Last night's fondue was almost a disaster. In tag-team cooking style, My husband and I were heating the gruyére and wine mixture on the stovetop when the cheese began to separate. As panic set in, Frank began to second-guess the directions. He'd heard Alton, his favorite TV food pro, say that the starch should be added at the beginning. I took a second look at the cookbook; our recipe called for corn starch as a later step. Another opinion was needed, so I moved to the computer and searched for collective solutions from the Web-savvy public. A page full of message board responses filled the Google results and I clicked each one-by-one.
“Here's a solution ... add more wine,” I called out. “Oh, here's another, extra lemon juice will help.”
Frank stirred in the liquids without seeing any improvement. “The burner's probably set too hot. Are you stirring in figure-eights? This man added flour. No luck? Go ahead and mix in the cornstarch and kirsh.” My questions and commands were strung together in rapid succession as I took in every homespun fix ever published on the Web and repeated it aloud. But still Frank was left stirring a sloppy mess.
Knowing his wrists must be tired, I switched places with my spouse. As I took over at the stove I noticed that Frank had replaced the wooden spoon with a whisk, and seeing that the wires of the whisk only served to capture cheese solids inside, I resumed with the spoon. I sensed some improvement. Encouraged by this small success I questioned the temperature setting; the burner barely seemed hot enough. In a series of slow eighth-inch progressions I bumped up the heat. Within seconds I noticed the change we'd be seeking and several minutes later, Frank and I were enjoying fondue.
I share this anecdote for a simple reason: in the past I always thought that success was best when fueled by collective experience, by community. But I'm finding that isn't always true. It doesn't take a village to make fondue. When problems arise, sometimes all one really needs is an attention to detail and the quiet confidence to go it alone.
What are some of your cooking scares? Were you able to pull-off a solution? How?
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