Fondue Serving Tips
Serving a fondue meal to your guests is great fun and delicious too. Here is a list of fondue serving tips that will guarantee that your next fondue party will be a success. The general tips are presented first, followed by a list of more detailed tips.
First of all let’s talk about your fondue equipment. Do you need to have three different pots? Yes and no. If you have one of those cast-iron pots, covered in enamel, that’s pretty much al you need. These enameled pots are suitable for all three styles of fondue. If you already have a ceramic or earthenware pot, save it for chocolate or cheese--they're not the greatest for the high temperature of boiling oil you need to cook meat. If you have a metal pot, it's great for cooking meat in oil. But a metal pot can, in a pinch, be converted to a cheese or chocolate pot if you have a heatproof ceramic bowl that fits down into it, along with some hot water between the metal and the bowl to form a makeshift double boiler.
First Tip: Use Your Stove!
One of the biggest mistakes in fondue making is expecting the alcohol burner or candle to do the cooking for you. Avoid fondue heartache by fully melting or heating your fondue on the stovetop before transferring it to the tabletop burner. The flame under the fondue is intended to keep chocolate and cheese hot, not to cook it.
Prepare the fondue on the stovetop before transferring it to the burner. Melt the chocolate or cheese fondue, or heat the oil completely. Over an alcohol burner or candle alone, it will never get hot enough to eat.
Feel free to experiment with fondues beyond the traditional Swiss cheese variety. For example, create an American style fondue with hard cider and good cheddar, or a Mexican-flavored one with pepper Jack cheese and chipotle peppers. If you're watching your fat intake, try cooking beef fondue in boiling broth instead of oil.
It’s a good idea to stir the fondue pot frequently, whether it contains cheese, chocolate, or oil. Stirring distributes the heat, keeps the cheese and chocolate fondue smooth, and prevents scorched spots in the center of the pan. If your sauce gets too thick, thin it with white wine.
Serving Fondue? Don’t do this
Fondue is a very rich dish. Don't serve more than one type of fondue at a meal. After a rich cheese or meat fondue, serve something light for dessert, not a chocolate fondue.
On the other hand, don't expect a few chunks of bread and a few cubes of meat to serve as an entire meal. Consider a cheese or meat fondue as a main dish and bolster it with side dishes. Cheese fondue delicious served with thin-sliced ham, pickled onions, and sliced pickles, as well as a green salad. A meat fondue requires baked potatoes or a dish of scalloped potatoes, as well as a salad and/or green vegetable, and perhaps crusty rolls and butter for diners to nibble while the meat starts to cook.
If you're doubling a cheese fondue recipe, don't double the liquid portion of the recipe. Increase the liquid by 1 1/2. Otherwise, the fondue will be soupy, not thick.
Don't throw away the golden crust left on the bottom of the fondue pot. It's considered a delicacy, to be peeled off and shared among fondue aficionados.
Fondue Party Tips
Fondue Tip #1
Figure out how much food you need. One person can eat about 20 one-inch cubes of bread (1/2 to 1/3 of a loaf of French bread), 8 ounces of meat, 6 ounces of fish or seafood, 4 to 6 ounces of cheese, 6-8 ounces of vegetables, before trimming, 6-8 ounces of fruit, before trimming, 2-4 ounces of dried fruit, 4 cookies, 2 to 3 ounces of dessert sauce.
Fondue Tip #2
Serve bite-size food. All fondue food should be served in one or two bite pieces to allow for easy skewing or hand-dipping. Strawberries, large marshmallows, small cookies, medium shrimp, large scallops, etc., are perfect as they are. Thick bread and cake should be cut into 1-inch cubes. Cut meats into 1/2 to 1-inch cubes.
Fondue Tip #3
Use the proper fondue pot. Ceramic fondue pots for cheese, chocolate, or other dessert fondues. Metal fondue pots for broth, oil, wine or beer fondue recipes in which the food is cooked in the pot. Combination pots are the most versatile. These are generally metal covered with ceramic.
Fondue Tip #4
Use the appropriate liquid. Choose flavorful liquids, such as broth, beer or wine. Do not use water! When adding wine to a cheese fondue recipe, use a dry or semi-dry wine, to make or thin your sauce.
Fondue Tip #5
Cook on the stove; serve in the fondue pot. Easy fondue recipes are even easier when you prepare your recipe in the kitchen and transfer it to a fondue pot when ready.
Fondue Tip #6
Do not allow your fondue recipe boil. Keep cheese and dessert fondues at a low temperature, just enough to keep them warm, about 120 degrees. Use a very low flame or tea light candle to warm the pot. Oil for frying should be kept at about 375 degrees. At that temperature, a cube of bread will brown evenly in about 20 or 30 seconds.
Fondue Tip #7
Observe fondue etiquette. Remember you are dipping and swirling from a communal pot; try not to touch your lips or tongue to a fork that goes back into the pot.
When cooking in the pot, skewer meats onto your fondue fork in such a way that the tines protrude slightly. That way, the meat will not stick to the bottom of the fondue pot. Important: Remove the cooked meat from the fondue fork before eating. The fork will be much too hot!
Instead of fondue forks, you can also use throw-away bamboo skewers are an alternative, and you can cook more than one piece of meat or seafood on them, too.
Serve raw meats on a small, separate plate for each of your guests. Provide another plate for eating, and individual dishes of seasoning for the meat, to be applied before cooking. Compartmentalized fondue plates are very handy here, and they can double as appetizer plates.
Finally: For safety’s sake it is recommended that you reserve hot oil and broth type recipes for sit-down style dinner parties, to reduce the risk of an accident. Modern fondue pots are very sturdy, but, nevertheless, mingling guests or curious children might upset an unattended pot.