The easiest fondue you'll ever make. No caquelon, no stirring, no cornstarch: score a Vacherin Mont-d'Or, add garlic, rosemary and a splash of white wine, and let the oven do the rest. I serve it with quick pickles that take five minutes.
Watch the video on Instagram →
A cheese that only exists in winter
Vacherin Mont-d'Or is only sold from September to April. From May to September you won't find it anywhere. It started as a leftover: at the end of the season, the farms in the Vallée de Joux had too little milk for big wheels of Gruyère, so they made small cheeses instead.
I got this one as a gift at the Swiss Cheese Awards, with one recommendation: bake it. Best tip of the evening.
The recipe
Ingredients
Oven fondue
- 1 large Vacherin Mont-d'Or, 600 to 700 g
- 50 ml white wine
- 1 garlic clove, cut into slivers
- 5 small sprigs rosemary
- Bread, as much as you like
Quick pickles
- Apple vinegar and water, 1:1, enough to fill your jar three quarters
- 1.5 tbsp salt per litre of liquid
- Bay leaves, juniper berries and peppercorns
- Vegetables: carrots, cucumber, radishes, the green of a spring onion, whatever you have
How to make it
- Pickles first: fill the jar you want to use three quarters with apple vinegar and water, 1:1. Pour the liquid into a pot, add 1.5 tbsp salt per litre plus the bay leaves, juniper berries and peppercorns, and bring it to a boil.
- Cut the vegetables, layer them in the jar and pour the boiling liquid over them. Close the lid and turn the jar upside down until it cools.
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Leave the cheese in its wooden box, remove any plastic wrap and score the top.
- Push the garlic slivers and the rosemary into the cuts, then pour the white wine over it.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, stirring once in between so it melts evenly.
- Serve straight away with the bread and the pickles.
Eat it fast. As soon as it cools down, the cheese firms up again.
The ego fondue. A small Vacherin is exactly one portion. A large one feeds 2 to 3.
