Thursday, December 2, 2010

Fondue Part Deux

Remember in my last post when I said I'd just "reheat the fondue" and have it as leftovers?  It turns out you can't just "reheat" fondue.  Let me explain.

First, I expected my fondue to be a Tupperware-shaped brick that, more or less, slide out of its chilly plastic home, with a thwop not unlike canberry sauce.  First mistake.  It didn't slide, and it took some fork-stabbing, counter-beating, pet-scaring effort to get that stuff out of what seemed like a "stick proof" container.  By the end of the ordeal, Kini was around the corner, poking her nose up hopefully for what might be in the container, once mom stopped killing it.  The kitties were nowhere to be found.

Once I eventually got it out, I put it in my preheated sauce pan, thinking it would simply liquidize and become gooey yumminess like it was on Tuesday.  Clearly, I'd already forgotten this meal, in which the cheese was FRIED, not melted. 

So the cheese fried instead of melting.  There was a lot of yellow liquid that separated from it (wine? fat? who knows.) and never really rejoined.  I had to strain it to eat it.
Yeah...not nearly as appetizing as the first go round.
Not at all dippable either.  In the end, I put it on a plate and cut up a few chunks before giving up entirely and going in search of a can of frosting.  Don't judge, it was cold and rainy and I didn't want to leave the house again. 

3 comments:

  1. LOL . . . how sad. Who knew fondue wouldn't reheat nicely. Frosting for dinner? Now that is a new one. I won't judge - I've probably done something similar.

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  2. Fondue is a cheese sauce, so it's generally only good for one go-round. I'm told that cheese sauces can be reheated and reused but I've never seen it.

    What happened to you is that you curdled the sauce, actually overcooking it and causing the curd (coagulated protein) to separate from the liquid and fat. Cheese (and by extension cheese sauce, as well as butter and most other dairy products) is just an emulsion and all emulsions can be broken. In this case the heat caused the protein to overcoagulate and push out all liquid and fat. Bam, instant yuck.

    You might have been able to salvage it by starting out with copious quantities of white wine and butter over a double boil, but yeah. Cheese is an asshole.

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  3. god, that was funny. I think I like your disasters more than your successes, but in a nice way :-)

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