Does Your Fuel Match Your Fondue Burner?
Having a meat fondue in oil or broth requires a particular type of fondue fuel whereas having a chocolate fondue requires a small tea light.
Do you know everything there is to know about fondue burners and fondue gel?
Don’t worry if you don’t, we’ve got you covered. Find information about fuels for fondue right here.
Different Fuels for Different Fondue Types
Let’s start with the easiest ones: chocolate fondue, caramel fondue, and dessert fondue.
For these types of fondue, you melt the dipping sauce on the stovetop, then transfer it to your small fondue pot.
Your fondue pot only has to keep it warm so that your guests can dip their pieces of fruit, cake or other dippers into the tasty liquid.
This is why the fondue burners for these pots are Unscented Tea Light candles.
Hotter Fondue Types
Your meat, seafood, and vegetarian fondues require higher temperatures that tea lights could not reach. The fondue pots for hot oil fondue are made to withstand high heat and require a different type of fondue burner.
An example of this type of burner is the Cuisinox Stainless Steel Fondue Burner which works with both gel or alcohol fuel.
Some burners require a gel fuel cartridges or liquid fuel or pourable gelled fondue fuel can be used for hot oil, broth or cheese fondue.
For cheese, hot oil or broth fondue burners, you must use the fondue fuel indicated by the manufacturer of your fondue burner. It could be in a liquid form (alcohol) such as the blue liquid fondue fuel below, or gel fuel.
Liquid fuel creates more heat than gel fuel, so if your burner supports both, you may want to use liquid alcohol fuel (see below) for hot oil and hot broth fondue. Gel fuel works great for cheese fondue (and you can also use alcohol fuel for it, but you may want to reduce the heat slightly by reducing the size of the openings on your burner).
Please note that liquid fuel (alcohol, shown on the right) cannot be shipped, and therefore cannot be purchased online. However, you should be able to find it in your local grocery store, near the BBQ supplies.
You need to put about 90 ml or about 3 oz of liquid into the bottom part of the burner. Make sure to not spill any of this flammable liquid on the table cloth for the safety of your guests.
Return the burner to a stable position under the pot and use a match to light it. Leave the air holes open. The larger the opening, the higher the heat coming out of your fondue burner. When you are done eating, simply put the cover on the burner and it will smother the fire.
If you have misplaced the burner for your fondue pot, you may be able to use a “Sterno” type of burner for your hot oil, broth or cheese fondue. Sterno is a brand name for fuel in a container such as this Sterno fuel.
Find out more about fondue fuel, fondue sets, and fondue pots here. You can shop online for fondue fuel here.
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