Chapter III: Appendix: The A-B-Z of Cheese (3)

Have ready some slices of toast soaked in hot beer or ale and
pour the Rabbit over them.

The temperance version of this substitutes milk for beer and
delicately soaks the toast in hot water instead.

Proof that there is no Anglo-Saxon influence here lies in the use of prepared mustard. The English, who still do a lot of things the hard way, mix their biting dry mustard fresh with water before every meal, while the Germans and French bottle theirs, as we do.

Pumpernickel Rabbit

This German deviation is made exactly the same as the Dutch
Rabbit above, but its ingredients are the opposite in color.
Black bread (pumpernickel) slices are soaked in heated dark beer
(porter or stout) and the yellow cheese melted in the skillet is
also stirred up with brunette beer.

Since beer is a kind of liquid bread, it is natural for the two to commingle in Rabbits whether they are blond Dutch or black pumpernickel. And since cheese is only solid milk, and the Cheddar is noted for its beery smell, there is further affinity here. An old English proverb sums it up neatly: "Bread and cheese are the two targets against death."

By the way, the word pumpernickel is said to have been coined when Napoleon tasted his first black bread in Germany. Contemptuously he spat it out with: "This would be good for my horse, Nicole." "_Bon pour Nicole_" in French.

Gruyère Welsh Rabbit _au gratin_

Cut crusts from a half-dozen slices of bread. Toast them lightly,
lay in a roasting pan and top each with a matching slice of
imported Gruyère 3/8-inch thick. Pepper to taste and cover with
bread crumbs. Put in oven 10 minutes and rush to the ultimate
consumer.

To our American ears anything _au gratin_ suggests "with cheese," so this Rabbit _au gratin_ may sound redundant. To a Frenchman, however, it means a dish covered with bread crumbs.

Swiss Cheese Rabbit

1/2 cup white wine, preferably Neufchâtel 1/2 cup grated Gruyère 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1/2 saltspoon paprika 2 egg yolks

Stir wine and seasonings together with the cheese until it melts,
then thicken with the egg yolks, stirring at least 3 more minutes
until smooth.

Sherry Rabbit

3 cups grated cheese 1/2 cup cream or evaporated milk 1/2 cup sherry 1/4 teaspoon English mustard 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce A dash of paprika

Heat cheese over hot water, with or without a bit of butter, and
when it begins to melt, stir in the cream. Keep stirring until
almost all of the cheese is melted, then add sherry. When smooth
and creamy, stir in the mustard and Worcestershire sauce, and
after pouring over buttered toast dash with paprika for color.

Spanish Sherry Rabbit

3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons flour 1 bouillon cube, mashed 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard 1-1/2 cups milk 1-1/2 cups grated cheese 1 jigger sherry

Make a smooth paste of butter, flour, bouillon cube and
seasonings, and add milk slowly. When well-heated stir in the
cheese gradually. Continue stirring at least 10 minutes, and when
well-blended stir in the sherry and serve on hot, buttered toast.

Pink Poodle

2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon chopped onion 1 tablespoon flour 1 jigger California claret 1 cup cream of tomato soup A pinch of soda 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon paprika A dash of powdered cloves 3 cups grated cheese 1 egg, lightly beaten

Cook onion in butter until light golden, then blend in flour,
wine and soup with the soda and all seasonings. Stir in cheese
slowly until melted and finish off by thickening with the egg and
stirring until smooth and velvety. Serve on crisp, buttered toast
with a dry red wine.

Although wine Rabbits, red or white, are as unusual as Swiss ones with Gruyère in place of Cheddar, wine is commonly drunk with anything from a Golden Buck to a Blushing Bunny. But for most of us, a deep draught of beer or ale goes best with an even deeper draught of the mellow scent of a Cheddar golden-yellow.

Savory Eggy Dry Rabbit

1/8 pound butter 2 cups grated Gruyère 4 eggs, well-beaten Salt Pepper Mustard

Melt butter and cheese together with the beaten eggs, stirring
steadily with wooden spoon until soft and smooth. Season and pour
over dry toast.

This "dry" Rabbit, in which the volume of the eggs makes up for any lacking liquid, is still served as a savory after the sweets to finish a fine meal in some old-fashioned English homes and hostelries.

Cream Cheese Rabbit

This Rabbit, made with a package of cream cheese, is more
scrambled hen fruit than Rabbit food, for you simply scramble a
half-dozen eggs with butter, milk, salt, pepper and cayenne, and
just before the finish work in the cheese until smooth and serve
on crackers--water crackers for a change.

Reducing Rarebit (Tomato Rarebit)[A]

YIELD: 2 servings. 235 calories per serving.

1/2 pound farmer cheese 2 eggs 1 level tablespoon powdered milk 1 level teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon gelatin or agar powder 4 egg tomatoes, quartered, or 2 tomatoes, quartered 1 teaspoon caraway seeds 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon parsley flakes 1/2 head lettuce and/or 1 cucumber 1/4 cup wine vinegar Salt and pepper to taste

[Footnote A: (from _The Low-Calory Cookbook_ by Bernard Koten, published by Random House)]

Fill bottom of double boiler with water to 3/4 mark. Sprinkle
salt in upper part of double boiler. Boil over medium flame. When
upper part is hot, put in cheese, powdered milk, baking powder,
gelatin, caraway seeds and pepper and garlic powder to taste.
Mix. Break eggs into this mixture, cook over low flame,
continually stirring. Add tomatoes when mixture bubbles and
continue cooking and stirring until tomatoes have been cooked
soft. Remove to lettuce and/or cucumber (sliced thin) which has
been slightly marinated in wine vinegar and sprinkle the parsley
flakes over the top of the mixture.

Curry Rabbit

1 tablespoon cornstarch 2 cups milk 2-1/2 cups grated cheese 1 tablespoon minced chives 2 green onions, minced 2 shallots, minced 1/4 teaspoon imported curry powder 1 tablespoon chutney sauce

Dissolve cornstarch in a little of the milk and scald the rest
over hot water. Thicken with cornstarch mixture and stir in the
cheese, chives, onions, shallots, curry and chutney while
wooden-spooning steadily until smooth and sizzling enough to pour
over buttered toast.

