Cheese fondue is very delicious but I felt like it was a dish I could only have once in a blue moon. While the bread and cheese combination was perfect, it felt a little heavy in my stomach since my body was not used to consuming so much bread and cheese at once.
Cheese fondue is made with cheese; wine or non-alcoholic acidic liquid such as lemon juice to help break down the cheese and a thickener such as flour or cornstarch. You must first shred and melt the cheese in a pot on the stove before transferring it to the final fondue pot. Dissolve the thickener into the wine or lemon juice. Next, you must slowly add the shredded cheese into the solution of thickener and wine/lemon juice to slowly melt it. Before transferring the melted cheese into the fondue pot, you rub the inside of the stove pot with a garlic clove for extra flavor. And finally, you pour the melted cheese from the stove pot into the fondue pot.
Fondue is often served with bread, specifically French baguette. It is consumed with either wine or hot tea. Some people say that you should not have water as your beverage when eating fondue. Why? Because water can cause the cheese to harden into balls in one's stomach, which can create an upset stomach later on.
With cheese fondue, it is very traditional in the winter time to have amongst friends and families as a social gathering. Because part of the cheese fondue experience is eating the melted hot cheese, it is a perfect meal for the winter time when the temperatures drop. While most Swiss families have it once or twice a year, some consume it on a weekly basis as well.
