How To Clean Up After Fondue
We've really only dabbled in the winter season here in Bozeman to date; here in mid-January any snow we’ve gotten has long been melted, cross country tracks out back given way to brown grass and mud. In fact, today’s 60 degrees found me on top of nearby Drinking Horse mountain for a quick little hike up and down in less than an hour, which I’ve resisted doing, trying to mentally will winter’s arrival in full force now that we live in a place where it is welcomed and reveled in rather than merely endured.
This is not to say there haven’t been some ski days, and any ski day is a good day. Especially when followed by winter-appropriate food: rich braises, warming stews, and ooey-gooey fondue. Fondue is one of the more fun meals; one that can seem like a big deal until you're actively engaged in it, dunking food at the end of a specialized fork into a pot of melted cheese seasoned by white wine that really wasn’t all that hard to put together.
It really is simple: rub a pot with garlic, heat some wine in said pot, stir in cheese mixed with cornstarch to stabilize it and prevent oil slicks and separation. If you do it right, you'll end up with the highly coveted la religieuse, French for "the nun" and referring to the browned, delicious crust of cheese remaining at the bottom of the pot after a successful fondue session, named for its similarity in appearance to the veil of a nun’s habit and in this household prized similarly to the crispy cheese edge of one of those legendary pizzas at Pequod's in Chicago.
Yet there is always the question that arises after dinner, when the wine has been drunk* and semi-inebriated people attempt doing the dishes: how on earth do you clean the cheese that has hardened on the forks, the pot, and maybe even the portable burner you've used to make the whole thing happen? The most common instinct—to apply heat in the form of hot water—really doesn't really work; at best it makes everything oily and doesn't really remove the cheese without a whole lot of heartache.
The key is to swim against the current and soak the pot and forks in cold water—even throw some ice cubes or snow in there if you can. Let the cold fully harden the cheese, then simply pull or scrape it off. If you find you need more abrasive action, simply use a paste of baking soda and water. With luck and a bit of focus in your intoxicated state, the cheese should scrape right off, and then you can resume washing as normal and get back to the kirsch while you wait for the snow to finally start falling.
*You may have heard warnings against drinking chilled wine with fondue, for fear of it causing the cheese to re-harden in your stomach and produce stomach distress. You do you, but in an evening of crushing copious amounts of wine and cheese, I think internal temperature control might be the last thing I’d blame!