Trudeau 0823004 Electric 11-Piece 3-in-1 Fondue Set
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List Price: Our Price: $79.95 You Save: $0.04 (0%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $59.95 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Trudeau 0823004 Electric 11-Piece 3-in-1 Fondue Set
Customer Review: Best electric fondue pot available: stylish, quality, functional.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Trudeau electric fondue pot is a triumph of form following function. Being electric it is very convenient to use and arguably safer than "sterno" units. It is versatile and can be used with cheese, meat or dessert fondues. Compared to others presently on the market, it has the distinct advantage of being the only one truly designed for all three types of fondue.
I tested the Rival and the Cuisinart. Both use direct heat technology, which is fine for oil or broth based fondue which require high heat. However, when you cook cheese or dessert you have use a low heat setting. Both units cycle between "on" and "off" at various intervals trying to keep a steady temperature. This creates either rapid boiling or fast cooling. Making a cheese or chocolate fondue with the Rival and Cuisinart is doable, but be prepared to be stirring the pot a lot to prevent scorching the food. The Westinghouse seems to be the same design as the other two, but I have not tried it.
As for the Trudeau it has several nice features. First, the pot is separate from the heating base. This means you can heat the pot in the kitchen and bring it to the table when ready. The heating surface is teflon coated for easy clean up. The unit is also more "upright" than the other electrics which takes up less space on your table, while looking darn good too. IMHO.
However, what gives the Trudeau its distinct advantage is the unique double boiler system where, when making cheese or dessert fondue, you fill the chrome pot with 20 ounces of water and insert a stoneware crock into the pot. The arrangement allows for even heating at lower temperatures which is essential for cheese and chocolate fondues.
For oil or broth fondues, the chrome pot sit atop the direct heat of the heating base as you would expect. Six better than average fondue forks are included along with a fork holder for the chrome pot to keep the forks from sliding around. Another nice feature is the patented electric plug which eliminates the guesswork of knowing which way to insert the plug into the base.
If you want one fondue pot to serve all your needs, this is the one to buy.
Customer Review: Great Product
Summary: 5 Stars
I researched tons of fondue pots and I was prepared to spend $100 for a quality product. I finally chose this one for much less and it is an excellent product. It is beautiful, too.
You can find great recipes online and if you look up Melting Pot fondue recipes and look around, you can find a full three course. I had the Melting Pot beer cheese fondue first and the oil-less red wine and broth for my main course. It was delicious!
One of the great things about this product is that, since you have the separate ceramic bowl, you don't necessarily have to clean the pot in the middle of the meal. First, I made the broth and left it to simmer on the stove. Then I told everyone to get the veggies out while I began to make the cheese fondue. Meanwhile, I had water heating in the steel fondue pot, with the empty ceramic bowl on top. Once the cheese melted, I poured it into the ceramic bowl, which was already hot. Everyone loved it! Since it is not direct heat, the cheese remained evenly heated. The only draw back is that it was hard to get the cheese to a comfortable temperature, but I'm sure with a little practice and patience, I'll get it right.
After that course, I just took potholders and lifted the ceramic bowl out, put it in the sink, again using the potholders, dumped out the water in the silver bowl, and poured the broth from the stove in. Viola! Ready for the next course. This time, again, the drawback is that it is hard to get the right temp, but I think this would be true with any pot; you just have to learn the proper setting and be patient. With practice and practice, we'll get it right!
I think that it would be a pain to try to have three courses, since you would have to clean the cheese course to get to the chocolate. This product is the only one that I found that even offers two CONVENIENT options.
Order with confidence.
Customer Review: Very even temperature control...works great
Summary: 4 Stars
The unit works great. It is much safer to use than the sterno flame type fondue pots and it is much easier to manage the temperature control versus sterno units. It is very easy to set up, and cleans up well and packs away nicely. All in all, a very good value.
I've used this unit for cheese fondue using a recipe very similar to the one provided in the booklet, and the fondue was excellent and kept the cheese to the temperature needed until the dish was gone. We have not used it for chocolate but plan to do so over the holidays.
We tried it a week later with peanut oil and meat, and again, the unit worked well. The unit doesn't have a temperature gauge per se, and I think it got a little overheated as I was trying to get it to the perfect temperature. I would recommend using about 3/4 of the max temperature for starters and work it from there.
The cord is only a few feet long so we had to use a small extension cord to be able to get the fondue pot situated correctly. The safety trade-off of electricity versus sterno is worth it for that minor inconvenience. The power cord is magnetically attached to the unit so if you were to trip over the cord, the cord would disconnect without spilling the liquid, although I admit we did not try to do that.
I think all of us had trouble keeping items on the forks so we thought maybe the forks weren't designed properly. We looked at the other fondue set I have and the design was the same. So I don't know, we maybe need to drink less or something.
In short, I highly recommend this product. (I almost never rate anything 5 stars by the way.)
Customer Review: This Pot Makes Special Dinner More Special
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the niftiest product we've bought in quite a while (amazon.com offered the best price we found). After a very good (and very pricey) dinner at a local fondue chain restaurant, we decided we could create a similar dinner and have more room than the cramped booth for 4 at the restaurant. We used no creativity and duplicated the restaurant's menu. It was easy to find lookalike recipes online for the wine-based cooking broth as well as the cheese and chocolate fondues. This little pot really does it all. We started with a cheese-fondue appetizer using the ceramic insert(we did find that steaming our veggies a little before dipping them made them far superior to the cold, hard ones offered at the restaurant). It was quick and easy to soak the ceramic insert while we used the stainless pot half full of our pre-heated broth to cook tenderloin filet, chicken and shrimp bites (we skewered beef and shrimp on toothpicks and after a minute or so, dipped them out with little mesh dippers...we cooked the chicken bites longer). Then, a quick clean-up of the soaked ceramic insert made it ready to add dark chocolate chips and a little heavy cream to make a quick dessert fondue that was ready by the time the strawberries were washed and hulled. Then to make a great meal greater, the next day I sauteed a couple of onions (sliced thinly) in a little butter and added the refrigerated broth from the previous evening's fondue and we enjoyed the best French onion soup we've ever made.Customer Review: All in one fondue pot
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great fondue pot. Being new to doing it at home (but loving it out at restaurants), I was a little confused when reading fondue recipes. But be assured, this little pot and its heating unit can do it all! Many of the recipes call for you to start the broth, etc, on the stove and then move it to the pot. You do not have to do it with this pot! I still start my cheese fondue on the stove for a faster melting experience and then transfer it over, but meat cooked in a wine broth and chocolate melted in the ceramic pot was a breeze! The meat was fully cooked through, and tasted just as good, if not better, than at the restaurants! This is a perfect size pot for the two of us here, and made for a fancy and romantic New Year's dinner.
My only complaint, which is why this review is only 4 stars instead of 5, is the break away power plug. Any small movement and it breaks away. We do not have an outlet near our table, so I plugged it in via extension cord. I have to do fancy things to keep the slack of the cord up, otherwise the weight of this short cord pulls the power source out of the pot. Even plugging it in the first time, it barely stays in. It needs to have a bit more of a snap or feeling that the plug is securely in, because right now, it pops out at the slightest movement. Other than that, this is a great pot and I highly recommend it!