Matt's Kitchen In D.C.: Fondue Thru The Ages

Cheese fondue is viewed as somewhat of a culinary relic, a dish that was intensely popular in its heydey in the 1960s and 70s and, although no less delicious, is far from the cutting edge of cuisine today. But cheese fondue was around long before the 1960s -and, interestingly, has taken on several forms distinct from the fondue we are familiar with today.

According to historians, cheese fondue originates in the provinces in what is now Switzerland, sometime in the 1600s. There, villages would become snowed in and the population would become cut off from supplies of fresh food, and forced to rely on their supplies of bread and cheese. Inevitably, the cheese would become hard, and the bread stale. The villagers quickly learned that their bread and cheese became far more palatable when the cheese was melted, and the bread dipped into it. Thus, according to historians, fondue was born. Insofar as this story is true, the fondue recipe described is not dissimilar to the contemporary fondue recipes that have been popular in the U.S. for nearly half a century (absent a few of the refinements, of course).

Interestingly enough, fondue appears to have taken a somewhat different form prior to the 20th century. Many sources credit French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin with introducing fondue to the United States. Brillat-Savarin, an epicurean and reknowned cheese aficianado, fled the French Revolution in the late 1780s and spent several years in the United States. His recipe for cheese fondue has been preserved in Isabella Beeton's "The Book Of Household Management" (1861), and is reproduced below, along with an alternative recipe from Mrs. Beeton:

BRILLAT SAVARIN'S FONDUE

(An excellent Recipe.)

1644. INGREDIENTS.—Eggs, cheese, butter, pepper and salt.

Mode.—Take the same number of eggs as there are guests; weigh the eggs in the shell, allow a third of their weight in Gruyère cheese, and a piece of butter one-sixth of the weight of the cheese. Break the eggs into a basin, beat them well; add the cheese, which should be grated, and the butter, which should be broken into small pieces. Stir these ingredients together with a wooden spoon; put the mixture into a lined saucepan, place it over the fire, and stir until the substance is thick and soft. Put in a little salt, according to the age of the cheese, and a good sprinkling of pepper, and serve the fondue on a very hot silver or metal plate. Do not allow the fondue to remain on the fire after the mixture is set, as, if it boils, it will be entirely spoiled. Brillat Savarin recommends that some choice Burgundy should he handed round with this dish. We have given this recipe exactly as he recommends it to be made; but we have tried it with good Cheshire cheese, and found it answer remarkably well.

Here is the alternate recipe:

TO MAKE A FONDUE.

1643. INGREDIENTS.—4 eggs, the weight of 2 in Parmesan or good Cheshire cheese, the weight of 2 in butter; pepper and salt to taste.

Mode.—Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs; beat the former in a basin, and grate the cheese, or cut it into very thin flakes. Parmesan or Cheshire cheese may be used, whichever is the most convenient, although the former is considered more suitable for this dish; or an equal quantity of each may be used. Break the butter into small pieces, add it to the other ingredients, with sufficient pepper and salt to season nicely, and beat the mixture thoroughly. Well whisk the whites of the eggs, stir them lightly in, and either bake the fondue in a soufflé-dish or small round cake-tin. Fill the dish only half full, as the fondue should rise very much. Pin a napkin round the tin or dish, and serve very hot and very quickly. If allowed to stand after it is withdrawn from the oven, the beauty and lightness of this preparation will be entirely spoiled.

As the astute reader will observe, these recipes will create essentially a cheese souffle, rather than the heated melted cheese mixture that is familiar in this country. It appears that, at some point during Swiss fondue's integration into French cuisine, it became modified to resemble a souffle - and became popular as this type of recipe, under the name "fondue," around the mid-1800s. Of course, the missing link in the chain is how fondue "returned to its roots" in the recipes that have been popular in the U.S. since the 1950s. In 1927, Madame Saint-Agne published her French cookbook "Le Bonne Cuisine," which contains a "modern" cheese fondue recipe. Some historians have claimed that this is where fondue, as we know it it today, truly originates. It is somewhat of a mystery as to why fondue took on a different form during the 19th century, and for what reasons Madame Saint-Agne chose to return fondue to its roots, rather than proceed with the Brillat-Savarin version. The missing piece of fondue's history, of course, is how and why the French modified the recipe the way they did - and why Madame Saint-Agne rejected this approach and resurrected the Swiss approach to fondue. It is possible the answers lie either in the writings of Brillat-Savarin, or in Madam Saint-Agnes' cookbook, neither of which I have read.

In a future post, I may attempt one of the recipes in Mrs. Beeton's cookbook, for the purpose of comparing the difference between the French fondue recipe and the contemporary version.

(Image courtesy of EquatorialSky)

Matt's Kitchen In D.C.: Fondue Thru The Ages