- [Babish] This episode of "Basics With Babish"
is sponsored by Bright Sellers, a monthly wine club
that matches you with fine wine you'll love,
and delivers it right to your door.
Bright Sellers is offering you 50% off
your first to six bottle box.
So, follow the link in the video description
to take the taste palate quiz and get started.
I'm glad to have a little extra wine on hand
because I'll need it to both make
and enjoy alongside today's topic, Fondue.
Let's get down to basics.
(upbeat music)
(ambient jazzy music)
All right. So, the first thing we gotta discuss
when making fondue is a fondue pot.
Of course, you could go with one of these electric joints
that gives you perfect control over temperature,
but if you wanna be a real bad-ass about it,
you've gotta get yourself a racial,
which is basically just a little cast iron stand
with a built-in chafing burner,
and an accompanying caquelon,
a cast iron enamel specialty fondue pot.
Totally unnecessary, but if you wanna impress your friends
with a bubbling cauldron,
set over a flaming cup of alcohol goo,
this is the way to go.
In the immortal words of Steve 1989 MRE Info,
"Oh yeah, that's lit."
Once we've got our serving vessel decided upon,
it's time, obviously, to talk cheese.
You can use almost any hard aged melting cheese,
but the two most popular are Emmental,
a.k.a, the stuff that you picture when you close your eyes
and imagine cartoon cheese,
and Greer, a funky salty cave, aged hard Swiss.
But you could use other cheeses like, Comte,
Beaufort, fontina, Reblochon, anything that's funky,
slightly aged, and good at melting.
Whatever cheeses you decide to use,
we are grating out one pounds worth,
or about 450 grams grated
on the large holes of a box grater.
Then some recipes call for adding corn starch
to a bit of wine separately,
but the ones I like, toss it directly with the cheese,
which helps the cheese more easily emulsify into the wine.
Now, that we've got our cheese prepped,
it's time to prep our pot.
Whatever pot you're using, we're gonna rub it down
with a bruised clove of garlic,
making sure that every corner is generously coated
with the oil from the clove.
This might leave some little chunks
of garlic all over your pan,
which you can discard, but I like to leave them in there
for a little garlicky surprise.
Now to the pot, we're adding one cup or about 240 ml
of dry white wine, like silver scapes, Sauvignon Blanc,
available from Bright Sellers.
Then once it reaches a bare simmer over medium, low heat
we're dropping the flame down to low
and slowly adding one handful at a time.
Our corn starts, coated cheese, while mixing constantly.
Make sure all the cheese is melted
before adding the next handful, and so on and so forth.
This is an effort to get the cheese
to emulsify with the wine.
If you heat it too aggressively,
it could break and leave you with an oily, gnarly mess.
If this happens, it can be rescued,
just whisk together a tablespoon of corn starts
with about a quarter cup of wine
and whisk until the fats re-emulsify with the cheese.
Lastly, and optionally, you could add a grating
of fresh nutmeg and/or a tablespoon quiche,
a type of cherry brandy.
Once all the cheese is melted and the mixture is smooth,
we're gonna take it off the heat.
Don't worry if it's a little too thin,
it's gonna thicken up as it cools,
but we're gonna keep it warm
either in our electric fondue pot or over a flame.
Now, all there is left to do is serve
with some toasted chunks of crusty bread, like begets
swirled around in the pot a few times,
admire the strings, give it a twirl
to twist up all the melty cheese and pop it in your mouth.
And there you have it, the basic Swiss Fundoe.
A fork shakingly delicious cauldron
of wine and melted cheese.
But how about some variations on the theme?
A Germanic or maybe more Americanized version
would be virtually the same procedure,
but using a cup of beer and a pound of corn starch
coated yellow and white Cheddar's.
Whisk off heat until all the cheese is melted
and serve with some German soft pretzels
and slices of kielbasa.
Hm! Beer, cheese, and sausage.
But what if you wanna really kick
the calories into the stratosphere?
For that, we need the Italian version of fondue,
fonduta made firstly and foremostly
with about 300 grams of fontina cheese,
trimmed of its rind and cut into half inch cubes,
which we're then going to cover with one cup of whole milk.
Traditional recipes dictate that you cover
and fridge this for 24 hours,
but you don't really have to do that.
Something you do have to do is separate four egg yolks
from their whites and place them intact into a small bowl.
Because fonduta is basically fondue,
married with Hollandaise.
This means not only higher cholesterol,
it means slightly higher difficulty,
because this fondue must be prepared using a double boiler,
or heat heatproof bowl set over a pot of boiling water.
Into this bowl, goes a 100 grams of butter
that we're going to melt completely
before adding our milk and cheese mixture,
which we're gonna whisk constantly over very low heat,
until completely melted.
We want the flame to be just high enough
to maintain a bare simmer in the inter-solved water
that we have underneath the bowl.
Once the cheese is completely melted
into the milk and butter,
it's time to start adding our egg yolks.
Isn't that a beautiful sentence?
We're adding the egg yolks one at a time
and whisking until completely incorporated.
Once all the eggs have been added to the party,
it's time to start cooking and constantly whisking
this mixture over low flame
for an agonizing 10 to 15 minutes,
until the mixture is completely smooth,
slightly thickened, and glossy.
Don't worry if it's a little thin,
it's gonna thicken up once we take it off the heat,
which we're gonna do just before serving.
Take it off the pot of boiling water
and let it cool for about five minutes.
At which point, we're gonna pour it
into a nice warm serving bowl
and consume with chunks of toasted ciabatta.
And if you're watching your waistline, just kidding!
Some critics say, and there you have it fonduta.
The fondue that your fondue wishes it could be.
You could keep this warm in an electric fondue pot,
but don't put it in a traditional fondue pot,
because the direct heat may cause the eggs to curdle.
If you need to reheat it
just pop it back in the double boiler for a minute.
However you enjoy your fondue, there is one simple rule.
Should you make the rookie mistake
of dropping your bread, or sausage,
or whatever, in the cheese,
tradition dictates that you buy the next bottle of wine.
But that shouldn't be a problem,
thanks to today's sponsor, Bright Sellers.
A service that selects wine just for you
from all around the world
and delivers it right to your door.
The service is only for adults 21 and older.
The folks at Bright Sellers take pride
in educating their club members.
So, each box comes to the wine education card
for each bottle that outlines tasting notes,
suggested pairings, ideal serving temperature, and origin.
And if they send you a bottle that's not to your liking,
Bright Sellers will add a replacement to your next box.
Today, I am enjoying my fondue
with a Cactus Parker Chardonnay,
a full-bodied fruit-forward Chardonnay,
which as you can see on its accompanying card,
is best paired with soft ripened cheeses,
and chicken cordon bleu.
So, it'll make the perfect accompaniment
to all this rich melted cheese.
Bright Sellers is offering you 50% off
your first to six bottle box.
So, be sure to follow the link
in the video description below
to take the taste pellet quiz and get started.
(ambient instrumental music continues)