Hm. We bought this fondue pot, and embarked on cheese and then broth fondue. I'm usually very impressed with AllClad stuff, and this certainly looks like a fabulous fondue pot. It uses the little sterno pots, instead an electric element, but we thought it was going to do the trick.
Nope. It was ok for cheese, keeping the double-boiler with the ceramic insert plenty hot for that, but it was completely inadequate for broth (and I can't imagine any better for oil). We boiled the broth on the stovetop and poured it into the fondue pot, assuming that the burner would keep it at the simmer point --- it didn't, not without taking off the fuel-pot cover, which then let the flames lick out over the sides of the pot, making a reach for a fork a bit more exciting than it should have been.
The pot itself has a 'cover' of sorts that has slots for the forks to rest in, which keeps them separate and upright. Good idea, except you then can't see into the pot at all, and it requires that the pot be very very full to submerge the food, since the forks are quite short. Remove the cover, and the all-metal forks resting on the side of the pot are heated by the flames and impossible to use.
The food was pretty tasty, though, although we somehow ended up with cheese soup instead of fondue-consistency (didn't stop us from eating the whole pot with chunks of garlic-rosemary bread, though).
Bad design, at least for us. I'm definitely not happy with the fondue pot and I'm taking it back today. William Sonoma is good about taking it back, so away it goes. As suggested by my MIL, I'm opting for a plug-in model, which is what we shoudl have done in the first place. We were just sucked in by the romance of an open flame and spiffy pot. Feh.
2 comments:
Short forks?!? That's a terrible idea. What were they thinking?? Maybe they like excitement.
MIL
Plug-ins are where it's at. Although I admit they sell the Sterno ones in Switzerland... but if you ever want to try oil fondue, the Sterno won't get the job done.
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