Fondue help

[paulg]

We're throwing a fondue party for 12. We have three electric pots; two 3 quart and one smaller dessert pot. One will be oil pot, one a sauce pot and one dessert.
Question: is one 3 qt oil pot enough for 12 people?
For sauces we're thinking about supplementing one pot with Corning Electromatics ( we have two).
Any and all comments or help is appreciated!
(I haven't been to a fondue party since the 1970's so it should be fun...)

 

[tomturbomatic]

Ancient history being recalled here: We used one pot for the 4 to 6 people per table. A lot depends on the wattage of the pot for the recovery of the oil when everyone is plunging cold food into it. At the nominal 1500 or less watts of heat, you really can't hope to serve more than that. While the oil capacity is important for a heat sink, the wattage is really important. If you can get people full of hors d'oeuvres before they sit down, they might not be quite so anxious to fry. Oh, keep the pieces of meat small so they fry faster. I often wondered if it was cheating to pre cook the meat in a serious deep fryer and sort of let people just do a warm up in the oil at the table since gourmands outnumber gourmets.

The most imortant thing to remember is never to let anyone put a solid cover on the pot when the oil is hot or heating up. If condensation drops into the oil, the whole pot can explode.

Remember the plates with the sections for sauces? I have a beautiful set of forks with the color codes. I don't remember needing pots for the sauces. Are you doing cheese, too?

 

[paulg]

Say cheese...

Yup, we're doing at least one hot cheese too.
Thanks a bunch for advising about the tech aspects of fondue. I can totally see an overwhelmed pot creating issues.
Fortunately the pots don't have covers. Will ensure not to condensate. Oddly we must have fifty fondue forks. Do they mate if left alone?
We are planning a trial run soon to knock out the kinks. I'll keep all your info in mind for sure.

 

[maytagbear]

Most people. . .

I know who served beef fondue used peanut oil, (refined), for the high temperature it tolerated, and for the lack of obnoxious lingering odor.

I haven't been to a fondue party in decades.

My chocolate fondue was broken Toblerone bars and half-and-half (light or single cream).

It could be a lot of fun!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[paulg]

Thanks Maytagbear

Thanks for addressing the odor issue. Choice of oils is so important to know before one stinks up the house. I really dislike cooking oil odor.
The Toblerone idea is super. I really like Toblerone... Who doesn't?
Thanks!

 

[westie2]

All the above is right and also take some cubed up bread and brown in the oil first so the oll will brown then meat well.

What sauces are you doing. Sour cream and horseradish is good. I'l look some of ours up and post if you want. You will have so much retro fun.

Here is aFondue link.

Fondue Dipping Sauce Recipes - Oil Fondue - BestFondue.com

An oil fondue wouldn't be complete without delicious fondue dipping sauce recipes.

www.bestfondue.com

 

[paulg]

I'll take your sauce tips

I'd certainly like your sauce tips.
Thanks for the link, I didn't ever see that one.

 

[runematic]

Electric fondue pots!?!  We never had such high falutin gadgets growing up.  We always used the good ol' fashioned, ready-to-burn-the-table-cloth-don't-let-the-oil-hit-the-flame,  sterno powered pots.

 

Broke out the old early 80's sterno-powered pot (used to have a 70's before that but somehow it got tossed out years ago)  for a New Year's party about 2 years ago.  What a way to step back in time.

 

What I've always found was small cuts of meat work best & it always seemed best to marinate the meat before cooking to get some great flavor in it.

 

Good luck and sounds like fun.

 

[paulg]

I switched to electric

I too grew up with Sterno pots. They certainly worked ok. However as kids we only did oil fondues without the fancy sauces. We also listened to Neil Diamond Stones while eating fondue.
Fondue is not fondue unless you play Stones...
Years later, at the Salvation Army I bought a NIB OSTER fondue for a few bucks. Very 70's vintage.
Boy, it made fondue easy. And cheese sauces worked well too.
And easy fondue makes you want to fondue (I just made that up).
I was converted. Yet again... controlled heat is THE ANSWER!

Thanks too for the marinade tip!

 

[gansky1]

I made a swiss cheese - white wine fondue for the local gay collector's group party here a couple of months ago.  Everyone was thrilled with the "retro" fondue pots I used, a NIB Oster that Robert and Fred gave us and a NIB GE table fondue-skillet-chaffing dish combo we found at a sale.  The cheese dipping was out of this world good and there wasn't a drop left.   The second pot was just marinara sauce from Trader Joe's with pretzel bread for dipping from Whole (paycheck) Foods.

 

I've bought a few sets of fondue forks, I couldn't find the full set I bought a while back so bought more and of course, immediately found the the first set when I went to put the new ones away.   I now have, including the set that came with the Oster, way too many!

 

Interesting tip about the peanut oil, I won't have any frying in the house from the lingering smell usually so that's good to know. 

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[westie2]

Some of theFoudue sauces

Here are some of ours. 
A good quick one is just to use a good Catalina dressing plain and then add some honey for a sweeter taste

 

 

<span>Spicy Oriental Sauce</span>

<span style="line-height: 115%;">2 tbs Soy Sauce
1.5 tbs Lemon Juice
2 Green Chili Peppers (chopped)
1 clove Garlic
2 tsp Sesame Oil

Add all ingredients and mix</span>

<span>Bearnaise Sauce</span>

<span style="line-height: 115%;">1 tbs Shallots (finely chopped)
1 tsp Fresh Parsely (chopped)
1/4 tsp Tarragon
1/4 tsp Thyme
Black Pepper to taste
Salt to taste
1/4 cup Dry White Wine
1/4 cup Tarragon Vinegar
3 Egg Yolks
1/2 cup Butter

Add Shallot, Parsley, Seasoning, Wine, Vinegar to a pot
Boil mixture until reduced by 1/2
Strain liquid and cool
Beat in Egg Yolks and Butter
Mixture should be consistency of Mayanaise</span>

<span>Garlic Lemon Sauce</span>

<span style="line-height: 115%;">1 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1 1/2 tbs Lemon Juice
1 tbs Minced Garlic
1/2 tsp Tabasco

Combine ingredients in a bowl
Mix well
Refridgerate until serving</span>

<span>Dijon Mustard Sauce</span>

<span style="line-height: 115%;">1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1/2 cup Dijon Mustard
Black Pepper (to taste)

Combine ingredients in a bowl
Mix well
Refridgerate until serving</span>

<span style="line-height: 115%;">
<span>Sesame Sauce</span>

<span style="line-height: 115%;">2 tbs White Sesame Seeds
1/3 cup Soy Sauce
2 tbs Green Onion (chopped)
1 tbs Cider Vinegar
2 tsp Ginger (finely chopped)
1 tsp Water

Brown Sesame Seeds in frying pan or skillet
Chop Browned Seeds and a few drops of soy in food processor on high<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span>

 
<span>Cocktail Sauce</span>

<span>1 tbs Horseradish
1 tbs Lemon Juice
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
3/4 cup Ketchup
Tabasco Sauce to taste
Salt & Pepper to taste

Add all ingredients and mix well</span>

 
<span> </span>

<span>Lemon Teriyaki Sauce</span>

<span>1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 cup Sugar
2 tbs Lemon Juice

Add all ingredients to a pot
Heat until ingredients come to a boil </span>

</span>

 

 

 

[westie2]

For a good sectional plate we found some at our local Dollar Tree and have seen smow at Wal Mart also.  We need to do this ourselves been a long time since doing one.

 

[paulg]

OMG Westie

Thanks so much for taking the time to send me those terrific fondue recipes.
I truly appreciate it!