Dining at fondue restaurants such as The Melting Pot is always delicious, but it doesn’t ever fit into our budget.  It’s actually one of the easiest meals to make at home, plus you don’t have to keep waiting on your waiter to bring you more of your favorite dipping foods!

Fondue Need to Know:

For each course you will want to have a separate pot on hand for cheese, broth/oil and chocolate. That way you won’t have to waste time washing your fondue pot in between each course!

There are two common ways to cook fondue cheese or chocolate at home, either with a fondue kit (this one is electric) or using a stove top double broiler. You never want to heat up fondue cheese or chocolate in a pot directly on top of the stove. This usually results in burned and over cooked dipping sauce which can be extremely disappointing.

Savings Tip: Check your local thrift stores for super cheap Fondue pots!

For the main course, using broth or oil, you may use direct heat from the stove but be careful to keep it at a low simmer. You do not want to overcook your meat, making it tough and dry.

Cheese Fondue Ingredients

You will want a significant amount of your base cheese (several cups), adding only small amounts (teaspoons) of liquid ingredients. You can stir, test and add until the recipe is suited to your personal taste! Try mixing in a small amount of suggested seasoning for a little boosted flavor!

1. Swiss Cheese, Dry White Wine and Brandy

2. Emmental and Gruyere Cheese, Dry White Wine and Kirsch

3. Cheddar – Mild or Sharp, Cream and Worcestershire Sauce

To add a little flavor to these recipes use a combination of: Nutmeg, Lemon Juice, Garlic and other spices!

Great Things For Dipping: small cubes of bread, carrots, broccoli and apples.

Oil or Broth

1. Oil: Peanut or Canola Oil

2. Broth: Vegetable Stock, Vegetable Both

Great Things For Dipping: Small chunks of chicken, beef or shrimp work best! 1-2 inch chicken and steak pieces take 2-3 minutes to cook. Shrimp only take about 1 minute!

Be sure that you oil or broth is hot enough to cook the meat of your choice thoroughly. This means that it should be slightly boiling. Always be careful when handling raw meat! Be sure your meat, especially chicken, is well cooked before you eat it!

Chocolate Fondue Ingredients

2-4 oz Dark, Milk or White Chocolate – In chip or small disk form

2 oz Sundae Caramel Sauce

For extra flavor add a little extract (a couple drops); such as almond, orange or vanilla.  Also try adding in 1 oz chopped pecans.

Great Things For Dipping: Some of my favorites are small cubes of pound cake, marshmallows and pretzels. Don’t forget the fresh cut fruit! Apples, bananas, pineapple and strawberries… yumm!

For a mix of savory and sweet, fry up some bacon to dip in your dark or milk chocolate!