People who can't let well enough alone put cornstarch in Rabbits, just as they add soda to spoil the cooking of vegetables.

Ginger Ale Rabbit

Simply substitute ginger ale for the real thing in the No. 1
Rabbit of all time.

Buttermilk Rabbit

Substitute buttermilk for plain milk in the No. 2 Rabbit. To be
consistent, use fresh-cured Buttermilk Cheese, instead of the
usual Cheddar of fresh cow's milk. This is milder.

Eggnog Rabbit

2 tablespoons sweet butter 2 cups grated mellow Cheddar 1-1/3 cups eggnog Dashes of spice to taste.

After melting the cheese in butter, stir in the eggnog and keep
stirring until smooth and thickened. Season or not, depending on
taste and the quality of eggnog employed.

Ever since the innovation of bottled eggnogs fresh from the milkman in holiday season, such supremely creamy and flavorful Rabbits have been multiplying as fast as guinea pigs.

All-American Succotash Rabbit

1 cup milk 3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons flour 3 cups grated cheese 1 cup creamed succotash, strained Salt and pepper

Make a white sauce of milk, butter and flour and stir in the
cheese steadily and gradually until melted. Add the creamed
succotash and season to taste.

Serve on toasted, buttered corn bread.

Danish Rabbit

1 quart warm milk 2 cups grated cheese

Stir together to boiling point and pour over piping-hot toast in
heated bowl. This is an esteemed breakfast dish in north Denmark.

As in all Rabbits, more or less cheese may be used, to taste.

Easy English Rabbit

Soak bread slices in hot beer. Melt thin slices of cheese with
butter in iron frying pan, stir in a few spoonfuls of beer and a
bit of prepared mustard. When smoothly melted, pour over the
piping-hot, beer-soaked toast.

_Chapter Six_

The Fondue

There is a conspiracy among the dictionary makers to take the heart out of the Fondue. Webster makes it seem no better than a collapsed soufflé, with his definition:

Fondue. Also, erroneously, _fondu_. A dish made of melted
cheese, butter, eggs, and, often, milk and bread crumbs.

Thorndike-Barnhart further demotes this dish, that for centuries has been one of the world's greatest, to "a combination of melted cheese, eggs and butter" and explains that the name comes from the French _fondre_, meaning melt. The latest snub is delivered by the up-to-date _Cook's Quiz_ compiled by TV culinary experts:

A baked dish with eggs, cheese, butter, milk and bread crumbs.

A baked dish, indeed! Yet the Fondue has added to the gaiety and inebriety of nations, if not of dictionaries. It has commanded the respect of the culinary great. Savarin, Boulestin, André Simon, all have hailed its heavenly consistency, all have been regaled with its creamy, nay velvety, smoothness.

A touch of garlic, a dash of kirsch, fresh ground black pepper, nutmeg, black pearl truffles of Bugey, red cayenne pepper, the luscious gravy of roast turkey--such little matters help to make an authentic dunking Fondue, not a baked Fondue, mind you. Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin a century and a half ago brought the original "receipt" with him and spread it around with characteristic generosity during the two years of his exile in New York after the French Revolution. In his monumental _Physiologie du Goût_ he records an incident that occurred in 1795:

Whilst passing through Boston ... I taught the restaurant-keeper
Julien to make a _Fondue_, or eggs cooked with cheese. This dish,
a novelty to the Americans, became so much the rage, that he
(Julien) felt himself obliged, by way of thanks, to send me to
New York the rump of one of those pretty little roebucks that are
brought from Canada in winter, and which was declared exquisite
by the chosen committee whom I convoked for the occasion.

As the great French gourmet, Savarin was born on the Swiss border (at Belley, in the fertile Province of Bugey, where Gertrude Stein later had a summer home), he no doubt ate Gruyère three times a day, as is the custom in Switzerland and adjacent parts. He sets down the recipe just as he got it from its Swiss source, the papers of Monsieur Trolliet, in the neighboring Canton of Berne:

Take as many eggs as you wish to use, according to the number of
your guests. Then take a lump of good Gruyère cheese, weighing
about a third of the eggs, and a nut of butter about half the
weight of the cheese. (Since today's eggs in America weigh about
1-1/2 ounces apiece, if you start the Fondue with 8. your lump
of good Gruyère would come to 1/4 pound and your butter to 1/8
pound.)

Break and beat the eggs well in a flat pan, then add the butter
and the cheese, grated or cut in small pieces.

Place the pan on a good fire and stir with a wooden spoon until
the mixture is fairly thick and soft; put in a little or no salt,
according to the age of the cheese, and a good deal of pepper,
for this is one of the special attributes of this ancient dish.

Let it be placed on the table in a hot dish, and if some of the
best wines be produced, and the bottle passed quite freely, a
marvelous effect will be beheld.

This has long been quoted as the proper way to make the national dish of Switzerland. Savarin tells of hearing oldsters in his district laugh over the Bishop of Belley eating his Fondue with a spoon instead of the traditional fork, in the first decade of the 1700's. He tells, too, of a Fondue party he threw for a couple of his septuagenarian cousins in Paris "about the year 1801."

The party was the result of much friendly taunting of the master: "By Jove, Jean, you have been bragging for such a long time about your Fondues, you have continually made our mouths water. It is high time to put a stop to all this. We will come and breakfast with you some day and see what sort of thing this dish is."

Savarin invited them for ten o'clock next day, started them off with the table laid on a "snow white cloth, and in each one's place two dozen oysters with a bright golden lemon. At each end of the table stood a bottle of sauterne, carefully wiped, excepting the cork, which showed distinctly that it had been in the cellar for a long while.... After the oysters, which were quite fresh, came some broiled kidneys, a _terrine_ of _foie gras_, a pie with truffles, and finally the Fondue. The different ingredients had all been assembled in a stewpan, which was placed on the table over a chafing dish, heated with spirits of wine.

"Then," Savarin is quoted, "I commenced operations on the field of battle, and my cousins did not lose a single one of my movements. They were loud in the praise of this preparation, and asked me to let them have the receipt, which I promised them...."

This Fondue breakfast party that gave the nineteenth century such a good start was polished off with "fruits in season and sweets, a cup of genuine mocha ... and finally two sorts of liqueurs, one a spirit for cleansing, and the other an oil for softening."

