Forget the ham. It's too wet. The fondue will probably just slide off. Just use bread for dipping, and keep the ham on the side. Have a salad too as part of the meal. I've found the best way to make cheese fondue is to make something more like a cheese sauce with wine. The traditional recipes may work with the very best European cheeses but don't come out so good with what we usually get in North America. However, get the very best cheese you can. Cave-aged Gruyere is good though usually horribly expensive, and you could use half Emmenthaler but most of what you get in the supermarkets is not good. Jarlsberg is a good substitute for it. I like using all Gruyere, it has more flavour. If you can find "Emmi" brand Gruyere, it's very good and a reasonable price. Around here, they sell it at Costco, but I'm in Canada. You can use a bit of very old Cheddar, but not more than 1/4 of the total cheese, as it tends to separate easily.
I'm guessing a bit on the quantities here as I never measure, but it's close and you can't go too far wrong. You need a good firm bread, French baguette is best so each piece has a crust to spear. Without a piece of crust for the fork to grab hold of, the bread tends to fall off while in the fondue. Cut slices from the bread about 1/2 inch thick, then cut each slice into 2 or 4 pieces.
This recipe should serve 2 or maybe 3 people as part of a dinner. I can eat it all by myself. You might want to do a trial run with half the quantities so you understand the process. It's never good to make something for company that you've never made before.
White wine, a dry one, German type for preference, 1 and 1/2 cups
One clove of garlic, crushed a bit
Flour, 3 tablespoons
Cheese, 2/3 lb, or 300 grams, maybe more. Grate it ahead of time, large grater is fine
Kirsch(optional) you'll probably never use it for anything else
one loaf baguette, never hurts to have an extra.
In a heavy saucepan, put 1 and 1/4 cups wine and the clove of garlic
mix the flour with the remaining 1/4 cup of wine, till smooth
heat wine on low to medium heat, until some bubbles appear and it steams a bit.
add wine/flour mixture, stirring with a whisk while adding it
continue stirring, making sure to stir to the bottom of the pot until the mixture is bubbling very gently, and it has started to look clearer, same idea as making a cornstarch pudding
add cheese at this point, in small batches and sitrring well after each addition, and turn the heat down, from now on you want minimal heat so the cheese doesn't cook much or it might get stringy.
once all the cheese has melted, you can now transfer the fondue to your fondue burner pot unless you cooked it in that pot. If you have to put the fondue into a new pot, preheat that pot by letting boiling water sit in it briefly. This is so the fondue burner doesn't have to heat the pot as well but can do its job of keeping the fondue warm.
Remove the garlic clove before people start dipping, and at this point you can add a splash of Kirsch if you like, and stir it in.
A tradition associated with fondue says that if a lady's piece of bread falls off in the fondue pot, she has to kiss the gentleman on her left. If a gentleman's bread falls off, he has to buy another bottle of wine. Have fun.I just got a fondue pot and have been trying to look up good recipes for cheese fondue..i am wanting?
http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Search.asp鈥?/a>
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