I’m not certain if we will be able to reschedule by then and am thinking we can extend this by putting the packets into the deep freeze.
Is this a bad idea?
Thanks in advance.
We were going to have a couple of friends over for fondue. But they cancelled at the last minute. We had bought some Coop Betty Bossy pre-prepared fondue mixture with a ‘use-by’ date of 4 December. About 5 weeks away.
No, not in the least.
We freeze cheese quite often, for example when Lidl or Aldi have a range of British cheeses including Stilton on offer, and although some of them can be altered in texture the flavour is unaffected.
There's a particular Fondu mix of French mountain cheeses (including Abondance, which is made just down the road and other laits cru) we source over the border which comes in pack sizes too big for the two of us, so we freeze it all the time, with absolutely no effect on the end result. It's better if you at least partially defrost it and break it up before use though.
Ace, are thos packs cheese only, or as the Betty Bossy one, with wine already included?
I would phone or e-mail Betty Bossy's customer service for their advice perso.
TBH and this is not a cristicism just an opinion- I never ever buy those all inclusive fondue mixes- so much better to get the cheese mix you like and add wine yourself, as and when.
Cheese can be frozen, you just lose the texture of firm and hard cheeses so fo fondue that's no problem. I would also be happy to eat pre-prepared fondue mix a month or so after the suggested date.
Freezing cheese is o.k.
Not sure if this also work if wine and spirts have been added. Never the less it should prolong the shelf life.
Just the cheese. Abondance, Beaufort and an unnamed fromage au lait cru de montagne. Around eu12 for a kilo pack (although they've only had the 400g pack recently, and it wasn't available at all for a month or two at the start of the lockdown.
Quite so. I've found the best results by making a little cornflour and butter roux and adding wine to it to thicken before adding the cheese. Much less chance of splitting or sticking to the pot.
I'm not a fan of kirsch in, or with, my fondue, nor garlic, but experimenting with different cheeses is interesting. Putting about 1/3 of Stilton with it is particularly nice, served with chopped up apple and pear as well as bread. MMmmmm, getting hungry now.
I can't see any reason why not. Pretty sure I've done that in the past when we were further away from Savoie.
It would have to be a pretty strong fondue for the spirits to make any difference to the freezing point!
https://www.thespruceeats.com/will-liquor-freeze-760302
So unless your fondue is 25% alcohol you should be fine
And if it is more than that - super cool but don't put a naked flame under it
With cornflour you really don't need to make a roux. Just mix it with the wine and it will thicken just fine.
Yeah, you're right, I normally only make the roux if I use wheat flour, although I have done it with cornflour as well, just to see if it tastes different (it doesn't).
One of the reasons for my question was it has a 'use before' date, not a 'best before' date.
But I'll give it a go, thanks everyone for their replies.
Interesting tip: when you buy pre-grated parmesan cheese, freezing the open pack means it won't get moldy. You just take what you need out of the freezer 10 minutes before you need it.
There's a reazon cheeze rhymes with freeze
Hello and sorry for hijacking the post.
But speaking of fondue, I was surprised the other day not being able to find fondue that is both alcohol-free and of pasteurised milk, in any of the grocery stores around us.
Is there a catch here?
you need to look for something that isn't Fertigfondue.
Our local (Swiss) Intermarché will happily grate up whatever proportions of cheeses you specify, so you could easily just choose pasteurised milk cheeses. I'm sure most shops with a proper cheese counter would also be able to do so.
Although given that you're going to boil it up to melting point, I think any health risk associated with raw milk would be eliminated through the cooking process, so maybe it's not really necessary?
Most bigger stores should have plain shredded fondue cheese mixtures. And many Swiss cheeses are made from raw milk, no surprises there. https://www.eda.admin.ch/aboutswitze...rstellung.html
If you do not find what you want ask at the cheeses counter, or at your local cheese store or simply shred it yourself at home. It ain't rocket science.
I freeze parmesan in smallish blocks and grate it frozen, the exact amount I need at the time.
And it's already at least one year old, it's really only young soft raw milk cheeses that people should be careful of.
Can you elaborate a bit more, please? Do you have a link?
As in not grated and mixed. Just buy umpasteurised cheese and ask the cheese shop to grate it, or do it yourself at home. But there's very few Swiss cheeses suitable for fondue which are pasteurised, why exactly do you not want raw milk cheese?
Can you name a few suitable ones, please? I always though there a type of cheese called "fondue cheese" and that's the one we buy at groceries :-/
Thanks