Title: Basic fondue (fondue neuchateloise)
 Categories: Appetizers, Cheese
      Yield: 1 servings
 
  2 1/2 fl Dry white wine
           Clove garlic
  5 1/2 oz Emmental and Gruyere cheese*
      1 ts Cornstarch
    1/2 fl Kirsch**
           Shake pepper
           Grind fresh nutmeg
      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.