Categories: Appetizers, Cheese/eggs 
      Yield: 1 servings 
  
  2 1/2 fl Dry white wine                    1/2 fl Kirsch** 
           Clove garlic                             Shake pepper 
  5 1/2 oz Emmental and Gruyere cheese*             Grind fresh nutmeg 
      1 ts Cornstarch                          6 oz White bread, cubed 
  
  (Note:  the above measurements are for *each* person. 
   Multiply by your number of guests.) 
   
  * Grated and mixed half and half.  ** This is Swiss cherry firewater: 
  clear, dry-tasting -- *not* "cherry brandy", which is dark and sweet. 
   
  Most good liquor stores should carry it, at least one of the US brands like 
  Hiram Walker, or else maybe Bols.  The best Kirsch is "Etter" brand from 
  Switzerland, but the odds of your finding it are minuscule. -- In 
  Switzerland, fondue is usually perpared in a "caquelon", an earthenware 
  dish with a handle, glazed inside;  but any enamelled saucepan can be used, 
  or a not too shallow fireproof dish. Rub the inside of the pan with half a 
  cut clove of garlic, and let it dry until the rubbed places feel tacky. Put 
  the wine in the dish and bring it to a boil. Slowly start adding cheese to 
  the boiling wine, and stir constantly until each bit is dissolved, then add 
  more.  When all the cheese is in, stir the kirsch into the cornstarch well, 
  then add the mixture to the cheese and keep stirring over the heat until 
  the mixture comes to a boil again.  Add freshly ground pepper and nutmeg to 
  taste.  -- Remove the dish to on top of a small live flame (Sterno or 
  alcohol burner) and keep it bubbling slowly. Bread should have been cubed 
  ~- about 1-inch cubes -- for spearing with fondue forks and stirring around 
  in the cheese.  The old custom is that if you accidentally lose the bread 
  into the cheese from the end of your fork, if you're male, you have to buy 
  a round of drinks for the table: if you're female, you have to kiss 
  everybody. (Hmm.) . 
   
  Other fondue info:  Do not drink water with fondue -- it reacts unkindly in 
  your stomach with the cheese and bread.  Dry white wine or tea are the 
  usual accompaniments.  Another tradition:  the "coupe d'midi", or "shot in 
  the middle", for when you get full:  a thimbleful of Kirsch, knocked 
  straight back in the middle of the meal, usually magically produces more 
  room if you're feeling too full. Don't ask me how this works...it just 
  does.  -- The crusty bit that forms at the bottom of the pot as the cheese 
  keeps cooking is called the "crouton", and is very nice peeled off and 
  divvied up among the guests as a sort of farewell to dinner.