This primitive Swiss Cheese Fondue is now prepared more elaborately in what is called:

Neufchâtel Style

2-1/2 cups grated imported Swiss 1-1/2 tablespoons flour 1 clove of garlic 1 cup dry white wine Crusty French "flute" or hard rolls cut into big mouthfuls, handy for dunking 1 jigger kirsch Salt Pepper Nutmeg

The cheese should be shredded or grated coarsely and mixed well
with the flour. Use a chafing dish for cooking and a small heated
casserole for serving. Hub the bottom and sides of the blazer
well with garlic, pour in the wine and heat to bubbling, just
under boiling. Add cheese slowly, half a cup at a time, and stir
steadily in one direction only, as in making Welsh Rabbit. Use a
silver fork. Season with very little salt, always depending on
how salty the cheese is, but use plenty of black pepper, freshly
ground, and a touch of nutmeg. Then pour in the kirsch, stir
steadily and invite guests to dunk their forked bread in the dish
or in a smaller preheated casserole over a low electric or
alcohol burner on the dining table. The trick is to keep the
bubbling melted cheese in rhythmic motion with the fork, both up
and down and around and around.

The dunkers stab the hunks of crusty French bread through the soft part to secure a firm hold in the crust, for if your bread comes off in dunking you pay a forfeit, often a bottle of wine.

The dunking is done as rhythmically as the stirring, guests taking regular turns at twirling the fork to keep the cheese swirling. When this "chafing dish cheese custard," as it has been called in England, is ready for eating, each in turn thrusts in his fork, sops up a mouthful with the bread for a sponge and gives the Fondue a final stir, to keep it always moving in the same direction. All the while the heat beneath the dish keeps it gently bubbling.

Such a Neufchâtel party was a favorite of King Edward VII, especially when he was stepping out as the Prince of Wales. He was as fond of Fondue as most of the great gourmets of his day and preferred it to Welsh Rabbit, perhaps because of the wine and kirsch that went into it.

At such a party a little heated wine is added if the Fondue gets too thick. When finally it has cooked down to a crust in the bottom of the dish, this is forked out by the host and divided among the guests as a very special dividend.

Any dry white wine will serve in a pinch, and the Switzerland Cheese Association, in broadcasting this classical recipe, points out that any dry rum, slivovitz, or brandy, including applejack, will be a valid substitute for the kirsch. To us, applejack seems specially suited, when we stop to consider our native taste that has married apple pie to cheese since pioneer times.

In culinary usage fondue means "melting to an edible consistency" and this, of course, doesn't refer to cheese alone, although we use it chiefly for that.

In France Fondue is also the common name for a simple dish of eggs scrambled with grated cheese and butter and served very hot on toasted bread, or filled into fancy paper cases, quickly browned on top and served at once. The reason for this is that all baked Fondues fall as easily and as far as Soufflés, although the latter are more noted for this failing. There is a similarity in the soft fluffiness of both, although the Fondues are always more moist. For there is a stiff, stuffed-shirt buildup around any Soufflé, suggesting a dressy dinner, while Fondue started as a self-service dunking bowl.

Our modern tendency is to try to make over the original French Fondue on the Welsh Rabbit model--to turn it into a sort of French Rabbit. Although we know that both Gruyère and Emmentaler are what we call Swiss and that it is impossible in America to duplicate the rich Alpine flavor given by the mountain herbs, we are inclined to try all sorts of domestic cheeses and mixtures thereof. But it's best to stick to Savarin's "lump of Gruyère" just as the neighboring French and Italians do. It is interesting to note that this Swiss Alpine cooking has become so international that it is credited to Italy in the following description we reprint from _When Madame Cooks_, by an Englishman, Eric Weir:

Fondue à l'Italienne

This is one of those egg dishes that makes one feel really
grateful to hens. From its name it originated probably in Italy,
but it has crossed the Alps. I have often met it in France, but
only once in Italy.

First of all, make a very stiff white sauce with butter, flour
and milk. The sauce should be stiff enough to allow the wooden
spoon to stand upright or almost.

Off the fire, add yolks of eggs and 4 ounces of grated Gruyère
cheese. Mix this in well with the white sauce and season with
salt, pepper and some grated nutmeg. Beat whites of egg firm. Add
the whites to the preparation, stir in, and pour into a pudding
basin.

Take a large saucepan and fill half full of water. Bring to a
boil, and then place the pudding basin so that the top of the
basin is well out of the water. Allow to boil gently for 1-1/2 to
2 hours. Renew the boiling water from time to time, as it
evaporates, and take care that the water, in boiling, does not
bubble over the mixture.

Test with a knife, as for a cake, to see if it is cooked. When
the knife comes out clean, take the basin out of the water and
turn the Fondue out on a dish. It should be fairly firm and keep
the shape of the basin.

Sprinkle with some finely chopped ham and serve hot.

The imported Swiss sometimes is cubed instead of grated, then marinated for four or five hours in dry white wine, before being melted and liquored with the schnapps. This can be pleasantly adopted here in:

All-American Fondue

1 pound imported Swiss cheese, cubed 3/4 cup scuppernong or other American white wine 1-1/2 jiggers applejack

After marinating the Swiss cubes in the wine, simply melt
together over hot water, stir until soft and creamy, add the
applejack and dunk with fingers of toast or your own to a chorus
of "All Bound Round with a Woolen String."

Of course, this can be treated as a mere vinous Welsh Rabbit and
poured over toast, to be accompanied by beer. But wine is the
thing, for the French Fondue is to dry wine what the Rabbit is to
stale ale or fresh beer.

We say French instead of Swiss because the French took over the dish so eagerly, together with the great Gruyère that makes it distinctive. They internationalized it, sent it around the world with bouillabaisse and onion soup, that celestial _soupe à l'oignon_ on which snowy showers of grated Gruyère descend.

To put the Welsh Rabbit in its place they called it Fondue à l'Anglaise, which also points up the twinlike relationship of the world's two favorite dishes of melted cheese. But to differentiate and show they are not identical twins, the No. 1 dish remained Fromage Fondue while the second was baptized Fromage Fondue à la Bière.

