Observed annually on April 11 is National Cheese Fondue Day. Fondue is a dish of melted cheese or other ingredients, served in a communal pot (caquelon) over a small portable stove (réchaud). Bread is then dipped from long-stemmed forks into the cheese. Cheese fondue consists of a blend of cheeses, wine and seasoning.
A 1699 book published in Zurich, under the name “Kass mit Wein zu kochen” is known for having the earliest known recipe for cheese fondue. It calls for grated or cut up cheese to be melted with wine and for the bread to be dipped in it.
The first known recipe with cheese and wine was published under the name “Cheese Fondue” in 1875.
The success of fondue may be contributed to the introduction of cornstarch to Switzerland in 1905, which made it easier to make a smooth and stable emulsion of the wine and cheese.
- The melted cheese dish known as fondue is Swiss in origin.
- Cow herders, who had long winters with few provisions, invented the dish.
- The way the Swiss dish obtained a French name is a mystery, though there is a powerful influence of French language speakers in Switzerland even today.
- The Swiss nobles liked the dish so much that they adapted it from its humble beginnings to make it a dish of the nobility.
- Fondue became popular in the U.S. during the mid-1960s after American tourists discovered it in Switzerland.
- Over 100 varieties of cheese fondue exist, each with a unique name and different blend of cheeses, wine and seasoning.
- Tradition states that if bread falls off a woman’s fork and into the pot she must kiss her neighbor. If a man drops anything into the pot he has to buy a round of drinks for the table.
- A recipe for a sauce made from Pramnos wine, grated goat’s cheese and white flour appears in Scroll 11 (lines 629-645) of Homer’s Iliad and has been cited as the earliest record of a fondue.
- By way of returning soldiers and travelers, Swiss cheese fondue began showing up on menus at many of New York’s finest restaurants.
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