Skip to main content

Pilsen-port Swiss Fondue

"I don't know if this was done in the 70's, but I happened to throw these together for a fondue night with some really rustic sourdough and it was awesome. Port wine and beer blend with Swiss cheese in this no nonsense fondue. If round sourdough is hard to find, use a baguette sliced into rounds."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Port wine and beer share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 45 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

6 servings
Prep5 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Cut the sourdough loaf into bite-sized cubes and arrange them on a serving plate or basket.

  2. Pour the port wine and pilsner or dark beer into a medium saucepan and warm over medium-low heat for about 2 minutes, until steaming but not boiling.

  3. Add the shredded Swiss cheese a handful at a time, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon over low heat until fully melted and smooth, about 5 minutes.

  4. Stir in the pinch of ground nutmeg and mix well.

  5. Transfer the fondue to a fondue pot or keep it over the lowest heat so it stays warm and smooth.

  6. Serve immediately with the bread cubes for dipping, stirring the fondue occasionally.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Port wine + beertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Port wine + breadtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together321 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Swiss cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Beer + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  5. Beer + swiss cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, beer, swiss cheese, bread):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Pepperabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Cloveabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, beer, swiss cheese, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).