Beginning with Savarin the French whisked up more rapturous, rhapsodic writing about Gruyère and its offspring, the Fondue, together with the puffed Soufflé, than about any other imported cheese except Parmesan.

Parmesan and Gruyère were praised as the two greatest culinary cheeses. A variant Fondue was made of the Italian cheese.

Parmesan Fondue

3 tablespoons butter 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese 4 eggs, lightly beaten Salt Pepper

Over boiling water melt butter and cheese slowly, stir in the
eggs, season to taste and stir steadily in one direction only,
until smooth.

Pour over fingers of buttered toast. Or spoon it up, as the
ancients did, before there were any forks. It's beaten with a
fork but eaten catch-as-catch-can, like chicken-in-the-rough.

Sapsago Swiss Fondue

2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1-1/2 cups milk 2-1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese 2-1/2 tablespoons grated Sapsago 1/2 cup dry white wine Pepper, black and red, freshly ground Fingers of toast

Over boiling water stir the first four ingredients into a smooth,
fairly thick cream sauce. Then stir in Swiss cheese until well
melted. After that add the Sapsago, finely grated, and wine in
small splashes. Stir steadily, in one direction only, until
velvety. Season sharply with the contrasting peppers and serve
over fingers of toast.

This is also nice when served bubbling in individual, preheated pastry shells, casseroles or ramekins, although this way most of the fun of the dunking party is left out. To make up for it, however, cooked slices of mushrooms are sometimes added.

At the Cheese Cellar in the New York World's Fair Swiss Pavilion, where a continual dunking party was in progress, thousands of amateurs learned such basic things as not to overcook the Fondue lest it become stringy, and the protocol of dunking in turn and keeping the mass in continual motion until the next on the Fondue line dips in his cube of bread. The success of the dish depends on making it quickly, keeping it gently a-bubble and never letting it stand still for a split second.

The Swiss, who consume three or four times as much cheese per capita as we, and almost twice as much as the French, are willing to share Fondue honors with the French Alpine province of Savoy, a natural cheese cellar with almost two dozen distinctive types of its very own, such as Fat cheese, also called Death's Head; La Grande Bornand, a luscious half-dried sheep's milker; Chevrotins, small, dry goat milk cheeses; and Le Vacherin. The latter, made in both Savoy and Switzerland, boasts two interesting variants:

1. _Vacherin Fondue or Spiced Fondue:_ Made about the same as
Emmentaler, ripened to sharp age, and then melted, spices added
and the cheese re-formed. It is also called Spiced Fondue and
sells for about two dollars a pound. Named Fondue from being
melted, though it's really recooked,

2. _Vacherin à la Main:_ This is a curiosity in cheeses,
resembling a cold, uncooked Fondue. Made of cow's milk, it is
round, a foot in diameter and half a foot high. It is salted and
aged until the rind is hard and the inside more runny than the
ripest Camembert, so it can be eaten with a spoon (like the
cooked Fondue) as well as spread on bread. The local name for it
is _Tome de Montagne_.

Here is a good assortment of Fondues:

Vacherin-Fribourg Fondue

2 tablespoons butter 1 clove garlic, crushed 2 cups shredded Vacherin cheese 2 tablespoons hot water

This authentic quickie is started by cooking the garlic in butter
until the butter is melted. Then remove garlic and reduce heat.
Add the soft cheese and stir with silver fork until smooth and
velvety. Add the water in little splashes, stirring constantly in
one direction. Dunk! (In this melted Swiss a little water takes
the place of a lot of wine.)

La Fondue Comtois

This regional specialty of Franche-Comté is made with white wine.
Sauterne, Chablis, Riesling or any Rhenish type will serve
splendidly. Also use butter, grated Gruyère, beaten eggs and that
touch of garlic.

Chives Fondue

3 cups grated Swiss cheese 3 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons butter 1 garlic clove, crushed 3 tablespoons finely chopped chives 1 cup dry white wine Salt Freshly ground pepper A pinch of nutmeg 1/4 cup kirsch

Mix cheese and flour. Melt butter in chafing-dish blazer rubbed
with garlic. Cook chives in butter 1 minute. Add wine and heat
just under boiling. Keep simmering as you add cheese-and-flour
mix gradually, stirring always in one direction. Salt according
to age and sharpness of cheese; add plenty of freshly ground
pepper and the pinch of nutmeg.

When everything is stirred smooth and bubbling, toss in the
kirsch without missing a stroke of the fork and get to dunking.

Large, crisp, hot potato chips make a pleasant change for dunking
purposes. Or try assorted crackers alternating with the absorbent
bread, or hard rolls.

Tomato Fondue

2 tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped 1/2 teaspoon dried sweet basil 1 clove garlic 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup dry white wine 2 cups grated Cheddar cheese Paprika

Mix basil with chopped tomatoes. Rub chafing dish with garlic,
melt butter, add tomatoes and much paprika. Cook 5 to 6 minutes,
add wine, stir steadily to boiling point. Then add cheese, half a
cup at a time, and keep stirring until everything is smooth.

Serve on hot toast, like Welsh Rabbit.

Here the two most popular melted-cheese dishes tangle, but they're held together with the common ingredient, tomato.

Fondue also appears as a sauce to pour over baked tomatoes. Stale bread crumbs are soaked in tomato juice to make:

Tomato Baked Fondue

1 cup tomato juice 1 cup stale bread crumbs 1 cup grated sharp American cheese 1 tablespoon melted butter Salt 4 eggs, separated and well beaten

Soak crumbs in tomato juice, stir cheese in butter until melted,
season with a little or no salt, depending on saltiness of the
cheese. Mix in the beaten yolks, fold in the white and bake
about 50 minutes in moderate oven.

BAKED FONDUES

Although Savarin's dunking Fondue was first to make a sensation on these shores and is still in highest esteem among epicures, the Fondue America took to its bosom was baked. The original recipe came from the super-caseous province of Savoy under the explicit title, _La Fondue au Fromage_.

La Fondue au Fromage

Make the usual creamy mixture of butter, flour, milk, yolks of
eggs and Gruyère, in thin slices for a change. Use red pepper
instead of black, splash in a jigger of kirsch but no white wine.
Finally fold in the egg whites and bake in a mold for 45 minutes.

