Smoked gouda fondue with beer-caramelized onions
- Preparation 15 min
- Cooking 20 min
- Servings 4 to 6
- Freezing I do not suggest
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🔥 Smoke as a real signature
I love smoked cheese. It has this incredible depth of flavor, a little fire that lingers well after the bite. Here I used three smoked cheeses, Oka, Gouda and Cheddar, to build a fondue that doesn’t hold back: the smoke is everywhere, not just an accent. If that’s too much for you, my classic cheese fondue is the gentler option.
🧅 Caramel meets smoke
And with caramelized onions, it blends beautifully with the caramel side, the Maillard side of the smoked cheese. I cook the onions low and slow until they turn properly brown. Then I pour in the beer and reduce it a little, not all the way, just enough to concentrate the flavor before the cheese goes into the pan. No wine here, no cream: just cheese, cornstarch, onions and beer.
❄️ A fondue for nights that call for it
This is a treat-yourself fondue, a chalet fondue, an après-ski fondue, a winter night fondue. For when you feel like spoiling yourself and it’s cold outside. You just finished shoveling, or the leaves are falling, or it’s simply raining, or you just feel like it. I serve it with bread, blanched crunchy vegetables, grapes, apples and sausages around the pot, everyone digs in with their own fork.
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🍺 Reduce it, not all the way
I reduce the beer for two to three minutes before adding the cheese. No more than that. The goal is to concentrate the flavor, not dry it out. A quarter cup is plenty.
🧀 The rind stays. The wax doesn’t.
The cheeses I suggest here don’t have a wax rind, so I grate them with the rind on, it’s part of the flavor. But if yours has a wax coating, take it off before grating: wax doesn’t melt, it just turns into little chunks in your fondue.
🧑🌾 Your cheeses, their Quebec cousins
Oka is a semi-firm, washed-rind cheese with notes of hazelnut and butter. If you can’t find a smoked version, a Quebec cheese in the same family like Tomme de Racine or Petit Alaric will get you close on texture, even if you have to look elsewhere for the smoke. Smoked Gouda is a firm, washed-rind cheese, all butter and smoke: Le Boucané, a local smoked cheese, plays in the same league. Smoked Cheddar is the easiest to swap: almost every Quebec cheesemaker has a smoked version, just look for the word on the label.
😅 If the smoke is too much for you
It happens. Smoke is intense, and not everyone loves it at the same level. If that’s you, try my classic cheese fondue instead. Same base, without the campfire edge.
📅 Getting ahead
The onions caramelize really well the day before. Just reheat them gently before pouring in the beer, and the rest of the recipe takes fifteen minutes.
🫙 Leftovers
Keep it in the fridge in an airtight container for a few days, and reheat it gently, never at full power in the microwave, or the cheese will separate. If you’re struggling to bring back a smooth texture, use it as filling for homemade ravioli. Nobody will guess it started as yesterday’s fondue.
✅ What to serve with my smoked gouda fondue?
Bread, blanched crunchy vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower, grapes. And to take it further, red and green apples with sausages, an excellent idea to cut through the richness of the cheese. If you’re after another fondue in the same spirit, my Swiss cheese fondue with oyster mushrooms and beer is worth trying.
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Ingredients
- 200g smoked Oka cheese with rind (if yours has a wax coating, take it off), grated
- 270g smoked Gouda with rind (if yours has a wax coating, take it off), grated
- 250g smoked Cheddar, grated
- 4 tsp (20 ml). cornstarch
- 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
- Olive oil
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) fruity lager
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Preparation
- In a large bowl, mix the grated cheese with the cornstarch. Set aside.
- In a non-stick pan heated over medium-low heat, add a generous drizzle of olive oil. Add the yellow onion and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If the onions start to brown too quickly, lower the heat.
- Pour in the beer and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until reduced to a semi-dry consistency: no need to take it all the way, just enough to concentrate the flavor.
- Add the grated cheeses to the pan. Melt over low heat, stirring, for 5 to 6 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then stir until the fondue thickens slightly.
- Serve this smoked cheese fondue with pieces of bread, crunchy vegetables (blanched broccoli and cauliflower), grapes, red and green apples and sausages!
Yes, as long as you grate it and toss it with cornstarch before it hits the heat. Smoking a cheese doesn’t change how it melts, only how it tastes. Keep the heat low and stir the whole time and you’re fine.
Grainy fondue usually means the cheese heated too fast or too hard. Always toss your grated cheese with cornstarch before it goes in the pan, melt it over low heat, and stir constantly without letting it boil. If it still separates, a little water mixed with cornstarch helps bring it back together.
There are a few on the site. My classic cheese fondue is the white-wine original, there’s also my Swiss cheese fondue with oyster mushrooms and beer, and if you’d rather dip meat in broth, my fondue broth with Eau Bénite beer covers that.
Yes. A non-alcoholic beer reduces with the onions just as well as the real thing, and if you’d rather skip beer altogether, broth or even a splash of apple juice makes a fair stand-in.
A fondue pot on a tabletop burner, set low so the cheese doesn’t keep cooking, works best. No burner? The saucepan straight on the stove, turned to its lowest setting, gets you through one meal just fine.
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