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Cheese Fondue
One cup of bread crumbs Two cups of grated cheese (old). Three eggs One-half cup of milk. One cup of bread crumbs Three eggs Two cups of grated cheese (old) One-half cup of milk One-fourth teaspoon of Larkin Soda One tablespoon of butter One-half teaspoon of Larkin Table Salt Soak the bread crumbs in the milk. Add eggs, cheese and d butter; lastly, soda dissolved in hot water. Pour into a -dish and bake twenty minutes.
An American baked cheese fondue: a crumb-bound cheese pudding rather than anything you dip bread into. It is quick, and it depends almost entirely on the cheese.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. Bake at 350F; twenty minutes suits a shallow buttered dish about 7-8 inches across, where the mixture sits an inch deep. In a deep dish it will need longer and the edges will toughen before the middle sets.
- "Old" cheeseThis means a well-aged, sharp cheddar-type cheese, grated fine. A mild block cheese gives a bland, watery result; aged cheddar or a dry Lancashire-style cheese carries the dish.
- The sodaA quarter teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in hot water goes in last. Soda raises the pH, which helps cheese proteins melt smooth rather than tightening into strings and weeping fat; it may also have been intended to lighten the mixture. Do not increase it -- more soda gives a soapy taste.
- Larkin brand namesLarkin Soda is ordinary bicarbonate of soda and Larkin Table Salt is ordinary fine salt; these were the company's own grocery lines. Substitute like for like.
- Bread crumbsSoft fresh crumbs from a day-old loaf, not dry packaged crumbs, which will drink the half cup of milk and leave the mixture stiff. If using dried crumbs, allow a little more milk and let them soak ten minutes.
- The eggsThe instruction is to add them whole, which gives a firm custard-like set. Some period recipes instead separate the eggs and fold in the beaten whites at the end for a souffle-like lift; either works, but the whipped-white version must go to the table at once.
- Salt and seasoningWith a modern salty cheddar, taste before adding all of it. A little dry mustard or cayenne is period-appropriate and sharpens the flavour.
- Yield and servingProbably about four as a light supper or luncheon dish with a green salad. It stiffens as it cools, so serve straight from the oven.
Before "fondue" meant a communal pot of melted cheese and wine, English and American cookbooks used the word for a baked dish of cheese, eggs, crumbs and milk -- from the French fondre, "to melt." Brillat-Savarin's much-quoted fondue of the 1820s was likewise eggs beaten with cheese, and the crumb-thickened baked version became a familiar American chafing-dish and supper item in the second half of the nineteenth century, useful as a meatless dish and in hot weather. The branded ingredients here point to the recipe's origin: the Larkin Company of Buffalo, a soap manufacturer turned mail-order house, distributed cookbooks whose recipes called for Larkin soda, salt, extracts and baking powder, so that a household working through the collection kept reordering from the catalogue.