Cheese fondue over an open fire – melted cheese in the pot on a cold winter's day

Cheese grated at home, hot liquid in the flask and low embers under the pot

4 servings
Time: 30 min at home + 1 hr at the fire
Difficulty: Medium
17 ingredients
11 steps

Photo: Juliano Mendes, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

It's minus eight in the shelter behind the lean-to, and the embers have just stopped flaming. Someone pours hot liquid from the flask into the pot, a handful of grated cheese at a time goes in, and after a quarter of an hour the yellow mass turns glossy and loose. Then everyone sits with their own stick, dipping bread, potatoes and sausage. Nobody needs a plate, and nobody wants to leave as long as there's cheese left.

Cheese fondue comes from the Swiss mountains and is made for exactly this kind of day, but it is also the trickiest pot to cook over an open fire. It wants low, even heat. Too hot and it splits; too cold and it sets on the bread. Here you get the proportions, a plan where most of the work is done at home, an alcohol-free version the children can eat, and the rescue for when the cheese clumps anyway.

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At home and by the fire

Most of the work is done at the kitchen counter. Outdoors, all you should have to do is melt cheese.

At home:

Grate the cheese. Grated cheese melts evenly even when it's cold. Whole pieces stay as chewy lumps at the bottom.
Shake the cheese with the cornflour in an airtight bag. The starch coats every strand and binds the fondue from the start, without having to be mixed in separately.
Boil the potatoes in their skins and put them in a preheated food flask. Cut the bread into two- to three-centimetre cubes, with crust on each piece so it stays on the stick. Cut the carrots into sticks and blanch the broccoli florets for a minute.
Heat the liquid until it steams but doesn't boil, and pour it into a preheated flask. Cold liquid and cold cheese make the fondue take much longer to come together, and at the fire that costs firewood and patience.

By the fire:

The cheese has been in the rucksack or in the pulk and is as cold as the air. That's fine, but it has to be melted a handful at a time.
Bring the garlic, the lemon and the pepper, and the bread, sausage and vegetables in separate bags. Raw vegetables and apple don't cope with freezing, so put them in the middle of your pack.

If you want to know more about carrying food hot in a flask and what's worth cooking at home, read cooking outdoors in winter.

Tips for the right heat in the cold

The fondue should be warm enough to flow but not so hot that it bubbles, around 65 degrees. There's no thermometer outdoors, so read the surface instead:

If the cheese pulls long, stringy threads and forms a skin on the surface, it's too cold. Lower the pot or rake a few more embers underneath.
If it bubbles and fat collects on the surface, it's too hot. Lift the pot immediately and stir.
The wind steals the heat. A cold wind across the pot cools the surface faster than the embers can heat the bottom. Sit out of the wind, ideally in a lean-to, and put the lid on between dips.
A water bath towards the end. Set the fondue pot inside a larger pot of hot water at the edge of the embers. That way the fondue won't burn onto the bottom. Let the water steam but not boil, or the fondue will get too hot anyway. The same trick is used for chocolate fondue over an open fire.

Why the cheese splits – and how to rescue it

Cheese is protein, fat and water held together. When it is heated too hard, the protein contracts into lumps and the fat floats to the top. The acid in the wine binds the calcium in the cheese so the protein doesn't clump, and the starch holds the fat and liquid together. That's why the wine should be crisp and acidic, and why the alcohol-free version needs lemon. Apple juice and stock aren't as acidic as wine.

If the fondue looks grainy, or there's a film of oil over a lump:

Lift the pot off the embers.
Mix 1 tsp cornflour into a splash of lemon juice or liquid.
Stir it in and put the pot back over low heat. Stir vigorously until the fondue comes up to a simmer and turns smooth again.
If that doesn't help, repeat with a little more mixed cornflour.

Safety at the pot

Melted cheese sticks to the skin and keeps burning, rather like hot fat. Let the children blow on it, slide the piece off onto a plate or a piece of bread and wait a moment before they eat. Metal sticks that have been in the embers get hot all the way up.

If someone burns themselves: cool the burn with cool water straight away, for no more than 15 minutes, and never with snow or ice. It does more harm than good, and in the cold the person being cooled also gets chilled quickly. That's why the water bottle should be in the middle of your pack so it doesn't freeze. More about hypothermia in hypothermia and frostbite, and about safe fires in fire safety in nature.

Alcohol: a fondue never boils properly, so much of the alcohol in the wine remains. Livsmedelsverket (the Swedish Food Agency) says pregnant women can eat dishes with wine if they have boiled for at least 30 minutes or reduced to less than half. Fondue does neither, so anyone who is pregnant should eat the alcohol-free version. For the same reason, it's wise to let the children eat the alcohol-free one. If the children are eating, make the whole pot alcohol-free – with lemon and stock the difference is small.