We adapted this to our national taste which had already based the whole business of melted cheese on the Welsh Rabbit with stale ale or milk instead of white wine and Worcestershire, mustard and hot peppers. Today we have come up with this:

100% American Fondue

2 cups scalded milk 2 cups stale bread crumbs 1/2 teaspoon dry English mustard Salt Dash of nutmeg Dash of pepper 2 cups American cheese (Cheddar) 2 egg yolks, well beaten 2 egg whites, beaten stiff

Soak crumbs in milk, season and stir in the cheese until melted.
Add the beaten egg yolks and stir until you have a smooth
mixture. Let this cool while beating the whites stiff, leaving
them slightly moist. Fold the whites into the cool, custardy mix
and bake in a buttered dish until firm. (About 50 minutes in a
moderate oven.)

This is more of a baked cheese job than a true Fondue, to our way of thinking, and the scalded milk doesn't exactly take the place of the wine or kirsch. It is characteristic of our bland cookery.

OTHER FONDUES PLAIN AND FANCY, BAKED AND NOT

Quickie Catsup Tummy Fondiddy

3/4 pound sharp cheese, diced 1 can condensed tomato soup 1/2 cup catsup 1/2 teaspoon mustard 1 egg, lightly beaten

In double boiler melt cheese in soup. Blend thoroughly by
constant stirring. Remove from heat, lightly whip or fold in the
catsup and mustard mixed with egg. Serve on Melba toast or rusks.

This might be suggested as a novel midnight snack, with a cup of cocoa, for a change.

Cheese and Rice Fondue

1 cup cooked rice 2 cups milk 4 eggs, separated and well beaten 1/2 cup grated cheese 1/2 teaspoon salt Cayenne, Worcestershire sauce or tabasco sauce, or all three

Heat rice (instead of bread crumbs) in milk, stir in cheese until
melted, add egg yolks beaten lemon-yellow, season, fold in stiff
egg whites. Serve hot on toast.

Corn and Cheese Fondue

1 cup bread crumbs 1 large can creamed corn 1 small onion, chopped 1/2 green pepper, chopped 2 cups cottage cheese 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup milk 2 eggs, well beaten

Mix all ingredients together and bake in buttered casserole set
in pan of hot water. Bake about 1 hour in moderate oven, or until
set.

Cheese Fondue

1 cup grated Cheddar 1/2 cup crumbled Roquefort 1 cup pimento cheese 3 tablespoons cream 3 tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon Worcestershire

Stir everything together over hot water until smooth and creamy.
Then whisk until fluffy, moistening with more cream or mayonnaise
if too stiff.

Serve on Melba toast, or assorted thin toasted crackers.

Brick Fondue

1/2 cup butter 2 cups grated Brick cheese 1/2 cup warm milk 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 eggs

Melt butter and cheese together, use wire whisk to whip in the
warm milk. Season. Take from fire and beat in the eggs, one at a
time. Please note that Fondue protocol calls for each egg to be
beaten separately in cases like this.

Serve over hot toast or crackers.

Cheddar Dunk Bowl

3/4 pound sharp Cheddar cheese 3 tablespoons cream 2/3 teaspoon dry mustard 1-1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire

Grate the cheese powdery fine and mash it together with the cream
until fluffy. Season and serve in a beautiful bowl for dunking in
the original style of Savarin, although this is a static
imitation of the real thing.

All kinds of crackers and colorful dips can be used, from celery
stalks and potato chips to thin paddles cut from Bombay duck.

_Chapter Seven_

Soufflés, Puffs and Ramekins

There isn't much difference between Cheese Soufflés, Puffs and Ramekins. The _English Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery_, the oldest, biggest and best of such works in English, lumps Cheese Puffs and Ramekins together, giving the same recipes for both, although it treats each extensively under its own name when not made with cheese.

Cheese was the basis of the original French Ramequin, cheese and bread crumbs or puff paste, baked in a mold, (with puff again the principal factor in Soufflé, from the French _souffler_, puff up).

Basic Soufflé

3 tablespoons butter or margarine 4 tablespoons flour 1-1/4 cups hot milk, scalded 1 teaspoon salt A dash of cayenne 1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese, sharp 2 egg yolks, beaten lemon-yellow 2 egg whites, beaten stiff

Melt butter, stir in flour and milk gradually until thick and
smooth. Season and add the cheese, continuing the cooking and
slow stirring until velvety. Remove from heat and let cool
somewhat; then stir in the egg yolks with a light hand and an
upward motion. Fold in the stiff whites and when evenly mixed
pour into a big, round baking dish. (Some butter it and some
don't.) To make sure the top will be even when baked, run a spoon
or knife around the surface, about 1 inch from the edge of the
dish, before baking slowly in a moderate oven until puffed high
and beautifully browned. Serve instantly for fear the Soufflé may
fall. The baking takes up to an hour and the egg whites shouldn't
be beaten so stiff they are hard to fold in and contain no air to
expand and puff up the dish.

To perk up the seasonings, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, nutmeg and even garlic are often used to taste, especially in England.

While Cheddar is the preferred cheese, Parmesan runs it a close second. Then comes Swiss. You may use any two or all three of these together. Sometimes Roquefort is added, as in the Ramekin recipes below.

Parmesan Soufflé

Make the same as Basic Soufflé, with these small modifications in
the ingredients:

1 full cup of grated Parmesan 1 extra egg in place of the 1/2 cup of Cheddar cheese A little more butter Black pepper, not cayenne

Swiss Soufflé

Make the same as Basic Soufflé, with these slight changes:

1-1/4 cups grated Swiss cheese instead of the Cheddar cheese Nutmeg in place of the cayenne

Parmesan-Swiss Soufflé

Make the same as Basic Soufflé, with these little differences:

1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese, and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan in place of the Cheddar cheese 1/4 teaspoon each of sugar and black pepper for seasoning.

Any of these makes a light, lovely luncheon or a proper climax to a grand dinner.

Cheese-Corn Soufflé

Make as Basic Soufflé, substituting for the scalded milk 1 cup of
sieved and strained juice from cream-style canned corn.

