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Cheese Fondue (Cups hot milk cups of soft)
1 1/3 cups hot milk 1 1/3 cups of soft, stale bread crumbs 1 tablespoon butter 1/3 pound of cheese 1 1/3 cups grated cheese or 1 cup cheese cut in small pieces 1/2 teaspoon salt In making these fondues, rice or other cereals may be substituted for bread crumbs. One-fourth cup of rice measured before cooking, or one cup of cooked rice or other cereals, should be used.
An advantage of omitting butter from cheese dishes and of substituting water or skimmed milk for whole milk is that it makes it possible to increase the amount of cheese without making the dish too rich. This is of advantage to those who like the flavor of cheese, and, also, because it tends to increase the tissue-forming value of the dish, particularly if skimmed milk is used rather than water.
This is an American baked cheese fondue — closer to a savory bread pudding or crustless soufflé than to the Swiss pot of melted cheese and wine. The printed ingredient list is compressed and partly redundant, so read it before you shop.
- The cheese line is doubled, not additiveThe cheese line looks doubled rather than additive -- "1/3 pound of cheese" and "1 1/3 cups grated cheese or 1 cup cheese cut in small pieces" are most likely two ways of stating the same amount. Use about 5 to 6 oz of cheese total rather than both quantities.
- Soft crumbs, not drySoft stale crumbs come from a day-old loaf torn or rubbed into crumbs while still pliable. Dry packaged breadcrumbs pack far heavier per cup and will give a dense, pasty result; if that is all you have, use about half the volume.
- The eggs are missingFondues of this type in period books are usually bound with two or three beaten eggs. As printed here the mixture has no binder at all and will bake into a loose cheese-and-bread mush rather than a puffed fondue.
- Keep the heat gentleThe hinge of any cheese dish is temperature. Cheese held above a bare simmer, or baked hard and fast, separates into oil and rubbery threads. Pour the hot milk over the crumbs first and let them soften before the cheese goes in.
- Choose a melting cheeseAn unqualified "cheese" in an American kitchen of this period generally means firm factory cheddar. A medium cheddar or a Colby works; aged, crumbly cheeses and pre-shredded cheese with anti-caking starch both break badly.
- The rice variationOne quarter cup raw rice, cooked, or one cup already-cooked rice replaces the crumbs. Cooked rice absorbs less milk than bread, so the mixture will look wetter going into the dish.
- YieldAbout three servings as a main dish, four as a side. Serve straight from the baking dish; it stiffens as it cools.
Books titled for meatless cookery multiplied in the United States during the era of household food conservation campaigns, which urged families to spare meat for the army and for export, and cheese was often among the substitutes proposed. "Tissue-forming value" is period shorthand for protein, and the author advises dropping the butter and using skimmed milk so as to pack in more cheese, giving richness and cheese flavour as the reasons. The word fondue simply comes from the French fondre, to melt, and in American cookbooks of this era it had drifted a long way from Switzerland to mean any baked dish of cheese, milk and a starch, bound with egg and served in place of a meat course.