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Fondue au Comté

Name: Fondue au Comté
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1 kg Comté AOP aged at least 10 months, rind removed, diced small or grated; 750 ml Côtes du Jura white wine; 1 clove garlic, crushed; 1 pinch freshly grated nutmeg; 600 g stale country bread, in large cubes with crust on each

Comté cheese melted in Côtes du Jura white wine with garlic and nutmeg, stirred smooth and eaten with cubes of stale bread. The Comté interprofession's recipe uses 1 kg of Comté aged at least ten months and a bottle of Jura white for four.

Servings: 4
Preparation: 15 min
Cooking: 15 min
Total: 30 min
Difficulty: Easy

Equipment

Fondue pot (caquelon) and table burner
Wooden spoon
Long fondue forks

Servings4

Ingredients

1 kgComté AOP aged at least 10 months, rind removed, diced small or grated
750 mlCôtes du Jura white wineOr 600 ml Côtes du Jura blanc plus 150 ml Vin Jaune for a 'fondue royale'. Add it gradually: 2–3 glasses first, the rest only if needed.
1 clovesgarlic, crushed
1 pinchfreshly grated nutmeg
600 gstale country bread, in large cubes with crust on eachThe CIGC says 'as much as you like'; 150 g per person is our guide.

Shopping list

Method

Rub the inside of the fondue pot with the crushed garlic. Cut the Comté into small cubes or grate it, and put it in the pot.
Set the pot over a moderate heat and pour in 2–3 glasses of the wine at once. Stir constantly with the wooden spoon until the cheese has completely melted.
Why Constant stirring over moderate heat lets the cheese melt into the wine evenly. Too hot, and the proteins clump and the fat separates.
Timer · 10 min10:00
Judge the texture: if it is too thick, add more wine a little at a time. Season with nutmeg. Keep stirring until the fondue looks like a smooth, even cream.
Why The CIGC asks you to keep stirring 'to bind it': movement holds fat, water and protein together.
Light the burner on the table, set the pot on it and keep stirring. Each guest spears a cube of bread on a fork, through the soft crumb into the crust, and turns it in the fondue to coat it.

To drink & serve with

Jura
The CIGC's sommelier advises serving only Jura wine, ideally the same wine used in the pot.
Chardonnay
A Côtes du Jura or L'Étoile white from Chardonnay, or a Savagnin.

Substitutions

Côtes du Jura blanc → Another dry, crisp white with good acidity, such as a Savoie or Swiss white.
Comté of at least 10 months → A blend of a younger and an older Comté: the young one melts well, the old one gives flavour.

Common mistakes

Heating too fast or letting it boil: the cheese turns stringy and the fat separates.
Adding all the wine at once: the fondue may be too thin. Start with 2–3 glasses.
Fresh bread: it soaks up the cheese and falls off the fork. Use bread a day or two old.

Storage & reheating

Eat at once. Leftover cheese can be refrigerated and used in a gratin within 2 days.

Safety

Keep the burner low and stable and never leave it unattended. The wine's alcohol does not all evaporate: offer an alcohol-free alternative to children and to anyone avoiding alcohol. Allergens: milk, gluten (bread), sulphites (wine).

Allergens

Milk · Gluten · Sulphites

Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.

Dietary

vegetarian

The interprofession's fondue

Comté is a hard cheese with a pressed, cooked curd, made in the Jura massif and ripened for months in cellars. Its interprofession, the Comité Interprofessionnel de Gestion du Comté (CIGC), publishes a winter recipe booklet that opens with this fondue. It is a plain version: 1 kg of Comté of at least ten months' ripening for four people, a bottle of Côtes du Jura white (or part white, part Vin Jaune for a fondue royale), a clove of garlic, nutmeg and stale bread.

It contains no kirsch and no starch. The CIGC's sommelier adds one rule: serve it only with Jura wine, ideally the wine that went into the pot.

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Keeping it smooth

A cheese fondue is an emulsion of melted fat and protein in wine. The acidity of a crisp white wine helps the cheese proteins disperse instead of forming rubbery strings, and gentle, constant stirring keeps the fat suspended. The CIGC's method follows that logic: wine goes in as soon as the cheese is heating, a few glasses first, the rest only if the fondue is too thick, with stirring throughout until it looks like a smooth cream.

Aged Comté has more flavour but less moisture than a young one, so the amount of wine is given as a range. At the table the burner only needs to keep the fondue warm.

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How it connects

Place

origin Franche-Comté In preparation

Wine region

pairs with Jura

Grape variety

pairs with Chardonnay

Recipe

related Gougères