and nutmeg, to taste; 300 g day-old bread, cut into cubes with crust on each

Gruyère and Emmental melted into white wine, kept just below a simmer. Swiss recipe on the hob, with quantities that scale to your servings.

Ingredients

300 g gruyère cheese, coarsely grated

200 g emmental cheese, coarsely grated

250 ml dry white wine

1 clove garlic, halved

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp kirsch (optional)

black pepper and nutmeg, to taste

300 g day-old bread, cut into cubes with crust on each

Method

Rub the pot with the cut side of the garlic and leave it in. A caquelon is ideal; any heavy pan will do.

Toss the grated cheese with the cornflour so every shred is dusted. This is what keeps the fondue from separating later.

Warm the wine and the lemon juice in the pot until it steams but does not boil. The acid matters as much as the starch.

Add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring in a figure of eight and waiting for each handful to disappear before the next goes in. Never tip it all in at once, and never let it come to the boil.

Season with pepper and a scrape of nutmeg, and stir in the kirsch if you are using it.

Take it to the table over a low burner. Dip the bread crust-first so it holds, and keep stirring as you go - the bottom will otherwise catch and form a crust.

That crust is the best part. Lift it out whole at the end and share it; the Swiss call it la religieuse.