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A Quintet of Cuisines

Time-Life Foods of the World

Michael and Frances Field

1970

It’s amazing I haven’t made fondue earlier.  I mean, seriously, what dish could possibly be more retro than fondue?  I even have a fabulous vintage fondue pot that I bought on ebay, along with vintage teak fondue forks (also ebay).  Plus I love it and it reminds me of my childhood. Although the Gourmet  books had a few fondue recipes, as did James Beard, I thought I would go to “the source”: Time Life Foods of the World. A Quintet of Cuisines must have been the last in the series for two reasons: most of the others are dated 1968 and I think the lumping together of five regions signals that they had pretty much wrapped it up.  The big countries/regions were covered (America, France, Russia, Italy, Spain, Japan, China, Scandinavia, South America, the Caribbean…) and this was a nod to some less well-known areas that, in their minds, didn’t merit an entire book of their own.  The “quintet” is made up of Switzerland, The Low Countries, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, and North Africa.  Of course if you went into Barnes & Noble today all of those areas merit much more than one cookbook each.

I’ve made fondues before, but the recipe for this one had methods that were unfamiliar to me.  Instead of rubbing the pot with garlic you boil two cups of dry white wine with 1 garlic clove for two minutes and then remove it. One half pound of Gruyère is combined with 1/2lb of Emmentaler and tossed with one Tbl cornstarch.  I’ve never added cornstarch before but it’s a great idea - the cheese clumps less and doesn’t separate from the liquid.  After the cheese is added handful by handful the fondue is flavored with two Tbl kirsch, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  It was delicious.  My favorite trick with fondue is to vary the breads.  This time I used olive bread and raisin/pecan bread along with a baguette, cherry tomatoes and cornichons.  I think the ratio of liquid to cheese also made it lighter which I appreciated, particularly the next day!

A big vat of melted cheese doesn’t make for the best photo so here’s one from the book of some random Swiss kid:

Here’s my awesome fondue pot with forks:

And, for no reason whatsoever, here’s some Dutch dude with sausages around his neck:

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