[upbeat folk music]
- So since we're celebrating everything about dairy today
and we're living in Wisconsin, what better way to celebrate
than making the star of our dish cheese.
And I don't think there's a better way
to make the star of the dish cheese than by doing fondue.
Fondue translates as a French word for melted.
And what I love about fondue
is you can be a little bit creative with it,
use whatever you can, whatever cheeses you have on hand
or whatever cheeses are your favorite,
as long as they're hard, sturdy cheeses.
And I love a farmstead cheese,
and I can't wait to be done with my creamery so that eventually,
I can be making fondue with our own cheese here on the farm.
It's very simple; we're gonna grate all of our cheese,
and then I'm gonna heat up some dry white wine,
a little bit of lemon juice,
and then I'll toss the cheese with the cornstarch,
and that's gonna help stabilize everything,
and it helps the cheese sort of melt evenly.
And one of the most important things is,
you don't wanna start with pre-shredded cheese.
That already has different things going on in it
and different solutions so that it doesn't stick together.
You wanna start with good quality cheese,
and you wanna grate it yourself.
After we've melted the cheese down a little bit,
I'm gonna finish it off with a little bit of kirsch
and some nutmeg and some fresh cracked pepper,
and then we'll be ready for lunch.
To start out, we're gonna start grating the cheese,
and I have three different cheeses here.
This is an Emmentaler, which is a Swiss-style cheese.
And, you know, fondue was invented in the Swiss Alps,
and where it was very cold in the wintertime,
and a lot of the folks that dairy farmed,
they would make cheese during the seasons,
so from spring 'til fall,
and then they had to have their cheese carry them
through the wintertime.
And so as winter got going longer and longer,
they had less and less cheese,
and they would take each individual little bits of cheese
that they had left over,
throw it in a pot with a little bit of wine
and some stale bread that they had left over,
and mix everything together and made fondue.
I love these peasant-style dishes.
They're really lovely.
[upbeat polka music]
Now that I have all this beautiful cheese grated,
I'm gonna add it to my bowl,
toss it with the corn starch to coat it,
and that's what's gonna help keep it thick
when I'm cooking it.
And then I'm gonna heat up my wine and my lemon juice,
and then I'll start melting the cheese.
And now I'm just gonna add all the cheese to a bowl,
most of it anyway, and then I'm gonna coat that
with a little over a tablespoon of cornstarch.
And get everything nice and coated, really work it.
One thing I love about fondue
is that you can find these retro fondue pots sometimes
at thrift sales or antique stores,
and I love the way they look.
I think it really adds something to the meal.
Before I put the pot on the heat,
I'm gonna crush one clove of garlic,
and then I'll use that to wipe on the inside of my fondue pot,
and that'll impart a little bit more flavor to the fondue.
Now, I'm gonna add about a half a cup of dry wine, white wine.
I suppose you could use beer if you wanted to,
but I'm gonna add some wine
and a little bit of lemon, fresh-squeezed.
And then once that heats up a little bit,
I'm gonna start adding the cheese.
Add the cheese a little bit at a time,
and constantly stir the cheese.
This is a time when you don't wanna leave the stove.
You really wanna concentrate on this cheese.
And if you're doing this for a party, which is kind of fun,
just have everybody in the kitchen
making their own pots of fondue, and it can be a celebration,
and you just have to really commit to staying at the stove,
watching the cheese so that you're not gonna overcook it.
If you overcook it, it can get really stringy,
which is not really what you want for fondue.
[upbeat polka music]
Now that the cheese is beautifully melted,
I'm gonna top this off with some freshly-grated nutmeg.
[grater rasping]
Smells so good in here, the nutmeg especially.
And then a little bit of kirsch.
Kirsch is just a clear, cherry-flavored brandy.
And this is made right here in Wisconsin up in Door County.
And now I'm gonna serve this on the table,
over some flames that it keeps the fondue nice and melted.
And I love serving this kind of thing to a group of people,
because when you're eating communally like this,
it really brings you together.
[upbeat folksy music]
Serve the fondue with cubes of bread, cornichons,
cherry tomatoes, and roasted potatoes.
They say not to drink water when eating fondue
because it will coagulate in your tummy.
So toast with a nice, cold beer.
Well, I hope this has inspired you to make fondue
for your farming friends,
and I hope you'll gather with us next time,
- In unison: Around the Farm Table!
[upbeat folk music]