Cheese-Spinach Soufflé

Sauté 1-1/2 cups of finely chopped, drained spinach in butter
with 1 teaspoon finely grated onion, and then whip it until light
and fluffy. Mix well into the white sauce of the Basic Soufflé
before adding the cheese and following the rest of the recipe.

Cheese-Tomato Soufflé

Substitute hot tomato juice for the scalded milk.

Cheese-Sea-food Soufflé

Add 1-1/2 cups finely chopped or ground lobster, crab, shrimp,
other sea food or mixture thereof, with any preferred seasoning
added.

Cheese-Mushroom Soufflé

1-1/2 cups grated sharp Cheddar 1 cup cream of mushroom soup Paprika, to taste Salt 2 egg yolks, well beaten 2 egg whites, beaten stiff 2 tablespoons chopped, cooked bacon 2 tablespoons sliced, blanched almonds

Heat cheese with soup and paprika, adding the cheese gradually
and stirring until smooth. Add salt and thicken the sauce with
egg yolks, still stirring steadily, and finally fold in the
whites. Sprinkle with bacon and almonds and bake until golden
brown and puffed high (about 1 hour).

Cheese-Potato Soufflé (Potato Puff)

6 potatoes 2 onions 1 tablespoon butter or margarine 1 cup hot milk 3/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese 1 teaspoon salt A dash of pepper 2 egg yolks, well beaten 2 egg whites, beaten stiff 1/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese

Cook potatoes and onions together until tender and put through a
ricer. Mix with all the other ingredients except the egg whites
and the Cheddar. Fold in the egg whites, mix thoroughly and pour
into a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle the 1/4 cup of Cheddar on
top and bake in moderate oven about 1/2 hour, until golden-brown
and well puffed. Serve instantly.

Variations of this popular Soufflé leave out the onion and
simplify matters by using 2 cups of mashed potatoes. Sometimes 1
tablespoon of catsup and another of minced parsley is added to
the mixture. Or onion juice alone, to take the place of the
cooked onions--about a tablespoon, full or scant.

The English, in concocting such a Potato Puff or Soufflé, are inclined to make it extra peppery, as they do most of their Cheese Soufflés, with not only "a dust of black pepper" but "as much cayenne as may be stood on the face of a sixpence."

Cheese Fritter Soufflés

These combine ham with Parmesan cheese and are even more
delicately handled in the making than crêpes suzette.

PUFFS

Three-in-One Puffs

1 cup grated Swiss 1 cup grated Parmesan 1 cup cream cheese 5 eggs, lightly beaten salt and pepper

Mix the cheeses into one mass moistened with the beaten eggs,
splashed on at intervals. When thoroughly incorporated, put in
ramekins, tiny tins, cups, or any sort of little mold of any
shape. Bake in hot oven about 10 minutes, until richly browned.

Such miniature Soufflés serve as liaison officers for this entire section, since they are baked in ramekins, or ramequins, from the French word for the small baking dish that holds only one portion. These may be paper boxes, usually round, earthenware, china, Pyrex, of any attractive shape in which to bake or serve the Puffs.

More commonly, in America at least, Puffs are made without ramekin dishes, as follows:

Fried Puffs

2 egg whites, beaten stiff 1/2 cup grated cheese 1 tablespoon flour Salt Paprika

Into the stiff egg whites fold the cheese, flour and seasonings.
When thoroughly mixed pat into shape desired, roll in crumbs and
fry.

Roquefort Puffs

1/8 pound genuine French Roquefort 1 egg white, beaten stiff 8 crackers or 2-inch bread rounds

Cream the Roquefort, fold in the egg white, pile on crackers and
bake 15 minutes in slow oven.

The constant repetition of "beaten stiff" in these recipes may give the impression that the whites are badly beaten up, but such is not the case. They are simply whipped to peaks and left moist and glistening as a teardrop, with a slight sad droop to them that shows there is still room for the air to expand and puff things up in cooking.

Parmesan Puffs

Make a spread of mayonnaise or other salad dressing with equal
parts of imported Parmesan, grated fine. Spread on a score or
more of crackers in a roomy pan and broil a couple of minutes
till they puff up golden-brown.

Use only the best Parmesan, imported from Italy; or, second best,
from Argentina where the rich pampas grass and Italian settlers
get together on excellent Parmesan and Romano. Never buy Parmesan
already grated; it quickly loses its flavor.

Breakfast Puffs

1 cup flour 1 cup milk 1/4 cup finely grated cheese 1 egg, lightly beaten 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all together to a smooth, light batter and fill ramekins or
cups half full; then bake in quick oven until they are puffing
over the top and golden-brown.

Danish Fondue Puffs

1 stale roll 1/2 cup boiling hot milk Salt Pepper 2 cups freshly grated Cheddar cheese 4 egg yolks, beaten lemon-yellow 4 egg whites, beaten stiff

Soak roll in boiling milk and beat to a paste. Mix with cheese
and egg yolks. When smooth and thickened fold in the egg whites
and fill ramekins, tins, cups or paper forms and slowly bake
until puffed up and golden-brown.

New England Cheese Puffs

1 cup sifted flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon Hungarian paprika 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard 2 egg yolks, beaten lemon-yellow 1/2 cup milk 1 cup freshly grated Cheddar cheese 2 egg whites, beaten stiff but not dry

Sift dry ingredients together, mix yolks with milk and stir in.
Add cheese and when thoroughly incorporated fold in the egg
whites to make a smooth batter. Drop from a big spoon into hot
deep fat and cook until well browned.

Caraway seeds are sometimes added. Poppy seeds are also used, and
either of these makes a snappier puff, especially tasty when
served with soup.

A few drops of tabasco give this an extra tang.

Cream Cheese Puffs

1/2 pound cream cheese 1 cup milk 4 eggs, lightly beaten 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

Soften cheese by heating over hot water. Remove from heat and add
milk, eggs and seasoning. Beat until well blended, then pour into
custard cups, ramekins or any other individual baking dishes that
are attractive enough to serve the puffs in.

RAMEKINS OR RAMEQUINS

Some Ramekin dishes are made so exquisitely that they may be collected like snuff bottles.

