A Simple Guide To Cooking Fondues

If you are old enough, you may remember how popular fondue parties were in the seventies. Well, now fondues are making a comeback in the U.S. with more and more restaurants specializing in this wonderful style of cooking. If To learn how to cook fondues, read the simple tips below.

The first thing you’ll need is to purchase a fondue pot and fondue sticks. Choose a pot size that is appropriate for your needs (fondue pots come in different sizes). Besides the traditional fondue pots that you use on an open flame, there are now electric pots that allow you to regulate the temperature inside the pot.

There are countless varieties of fondue dishes, but the three principal fondue types are cheese fondues, meat and vegetable fondues and dessert fondues. If they are part of a meal, cheese fondues are usually served as appetizers. Meat and vegetable fondues are used as a main course. Fondues do not necessarily have to be served as part of a meal; you can have a wine and cheese fondue party, for instance. Also, a meal is not normally made up entirely of fondue dishes.

You can use any number of cheeses or cheese combinations to make a cheese fondue. For a mild tasting fondue, choose a cheese such as Muenster. Emmenthal will give you a sharper taste. Other cheeses commonly used to prepare fondues are pepper jack, Cajun cheese and gruyere. Grate the cheese or cheeses of your choice and toss in a small amount of cornstarch, then add to hot liquid in the fondue pot, and stir slowly until the cheese melts. Carefully regulate the cooking temperature; excessively high temperatures will burn the cheese, low temperatures will result in the cheese clumping.

Use broth or oil to cook meat and vegetable fondues. Season the liquid, put it in the fondue pot and heat until it starts to boil. You will be dipping uncooked meat into this liquid, so make sure the temperature is high enough to cook the meat thoroughly in a few seconds. Remember though that if you heat oil excessively it will splatter out of the pot.

Sweet fondues, served as dessert, are made of melted chocolate combined with cream. To make this delicious fondue dish, use your favorite kind of chocolate (white, milk, dark), or combine several kinds of chocolate. Don’t melt the chocolate on heat that is too high to avoid burning it, and always use quality chocolates.

Marshmallow crme, strawberry syrup and a variety of oils such as mint, vanilla, almond, hazelnut, amaretto or your favorite liqueur can be added to the melted chocolate to produce a delicious flavor.

You should have the food you will be dipping into the fondue pot prepared well before you sit down to sample your fondue dish. If you are making a cheese fondue, prepare bite-sized pieces of your choice of bread (French baguettes, crusty rolls, flatbreads …). For a main course fondue dish, cut vegetables and / or meat into bite-sized portions as well. Meat cubes should not be more than one inch in size so that they will cook through in a short time. Prepare cookies, brownies, crackers, marshmallows or cake (cut into small pieces) to dip into your chocolate fondue.

Michelle is surely an expert blogger whose niche is writing about simple and easy, but delicious, household cooking. Her content pieces normally stress the added benefits of slow cooker recipes including slow cooker chicken recipes, which is certainly one of her absolute favorites.