Fondue without Gruyere cheese

Question

Can you give me some good tips how to prepare Fondue without Gruyere/Raclete cheese? What are possible substitutes, and what should I pay attention to when substituting?

Answer 1

It's not a true Fondue but I've done something very similar by taking a white sauce base made with 50 / 50 wine and milk. You then melt in lots and lots of cheese and you get something very nice and similar to a fondue. You can pretty much use any reasonably melting cheese you like although a strong cheddar is very nice. For something really interesting add some Mozzerella and slowly melt it down and you get a wonderful stringy finish.

Answer 2

Vacherin, Comté or Emmental,

I wouldn't go for Gouda, it's not cheese from the fondue regions. But it's maybe worth an experiment ;)

Don't forget you can mix cheeses, 1/2 Gruyere and 1/2 Emmental for example,

Answer 3

In New Zealand we made fondue moitié-moitié with mild white Cheddar and Gouda. Very creamy. I think you can make fondue with almost any meltable pure and good cheese, if the original ingredients are unobtainable. More important is the dry wine, a little starch, garlic and pepper. A shot of a good hard liquor also adds flavor. Kirsch (cherry schnapps) is best, but good whisky or cognac also works.

If the wine is not dry enough, give a spoon of lemon juice or even vinegar (!). The acid helps the blending. If the cheese separates, dissolve a tea-spoon starch in the liquor and reheat carefully stirring continuously.

Gouda and Cheddar also work for Raclette.

NB: we are Swiss and not dogmatic at all! :-)

Answer 4

Try fontina and truffles for an Italian Alpine fondue.

Answer 5

Two more tips for good fondue's I've made without gruyere:

1. Spicy fondue with ginger
2. Blue cheese fondue (generally made a but softer with mascarpone) & white wine. Excellent for dipping dark brown bread and grapes.

Answer 6

You can also take the standard Swiss fondue recipe moitié-moitié and use all Emmental instead of 1/2 Gruyere and 1/2 Emmental. This came in handy when looking for a way to make fondue for a person who needs to avoid all dairy products from cow and goat milk. In Switzerland, I was lucky enough to find sheep Emmental. I'm not Swiss but I was happy with the result :)

Answer 7

2/3 Brick, 1/3 Emmental. Add a pinch of fresh parmesan for more taste.

Answer 8

Technically, you’ll want to use a mixture of medium-hard cheese (such as Emmentaler, aka Swiss, or Raclette) for creaminess, and savory hard cheese (such as Gruyère, Appenzeller or Fontina) for the flavor. The traditional recipes have a ratio anywhere from 1:1 to 2:1 and slightly beyond, in either direction.

That said, I have also made fondue with 100% Gruyère and did not find lack of creaminess to be an issue in practice. It should work the same with most types of cheese sold as Bergkäse in the Alps, without being too far from the original. (The immediate neighbors of Switzerland all use their local cheeses for fondue, such as Fontina in Valle d’Aosta or Beaufort in Savoie.) The last time I made fondue, I used a mix of Appenzeller and Emmentaler, which also worked well.

Fun fact: for the creamy medium-hard cheese, one recipe from swissmilk.ch suggests using Tilsiter. This type of cheese was created in then-German East Prussia in the early 18th century, based on recipes from the Netherlands, western Austria and Switzerland. The recipe was later (re)imported to Switzerland, where Tilsiter has been produced since 1890. Which makes me wonder – if I were to use Lithuanian-made Tilsiter (Tilsit/Tilžė being just across the river Nemunas from Panemunė, Lithuania), would that be a sacrilege or more-than-authentic?

Eventually, it is all down to where you are in the world, what you can get your hands on, which of these are typical (or the local equivalent to what’s typical) and which have the right properties for fondue.