Every part a Fondue Pot Can Be Used for That Isn’t Fondue

Is there anything more pleasurable than the experience of a vat of melted cheese to cozy up to during winter? When temperatures dip, Swiss nationals whip out their fondue pot and call in their herd for dinner, which ultimately involves melted cheese and bread. Fondue-zeit (affectionately known as fondue time) can send chills down the spines of many self-professed cheese lovers. A retro dish, fondue made its way to our shores in the ’50s and became outrageously popular in the ’70s with the cuisine being seen as a social event—sharing food with friends, how groovy!

But communal meals around a shared cooktop did not start with the Swiss. The Chinese hot pot can be traced back to Mongolia more than 900 years ago with some stories telling of how Mongolian soldiers would simmer broth and dip pieces of lamb using their metal helmets as the pot! Well into the 2020s, the cheese fondue fad has simmered down quite a bit. We hear you wondering, What else can I do with a fondue pot? Even cheese fiends can only muster one or two fondue sessions per season, and it seems like an extravagant purchase for such an infrequent meal, especially if storage space is limited. 

Believe it or not, the fondue pot is more versatile than you think, and depending on which model you invest in, a simple fondue pot can be used to bake bread in the oven, braise a beef stew, or even make the perfect winter tipple. Here are nine our favorite fondue pots, some traditional, others vintage, and a few even a bit outlandish. After all, isn’t fondue just that?