Pregnant? According to Livsmedelsverket, hard cheeses that can be sliced with a cheese slicer, such as Gruyère and Emmental, are fine to eat, even if they are made from unpasteurised milk. Pregnant women should avoid washed-rind and blue cheeses unless they have been heated until piping hot, to at least 70 degrees. A fondue is kept cooler than that, so don't mix in cheeses like those.

Leftovers: let the pot cool outdoors with the lid on. Livsmedelsverket says food can be cooled outdoors when it's a few degrees above freezing or colder. Then put it in the fridge at home and reheat it with a splash of liquid to make a cheese sauce for pasta.

Allergens: milk, gluten in the bread and sulphites in the wine. Pickled gherkins and sausages may contain mustard. Aged hard cheeses contain almost no lactose. Cornflour is gluten-free, so with potatoes, sausage and vegetables instead of bread the fondue is gluten-free – check the sausages.

Fire bans and rules on where you're allowed to light a fire are in lighting fires outdoors – rules and responsibilities.

Cheese fondue with children

Fondue is a dish where children eat by hand from the stick and decide for themselves what to dip. That makes it good for children who are otherwise fussy eaters. Let them:

tear bread into pieces and thread them onto sticks
heat the sausage on their own stick over the embers
stir a figure of eight in the pot with a long wooden spoon and a barbecue glove, while an adult holds the pot
come up with the forfeit for anyone who drops their bread in the pot – in Switzerland you have to sing a song or treat everyone to something

Seat the children so they don't have to lean over the embers, and feed them before they get cold and hungry. There's more about keeping children warm in how cold is too cold on the slopes, and about what children can do at the fire in cooking with children over a fire.

Common mistakes

Flames under the pot instead of embers – the cheese burns onto the pot and splits.
Whole pieces of cheese instead of grated – they melt unevenly in the cold.
All the cheese at once – the cold cheese sinks to the bottom in a lump.
Sweet apple drink without lemon – the fondue turns sweet and splits more easily.
Letting the pot boil to speed things up.
No stirring between dips – a thick crust burns onto the bottom.
Too little bread – allow roughly as much bread and dipping pieces as cheese.

Fondue variations

Beer fondue: swap the wine for 3 dl lager and an extra tablespoon of lemon juice. Alcohol-free beer works too.
With mushrooms: fry a handful of button mushrooms in butter in the pot before the liquid goes in.
Smoky: swap a third of the cheese for smoked cheese and dip sausage and potatoes.
Swedish: mix Gruyère with a full-flavoured aged Swedish hard cheese.
Milder for children: leave out the nutmeg and use more Emmental, which is milder than Gruyère.

Melted cheese on potatoes without a pot? Try raclette over an open fire, where the cheese is melted by the fire and scraped onto the potatoes. Craving something sweet afterwards? Chocolate fondue on the same embers sorts that out.

Frequently asked questions

Can you make cheese fondue without wine?

Yes. Swap the wine for half unsweetened apple juice and half vegetable stock, and add two tablespoons of lemon juice. The acid is needed for the fondue to turn creamy and not split. Alcohol-free wine and alcohol-free beer work too.

Why does cheese fondue split?

Usually because it has got too hot. The protein in the cheese contracts and the fat floats to the top. Too little acid or starch makes it worse. Lift the pot, stir in a teaspoon of cornflour mixed with lemon juice and stir vigorously over low heat until smooth.

Which cheese is best for cheese fondue?

Aged hard cheeses that melt well, such as Gruyère and Emmental. In Switzerland there are many blends, often Gruyère with a creamier, milder cheese. An aged Swedish hard cheese adds more flavour, but don't use it on its own – some aged cheeses turn grainy when melted.

How much cheese do you need per person?

Allow 200 grams of cheese per person for a full meal, and roughly as much bread, potatoes and other things to dip. If the fondue is a snack on a ski trip, or there's dessert afterwards, about 150 grams is enough.

Can you bring the fondue ready-made in a flask?

It works for a short trip, but it thickens and can split when it sits for a long time. It's better to bring the grated cheese and the liquid in the flask and melt the fondue on the spot. It only takes a quarter of an hour once the embers are ready.

Can pregnant women eat cheese fondue?

Yes, with the alcohol-free liquid and hard cheeses such as Gruyère and Emmental. According to Livsmedelsverket, hard cheese that can be sliced is safe even when made from unpasteurised milk. Avoid washed-rind and blue cheese in the fondue, because it never gets piping hot. The wine doesn't cook off in a fondue, so choose the alcohol-free version.