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Cheese Fondue (Ounces of butter ounces)
2 ounces of butter 3 ounces of cheese 4 whites of eggs Salt and pepper Whip the eggs slightly, stir in the butter in small pieces, and add the cheese and seasoning; pour into a greased dish, bake in a quick oven to set, and serve immediately.
A very small baked cheese dish built on egg whites alone, of the kind Victorian and Edwardian books called a fondue. It has no flour, no milk and no yolks, so it lives or dies by the oven and by getting it to the table fast.
- Quick ovenRead this as roughly 400-450F. The dish is meant to set in something like 10-15 minutes in a shallow buttered dish or two ramekins; longer and the whites turn dry and squeaky.
- Weights, not cups2 ounces of butter is 4 tablespoons; 3 ounces of cheese is about 3/4 cup grated. Weigh the cheese if you can, since grated volume varies wildly with the grater.
- Soften the butterCold butter "in small pieces" will not disperse into slack egg whites. Have it at room temperature and soft enough to smear, or the finished dish bakes with buttery pockets.
- Whip slightlyThe instruction is deliberate. Beat only until loose and frothy, not to peaks; this is not a souffle and stiff whites will collapse coarsely without a yolk or starch base to hold them.
- Choice of cheeseUse a dry, firm cheese with flavour to spare, since 3 ounces is carrying the whole dish: aged Cheddar, Gruyere, or Parmesan mixed with a milder grating cheese. Fresh mozzarella or anything wet will weep.
- Serve immediately means itWith no flour or sauce for structure, whatever lift the dish has drops soon after it leaves the oven. Bake it when the eaters are already seated.
- YieldProbably enough for two as a light supper dish or four as a savoury course. Doubling works, but bake in two shallow dishes rather than one deep one so the centre sets before the edges toughen.
English and American cookbooks used fondue for a century or more to mean a baked cheese-and-egg pudding rather than the Swiss pot of melted cheese and wine now attached to the word; Brillat-Savarin's own famous fondue was likewise eggs beaten with cheese and butter. Yolks were constantly being used up in custards, mayonnaise and pastry glazes, and household books of the period do offer ways of accounting for the leftover whites. Meatless Cookery titles of the early twentieth century appeared against wartime campaigns to conserve meat, and a dish delivering protein from cheese and egg whites, with no meat stock and no waste, fits that setting.