Cheese should be kept in its original packaging in an airtight container or in cling film in the fridge. Even vacuum-packed cheese should be stored in this way once it has been opened.

Leftover cheese of all kinds, whether hard or soft, can be frozen for up to six months. Grate or rub the Swiss cheese and divide it into portions ready to be frozen. Now you can use it for cheesecakes, cheese slices, omelettes, tortillas, gratins or fondues. Always place the cheese on the dough or bread or in the egg or gratin mixture whilst still frozen. Once it has been defrosted, cheese should be consumed rapidly.
Fondue mixtures can also be frozen. They should be added to the wine and prepared whilst still frozen. A loss of flavour is inevitable during freezing, which is why it is always best to use cheese when it is fresh.

Swiss cheese must be stored in a cool place. There must be no long breaks in the cold chain whilst the cheese is transported from the place of purchase to the consumer’s home, when the temperature can rapidly increase. If Swiss cheese gets too warm, the milk fat begins to escape and it becomes tough and rubbery. People often discover this after a mountain walk with a refreshment stop at an Alpine dairy or when bringing home cheese as a holiday souvenir.
Not a pretty sight – and no longer a culinary experience. Use the cheese for cheesecakes, gratins or cheese omelettes.
Tip: When purchasing Swiss cheese, ask for it to be vacuum packed at the counter. It will keep better and can be transported unharmed.

There are around 450 different varieties of Swiss cheese to enhance our food palette. A good 100 of these varieties are seasonal specialities. The vast majority are Alpine cheeses which are produced in summer for approximately 100 days on the Alps. Vacherin Mont d’Or AOC comes into season from around mid-September until mid-April. It is a soft smear cheese from the Wadtland Jura. Several different cheeses containing herbs go on sale in the spring, and new cheese creations are always to be found at the cheese counter during the Christmas period. Fondue and raclette do not count as winter specialities as they can be enjoyed all year round.

Simply looking at an exquisitely rich cheeseboard served for dessert is often enough to make a gourmet’s mouth start watering. Anybody who enjoys eating cheese to conclude a celebratory meal should make sure they put together a well-balanced cheeseboard. Emmentaler AOC ripened in a fermentation cellar is always a real treat. After being stored for 12 months, it is completely mature, has a strong aroma and a slightly mellow dough. Saltwater tears are a sign of a noble character. Melt-in-the-mouth Freiburger Vacherin AOC is just as suitable. Gruyère AOC mi-salé completes the dessert. Its typical but mild aroma unfolds after seven months of being tended to in the cheese cellar. Soft cheese varieties also go down very well: Swiss Camembert and its mild to earthy/zesty aroma depending on its degree of maturity, melt-in-the-mouth Reblochon or slightly zesty “Hohle Gasse”. A refreshing fruity cream cheese preparation, containing pineapple for example, completes the range of tastes. Decorate the cheeseboard with fresh fruit, grapes and nuts, and pass round bread, possibly even fruit or pear bread.

If the fondue seems to be separating:
Put the caquelon back on the stove and add a teaspoon of white wine and add a bit of cornflour dissolved in a squirt of fresh lemon juice. Stir well and leave to cook for a while.

If the fondue is too thin and liquid:
Turn up the flame on the burner, add a little bit of cornflour dissolved in wine or kirsch and a handful of grated cheese if necessary.

If the fondue is too thick:
Turn up the flame on the burner, add a drop of wine and stir well.

If your guests want even more:
If you still have some grated cheese left over, you can add it to the fondue whenever you wish. Turn up the flame on the burner, add some more cheese and wine and stir. If you have no cheese left, start talking about the delicious dessert you have prepared!

Which Swiss cheese:
Gruyère AOC and Vacherin Fribourgeois AOC are the types of cheese that really belong in a fondue, mixed half and half. Emmentaler AOC, Raclette, Appenzeller, Tilsiter and Sbrinz AOC are also suitable. A heavy pan called a caquelon is used for preparing and serving the fondue. The cheese cooks quickest and most comfortably on the stove. The cheese mixture should then be allowed to simmer gently on the burner on the table.

Wine:
A generous shot of dry white and a squirt of lemon juice. Apple juice and champagne can also be used.

Spices:
Garlic, pepper and nutmeg are the most common. Onions, shallots, caraway, paprika, green pepper and curry give the fondue a more unusual flavour.

Accompaniment:
White bread, brown bread, wholegrain bread, farmhouse bread, baguette. With potatoes and possibly mixed vegetables alongside the fondue.

Drinks:
A glass of tangy white wine or a cup of weak black tea.

Before, with, in between and afterwards
Before a fondue, the best starter to serve is some dried meat (e.g. Air- dried beef Grisons style, “Mostbröckli” smoked beef slices or smoked ham), vegetables with Quark dip or a light, fresh crispy lettuce.

With a fondue, you need some bread to dip in such as French bread, white bread, brown bread, wholegrain bread (that is not too fresh and has a lot of crust), toast cooked in butter or potatoes. This main course is best accompanied with a glass of white wine or a cup of weak black tea.

In between a fondue, the most popular accompaniments are gherkins, pickled onions, olives, dried tomatoes, anchovies, pepperoni, shrimps, asparagus spears, corn on the cob, fruit. With a drop of Kirsch, fruit brandy, Marc, Williams, Calvados, Grappa or plum liquor in between to give exactly the right flavour.

After a fondue, a light dessert would be just right. A sorbet or a fresh fruit salad is the perfect way to follow on from a fondue.

Are you looking forward to spending a companiable, cheerful evening and to sitting down comfortably to share a fondue or raclette with friends? Give your creativity free rein. You can invent unlimited variations on a fondue. Almost every canton of Switzerland has come up with its own creations. In Central Switzerland, Sbrinz and Tilsiter cheese give fondues a distinctive flavour. In Eastern Switzerland, the white wine is replaced with fruity apple wine, and the kirsch is replaced with a small glass of fruit brandy or Calvados. The Valais tomato fondue contains small peeled cubes of tomato as well as finely chopped onions, and the popular classic fondue Moitié-Moitié combines equal quantities of Gruyère AOC and Freiburger Vacherin AOC. You can also add mushrooms, herbs or special spices such as curry or paprika to match your mood.
 
There are no limits to what your imagination can do when it comes to raclette as well. Depending on the season, you could serve asparagus spears and smoked ham, rashers of bacon and fruit mustard, steamed spinach leaves or leeks, pears and grapes or even a fresh smoked cured pork chop as an accompaniment. Why not surprise your friends, relations and even yourself.