Ramekins are utterly French, both the cooked Puffs and the individual dishes in which they are baked. Essentially a Cheese Puff, this is also _au gratin_ when topped with both cheese and browned bread crumbs. By a sort of poetic cook's license the name is also applied to any kind of cake containing cheese and cooked in the identifying one-portion ramekin. It is used chiefly in the plural, however, together with the name of the chief ingredient, such as "Chicken Ramekins" and:

Cheese Ramekins I

2 eggs 2 tablespoons flour 1/8 pound butter, melted 1/8 pound grated cheese

Mix well and bake in individual molds for 15 minutes.

Cheese Ramekins II

3 tablespoons melted butter 1/2 teaspoon each, salt and pepper 3/4 cup bread crumbs 1/2 cup grated cheese 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1-1/2 cups milk

Mix the first four dry ingredients together, stir eggs into the
milk and add. Stir to a smooth batter and bake in buttered
ramekins, standing in water, in moderate oven. Serve piping hot,
for like Soufflés and all associated Puffs, the hot air will puff
out of them quickly; then they will sink and be inedible.

TWO ANCIENT ENGLISH RECIPES, STILL GOING STRONG

Cheese Ramekins III

Grate 1/2 pound of any dry, rich cheese. Butter a dozen small
paper cases, or little boxes of stiff writing paper like Soufflé
cases. Put a saucepan containing 1/2 pint of water over the fire,
add 2 tablespoons of butter, and when the water boils, stir in 1
heaping tablespoonful of flour. Beat the mixture until it shrinks
away from the sides of the saucepan; then stir in the grated
cheese. Remove the paste thus made from the fire, and let it
partly cool. In the meantime separate the yolks from the whites
of three eggs, and beat them until the yolks foam and the whites
make a stiff froth. Put the mixture at once into the buttered
paper cases, only half-filling them (since they rise very high
while being baked) with small slices of cheese, and bake in a
moderate oven for about 15 minutes. As soon as the Puffs are
done, put the cases on a hot dish covered with a folded napkin,
and serve very hot.

The most popular cheese for Ramekins has always been, and still is, Gruyère. But because the early English also adopted Italian Parmesan, that followed as a close second, and remains there today.

Sharp Cheddar makes tangy Ramekins, as will be seen in this second oldster; for though it prescribes Gloucester and Cheshire "'arf-and-'arf," both are essentially Cheddars. Gloucester has been called "a glorified Cheshire" and the latter has long been known as a peculiarly rich and colorful elder brother of Cheddar, described in Kenelme Digby's _Closet Open'd_ as a "quick, fat, rich, well-tasted cheese."

Cheese Ramekins IV

Scrape fine 1/4 pound of Gloucester cheese and 1/4 pound of
Cheshire cheese. Beat this scraped cheese in a mortar with the
yolks of 4 eggs, 1/4 pound of fresh butter, and the crumbs of a
French roll boiled in cream until soft. When all this is well
mixed and pounded to a paste, add the beaten whites of 4 eggs.
Should the paste seem too stiff, 1 or 2 tablespoons of sherry may
be added. Put the paste into paper cases, and bake in a Dutch
oven till nicely browned. The Ramekins should be served very hot.

Since both Gloucester cheese and Cheshire cheese are not easily come by even in London today, it would be hard to reproduce this in the States. So the best we can suggest is to use half-and-half of two of our own great Cheddars, say half-Coon and half-Wisconsin Longhorn, or half-Tillamook and half-Herkimer County. For there's no doubt about it, contrasting cheeses tickle the taste buds, and as many as three different kinds put together make Puffs all the more perfect.

Ramequins à la Parisienne

2 cups milk 1 cup cream 1 ounce salt butter 1 tablespoon flour 1/2 cup grated Gruyère Coarsely ground pepper An atom of nutmeg A _soupçon_ of garlic A light touch of powdered sugar 8 eggs, separated

Boil milk and cream together. Melt butter, mix in the flour and
stir over heat 5 minutes, adding the milk and cream mixture a
little at a time. When thoroughly cooked, remove from heat and
stir in cheese, seasonings and the yolks of all 8 eggs, well
beaten, and the whites of 2 even better beaten. When well mixed,
fold in the remaining egg whites, stiffly beaten, until you have
a batter as smooth and thick as cream. Pour this into ramekins of
paper, porcelain or earthenware, filling each about 2/3 full to
allow for them to puff up as they bake in a very slow oven until
golden-brown (or a little less than 20 minutes).

Le Ramequin Morézien

This celebrated specialty of Franche-Comté is described as "a
porridge of water, butter, seasoning, chopped garlic and toast;
thickened with minced Gruyère and served very hot."

Several French provinces are known for distinctive individual Puffs usually served in the dainty fluted forms they are cooked in. In Jeanne d'Arc's Lorraine, for instance, there are the simply named _Les Ramequins_, made of flour, Gruyère and eggs.

Swiss-Roquefort Ramekins

1/4 pound Swiss cheese 1/4 pound Roquefort cheese 1/2 pound butter 8 eggs, separated 4 breakfast rolls, crusts removed 1/2 cup cream

The batter is made in the usual way, with the soft insides of the
rolls simmered in the cream and stirred in. The egg whites are
folded in last, as always, the batter poured into ramekins part
full and baked to a golden-brown. Then they are served
instantaneously, lest they fall.

Puff Paste Ramekins

Puff or other pastry is rolled out fiat and sprinkled with fine
tasty cheese or any cheese mixture, such as Parmesan with Gruyère
and/or Swiss Sapsago for a piquant change, but in lesser quantity
than the other cheeses used. Parmesan cheese has long been the
favorite for these.

Fold paste into 3 layers, roll out again and dust with more
cheese. Fold once more and roll this out and cut in small fancy
shapes to bake 10 to 15 minutes in a hot oven. Brushing with egg
yolk before baking makes these Ramekins shine.

Frying Pan Ramekins

Melt 2 ounces of butter, let it cool a little and then mix with
1/2 pound of cheese. Fold in the whites of 3 eggs, beaten stiff
but not dry. Cover frying pan with buttered papers, put slices of
bread on this and cover with the cheese mixture. Cook about 5
minutes, take it off and brown it with a salamander.

