20 Days of Chill - What can I cook for you?

Welcome back to 20 Days of Chill and happy Friday - What can I cook for you?

In Monday's post I hinted there was going to be a Cheese Fondue for you today, and I have been known to be a person who keeps their word.

Like any other culinary specialty, Fondue hasn't been around forever. 

According to stories, monks who were not allowed to eat solid food during Lent, came up with the clever idea of simply melting the cheese, so that hunger was still satisfied, but the fasting rule was not violated.

A more pragmatic explanation is that peasants from the French part of Switzerland invented it as a way to be using up hard cheese and dried bread. 

But what exactly is it today?

Fondue is a melted cheese dish diluted with white wine, served in a communal pot ("caquelon") over a portable stove ("réchaud") heated with a candle or spirit lamp, and eaten by dipping bread cubes into the cheese, using long-stemmed forks.

The most popular cheese blend consists in Fribourg Vacherin and Gruyère. Since it's equal parts, "half/half", this particular Fondue variety is lovingly called moitié/moitié.

As a loyal reader you'll remember... we talked about the village of Gruyères in detail earlier this week.

As a super attentive reader you've noticed that the spelling of Gruyère(s) differs, depending on whether I talk about the location (Gruyères) or the cheese (Gruyère). 

This is the traditional way to eat Fondue. 

Over time, many varieties have been developed. Some people like to dip small potatoes into the cheese instead of bread. Or they do both!

Other ingredients suitable for skewering are mushrooms, mixed pickles, apples, pears, precooked carrot sticks, broccoli and cauliflower florets or "Landjäger" (a popular air-cured sausage).

Now here's a word of advice: be very careful with whatever it is you stick on your fork: 

Make sure it's skewered securely, otherwise you're in trouble. The person who loses their bread in the cheese, will have to do one of the following:

• Pay for everybody's beverages 
• Do the dishes 
• Empty a shot of Kirsch in one gulp
• Kiss the person to your left
• Sing a song
• Tell a joke
• Run around in the snow naked

You have been warned ;-)

In Roman times, at least that's how the authors of Asterix and Obelix claim, they even threw the sinner into the lake with weights tied to their feet. Cruel.

Back to 2022.

What if you're lactose intolerant? 

Just choose a cheese blend of well aged cheeses. Hard cheeses (such as Emmentaler and Gruyère) and extra-hard cheeses (Sbrinz or Grana Padano) qualify as lactose-free, because a large proportion of the lactose is separated with the whey during cheese production. The remaining lactose is almost entirely broken down by lactic acid bacteria during the maturation process. 

Here's an interesting article if you're interested in the chemistry of cheese-making. It also talks about the lactose content of human (breast) milk vs cow, sheep and goat milk. Here's a hint: chimpanzee milk has way more lactose than cow milk, and reindeer is on the lower end. If you're ever on Jeopardy, you'll be thanking me for throwing in this seemingly random fact ;-)

Speaking of fun facts. I know you've been wondering...

How do the holes get into the Emmentaler (or what you may call "Swiss"?)

Of course there are many explanations, not all of them are entirely true, though. 

• The cheesemaker drills into the cheese wheel at various points to check whether it is already ripe. Nope. However, it is true that sensory controls occasionally leave traces, because "drillings" are pulled from the loaves to check for consistency and flavor.
• Mice are known cheese lovers. During the cheesemaking process, they hide in the cheese dough. They start to nibble quite innocently in the cheese wheel. Because it's so yummy, they can't help themselves, and they keep eating their way through the entire cheese. Hahahaha, fortunately this one is not true either. Apparently, quite contrary to Tom and Jerry and other depictions, mice are actually not that fond of cheese, Remember that they prefer sweeter foods if you ever try to trap a mouse.
• Carbonic acid gas, which is caused by the degradation of the milk sugar (lactose) by the respective lactic acid bacteria, creates bubbles. The gas bubbles can not escape and therefore form holes in the cheese dough. 

Now you know!

What do you think, would you give a Swiss cheese Fondue a try? Or maybe you already had an opportunity? Did you like it? 

Let me know below. And be sure to come back on Monday. In the meantime, check out my fellow bloggers' posts.