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EveryCheese

Melted and fondue

Swiss cheese fondue

Alpine cheese melted with white wine in a shared pot, eaten by dipping cubes of bread on long forks.

Fondue is a pot of hard Alpine cheese melted with dry white wine and garlic, kept warm over a small flame at the centre of the table. Everyone dips cubes of bread on long forks. It is a Swiss national dish, and the French Alpine regions of Savoy and the Jura make their own versions.

What goes in

Gruyère: 24%24%Vacherin Fribourgeois: 24%24%Dry white wine: 14%14%Bread cubes: 29%29%Garlic: 5%Kirsch and starch: 5%6parts
  • Gruyère524%, Firm, nutty backbone.
  • Vacherin Fribourgeois524%, Soft melt and creaminess.
  • Dry white wine314%, Acid keeps the cheese smooth.
  • Bread cubes629%, Day-old, with crust on each piece.
  • Garlic15%, Rubbed around the pot.
  • Kirsch and starch15%, Binds and lifts the flavour.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Grate Grate or finely slice the cheeses.
  2. Step 2: Layer Rub the inside of a heavy earthenware pot, the caquelon, with a cut clove of garlic.
  3. Step 3: Simmer Warm the wine in the pot without letting it boil.
  4. Step 4: Melt Add the cheese by handfuls, stirring in a figure of eight until it melts smoothly.
  5. Step 5: Melt Stir in starch slaked in kirsch so the mixture thickens and holds together.
  6. Step 6: Serve Set the pot over a gentle burner and dip bread on long forks, stirring as you go.
  7. Gruyère: 24%24%Vacherin Fribourgeois: 24%24%Dry white wine: 14%14%Bread cubes: 29%29%Garlic: 5%Kirsch and starch: 5%
    Finished Swiss cheese fondue, by share.

Where it comes from

A recipe for cheese cooked with wine appears in a Zurich book of 1699, and similar dishes were known in the western Alps before that. Fondue as a single national dish owes much to the Swiss Cheese Union, which promoted it heavily from the 1930s to sell more cheese. By the 1950s and 1960s it had become a winter habit across Switzerland and a fashion abroad.

The cheese

The best known mix is moitié-moitié, half and half, from Fribourg: Gruyère and Vacherin Fribourgeois. Geneva and Vaud lean on Gruyère alone or add Emmental, and Savoy uses Beaufort, Comté or Emmental. A little starch keeps the cheese and wine from separating, and a dash of kirsch is common. The crisp crust left at the bottom of the pot is called la religieuse and is shared out at the end.

Where it is used

Winter supperSki chalet dinnerShared table

The cheeses in it

GruyèreHalf of the classic Fribourg moitié-moitié.Vacherin FribourgeoisThe softer half of moitié-moitié.EmmentalAdded in many Swiss and Savoyard versions.BeaufortCommon in fondue savoyarde.

More on EveryCheese

🇨🇭 Switzerland and 5 moreEmmentalEmmentaler A yellow, medium-hard Swiss cheese with natural holes, aged for several months.Cow · Semi-hard · Savoury and brothy

Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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Every Monday: seven cheeses you may not know, the cheese days of the week ahead, and one dish explained step by step.