Classic Cheese Fondue Recipe from the French Alps – La Fondue Savoyarde
This fondue recipe is easy to make and utterly delicious! It makes for a fun, hands-on dinner that the whole family will love. Here is an authentic fondue you can make at home:
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes
Ingredients (for 4/6 people):
- 0.400 pound of Beaufort Alpages
- 0.400 pound of Aged Comté 24 months
- 0.400 pound of Caved Aged Gruyere
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 pinch of cayenne pepper
- 1 pinch of white pepper
- 10 oz of dry white wine
Instructions:
- Cut the Comte cheese in cubes and until well combined.
- Rub the inside of a fondue pot with cut sides of garlic. Add dry white wine and bring to boil.
- Reduce heat to medium-low. Add a quarter of the Comté and stir until melted. Continue stirring in cheese, a quarter at a time, until melted. Cook, stirring, until fondue is completely smooth and richly coats the back of a spoon. Season with freshly ground cayenne pepper.
- Serve the hot fondue with crusty bread for dipping and charcuterie on the side.
Tip: best melting cheeses for fondue
The best cheeses in the world for melting are the mountain cheeses of Switzerland and France. You need look no further than Beaufort, Gruyère de Comte or Emmental. The mild, fruity, sweet flavor and extraordinary melting capacity make Comte excellent for fondue.
If you can't find Comte or would just like an alternative you can substitute: The best substitute in terms of flavor and texture is Gruyère . OR - If you want an alternative because you don't like the flavor then you can use any good cheese like Emmental (also spelled Emmenthal sometimes).
Wine Pairing
A dry white wine will go well with our fondue recipe. Here are La Fromagerie wine suggestions:
1.Domaine de Cauhape Jurancon sec (Gros Manseng / Camaralet)
2.Clos Berger Vouvray Dry (100 % Chenin Blanc)
What is Fondue?
“Fondue” comes from the French word “fondre”– to melt – and has historically had its roots in the Swiss Alpine regions, where melted cheese, wine, and garlic were slowly heated in a cast iron pot to create an unctuous, warm cheese sauce used to dip stale pieces of bread.
The 18 months Aged Comté cheese in our recipe is a hard, unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese from the Jura Mountain region located in eastern France. Comte is similar to Gruyère, and provides nutty, creamy and peppery flavors, making it a perfect ingredient in a meat-free family style dish to share with friends. If you don’t have a fondue pot and burner, prepare the ingredients in a heavy-duty pan, and bring it to the table.
Cheese fondue is usually known as a Swiss food since it has been made the Swiss national dish in the 1930s by the Swiss Cheese Union, but the fondue Savoyarde is one of the most popular dishes in French gastronomy and one of the most famous to come from the Savoie region, located at the Swiss border in the French Alps.
French Fondue vs Swiss fondue: what is the difference?
French Fondue and Swiss fondue are similar, they are both prepared in a special pot where various cheeses are melted with white wine or Kirsch. When cooked, it is eaten by dipping pieces of bread using long metal forks. The main difference lies in the type of cheeses you melt in the pot. In Switzerland, you must use Gruyere and Vacherin from Freiburg, with a 50/50 proportion (aka Moitié-Moitié Fondue). There are many Swiss fondue variations from different places in the country such as Neuchatel (50% Gruyère, 50% Emmentaler), Central Switzerland, and Valais. They all use different cheeses in different proportions.
In France, the Classic Savoyard Fondue is made from French cheeses such as Beaufort, Comte and Emmental (or Gruyere). Some French recipes add Reblochon and Abondance cheeses in the mix. Like in Switzerland, there are many variations of the recipe in France.
La Fromagerie SF – Three retail stores where you can find Comte cheese:
The Dogpatch shop on 2425 Third St, San Francisco, CA 94107
The SoMa shop (entrance on Mission St) San Francisco, CA94105
The Financial district shop on 101 Montgomery St, San Francisco, CA 94101
Thank you for reading this article. We hope you like it and we would love to hear what you are cooking. Make sure to tag us in your posts on social media and we will be happy to share your recipe!
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