I made fondue for my wife’s birthday party last night, and it was the first time I’d made it in years.  And to be honest, the second time I’d ever used my Cuisinart fondue set.

It was a three cheese fondue recipe I’d found on the Freixenet web site; given that we had a bottle in the house, I figured I’d break out with that and make something interesting.  The downside is that despite following the directions to the letter, the fondue tasted great and was still not at the consistency I wanted.

When I think of fondue, I think of a perfectly creamy and thick cheese sauce.  A sauce that will coat a piece of bread and not be so liquid that it drips onto the tablecloth as you get it into your face.  What I had was a two-tiered pot of cheesy sparkling wine, and ultra-thick cheese with shallots.

Now what’s interesting is that where the recipe linked above says to bring the fondue to a boil near the end of the process, the Cuisinart fondue set manual says to NEVER let it boil.  When the fondue initially broke as I was preparing it in a separate sauce pan, I used an immersion blender to get it back together.  It still wasn’t the viscosity I was looking for, but it was salvageable to some extent, and I served it.

The taste was fine, and people loved it.  However, it wasn’t PERFECT, and it makes me want to attempt it again.  The downside is that fondue is pretty damn expensive to make if you want to use good cheese, and it’s not a hobby I plan on financing any time soon.