There are two schools of salamandering among turophiles. One holds that it toughens the cheese and makes it less digestible; the other that it's simply swell. Some of the latter addicts have special cheese-branding irons made with their monograms, to identify their creations, whether they be burned on the skins of Welsh Rabbits or Frying Pan Ramekins. Salamandering with an iron that has a gay, carnivalesque design can make a sort of harlequin Ramekin.

Casserole Ramekin

Here is the Americanization of a French original: In a deep
casserole lay alternate slices of white bread and Swiss cheese,
with the cheese slices a bit bigger all around. Beat 2 eggs with
2 cups of milk, season with salt and--of all things--nutmeg!
Proceed to bake like individual Ramekins.

_Chapter Eight_

Pizzas, Blintzes, Pastes, Cheese Cakes, etc.

No matter how big or hungry your family, you can always appease them with pizza.

Pizza--The Tomato Pie of Sicily

DOUGH

1 package yeast, dissolved in warm water 2 cups sifted flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons olive oil

Make dough of this. Knead 12 to 20 minutes. Pat into a ball,
cover it tight and let stand 3 hours in warm place until twice
the size.

TOMATO PASTE

3 tablespoons olive oil 2 large onions, sliced thin 1 can Italian tomato paste 8 to 10 anchovy filets, cut small 1/2 teaspoon oregano Salt Crushed chili pepper 2-1/2 cups water

In the oil fry onion tender but not too brown, stir in tomato
paste and keep stirring 3 or 4 minutes. Season, pour water over
and simmer slowly 25 to 30 minutes. Add anchovies when sauce is
done.

CHEESE

1/2 cup grated Italian, Parmesan, Romano or Pecorino, depending on your pocketbook

Procure a low, wide and handsome tin pizza pan, or reasonable
substitute, and grease well before spreading the well-raised
dough 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Poke your finger tips haphazardly
into the dough to make marks that will catch the sauce when you
pour it on generously. Shake on Parmesan or Parmesan-type cheese
and bake in hot oven 1/2 hour, then 1/4 hour more at lower heat
until the pizza is golden-brown. Cut in wedges like any other pie
and serve.

The proper pans come all tin and a yard wide, down to regular apple-pie size, but twelve-inch pans are the most popular.

Miniature Pizzas

Miniature pizzas are split English muffins rubbed with garlic or
onion and brushed with olive oil. Cover with tomato sauce and a
slice of Mozzarella cheese, anchovy, oregano and grated Parmesan,
and heat 8 minutes.

Italian-Swiss Scallopini

1 pound paper-thin veal cutlets 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup grated Swiss and Parmesan, mixed 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten with water Butter Salt Paprika

Moisten veal with egg and roll in flour mixed with cheese,
quickly brown, lower flame and cook 4 to 5 minutes till tender.
Dust with paprika and salt.

Neapolitan Baked Lasagne, or Stuffed Noodles

1 pound lasagne, or other wide noodles 1-1/2 cups cooked thick tomato sauce with meat 1/2 pound Ricotta or cottage cheese 1 pound Mozzarella or American Cheddar 1/4 pound grated Parmesan, Romano or Pecorino Salt Pepper, preferably crushed red pods A shaker filled with grated Parmesan, or reasonable substitute

Cook wide or broad noodles 15 to 20 minutes in rapidly boiling
salted water until tender, but not soft, and drain. Pour 1/2 cup
of tomato sauce in baking dish or pan, cover with about 1/2 of
the noodles, sprinkle with grated Parmesan, a layer of sauce, a
layer of Mozzarella and dabs of Ricotta. Continue in this
fashion, alternating layers and seasoning each, ending with a
final spread of sauce, Parmesan and red pepper. Bake firm in
moderate oven, about 15 minutes, and served in wedges like pizza,
with canisters of grated Parmesan, crushed red pepper pods and
more of the sauce to taste.

Little Hats, Cappelletti

Freshly made and still moist Cappelletti, little hats, contrived
out of tasty paste, may be had in any Little Italy macaroni shop.
These may be stuffed sensationally in four different flavors
with only two cheeses.

Brown slices of chicken and ham separately, in butter. Mince each
very fine and divide in half, to make four mixtures in equal
amounts. Season these with salt, pepper and nutmeg and a binding
of 2 parts egg yolk to 1 part egg white.

With these meat mixtures you can make four different-flavored
fillings:

Ham and Mozzarella Chicken and Mozzarella Ham and Ricotta Chicken
and Ricotta

Fill the little hats alternately, so you'll have the same number
of each different kind. Pinch edges tight together to keep the
stuffings in while boiling fast for 5 minutes in chicken broth
(or salted water, if you must).

Since these Cappelletti are only a pleasing form and shape of
ravioli, they are served in the same way on hot plates, with
plain tomato sauce and Parmesan or reasonable substitute. If we
count this final seasoning as an ingredient, this makes three
cheeses, so that each of half a dozen taste buds can be getting
individual sensations without letting the others know what it's
doing.

Dauphiny Ravioli

This French variant of the famous Italian pockets of pastry
follows the Cappelletti pattern, with any fresh goat cheese and
Gruyère melted with butter and minced parsley and boiled in
chicken broth.

Italian Fritters

1/4 cup flour 2 tablespoons sugar 1/4 pound fresh Ricotta 2 eggs, beaten 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella Rind of 1/2 lemon, grated 3 tablespoons brandy Salt

Stir and mix well together in the order given and let stand 1
hour or more to thicken the batter so it will hold its shape
while cooking.

Shape batter like walnuts and hold one at a time in the bowl of a
long-handled spoon dipped for 10 seconds in boiling hot oil.
Fritter the "walnuts" so, and serve at once with powdered sugar.

To make fascinating cheese croquettes, mix several contrasting
cheeses in this batter.

Italian Asparagus and Cheese

This gives great scope for contrasting cheeses in one and the
same dish. In a shallow baking pan put a foundation layer of
grated Cheddar and a little butter. Cover with a layer of tender
parts of asparagus, lightly salted; next a layer of grated
Gruyère with a bit of butter, and another of asparagus. From here
you can go as far as you like with varied layers of melting
cheeses alternating with asparagus, until you come to the top,
where you add two more kinds of cheese, a mixture of powdered
Parmesan with Sapsago to give the new-mown hay scent.

Garlic on Cheese