Cheese Fondue - ingredients

Method

• Peel and crush the garlic, rub it round the caquelon. Dissolve the cornstarch in the kirsch. Pour the wine into the caquelon and bring it to a boil, turn down temp and add the grated cheese gradually, and melt together carefully on a very low heat on the kitchen cooker, stirring continuously with a wooden spatula. Add the kirsch and the pepper.
• Transfer to the serving stand, whose burner should be kept at a steady temperature. To eat the fondue spear the cubes of bread on forks (preferably specially designed long fondue forks), and dip them in the cheese, stirring all the time to prevent the mixture from sticking on the bottom of the pan.
• If you are eating your fondue in the company of Swiss people, be extra careful not to let your bread drop off your fork, or you may have to pay a forfeit. There's no knowing what this might be. In keeping with their democratic tradition the other eaters will get together and determine the punishment jointly. One possible forfeit if you were in a ski hut could be that you'd be made to run round the hut barefoot in the snow...