Cervelat
Encyclopedia
Sausage
A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...
produced mainly in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
and in parts of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The modern Swiss variety is a mixture of beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
, bacon
Bacon
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...
and pork rind
Pork rind
Pork rind , is the fried or roasted skin of a pig. Frying melts most of the fat from the pork rind...
packed into zebu
Zebu
Zebu , sometimes known as humped cattle, indicus cattle, Cebu or Brahmin cattle are a type of domestic cattle originating in South Asia, particularly the Indian subcontinent. They are characterised by a fatty hump on their shoulders, drooping ears and a large dewlap...
intestines, slightly smoked and then boiled.
Background
The sausage is called cervelas in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, cervelat in the German-speaking part and servelat in the Italian-speaking part. Both variants ultimately derive from cerebrum, the Latin word for brainBrain (as food)
The brain, like most other internal organs, or offal, can serve as nourishment. Brains used for nourishment include those of pigs, squirrels, horses, cattle, monkeys, chickens and goats...
, which was in early recipes. The term "cervelat" is the older of the two. It was first recorded in 1552 by Rabelais, and is derived from zervelada, a Milanese
Milanese
Milanese is the central variety of the Western Lombard language spoken in the city and province of Milan....
dialect word. Zervelada or in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, cervelato, means a "large, short sausage filled with meat and pork brains."
The modern recipe, which does not carry brains, arose towards the end of the 19th century in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
, as reworking of the traditional recipe. The taste might be somewhat alikened to that of a frankfurter
Hot dog
A hot dog is a sausage served in a sliced bun. It is very often garnished with mustard, ketchup, onions, mayonnaise, relish and/or sauerkraut.-History:...
, but with a smokier flavour and a texture brought about by its fat shape and the tightly wrapped natural casing.
The cervelat is often referred to as the national sausage of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. Some 160 million cervelats weighing 27,000 metric tons are produced in Switzerland annually, which is equivalent to a consumption of 25 cervelats per person each year. Grilling cervelats over an open fire with the ends cut open so they expand like a butterfly's wings is a childhood memory for nearly every Swiss person; as a result, many Swiss are emotionally attached to the sausage.
Production and preparation
Swiss cervelats are made of roughly equal parts of beefBeef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
, pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
, bacon
Bacon
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...
, pork rind
Pork rind
Pork rind , is the fried or roasted skin of a pig. Frying melts most of the fat from the pork rind...
and ice
Ice
Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...
, which helps bind the ingredients, along with spice
Spice
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...
s, curing
Curing (food preservation)
Curing refers to various food preservation and flavoring processes, especially of meat or fish, by the addition of a combination of salt, nitrates, nitrite or sugar. Many curing processes also involve smoking, the process of flavoring, or cooking...
salt and cutter additives. The ingredients are finely minced in a cutter, packed into beef intestines, smoked for an hour and then cooked by boiling for a short time. Processed and packaged varieties sold in Swiss supermarkets also contain nitrite
Nitrite
The nitrite ion has the chemical formula NO2−. The anion is symmetric with equal N-O bond lengths and a O-N-O bond angle of ca. 120°. On protonation the unstable weak acid nitrous acid is produced. Nitrite can be oxidised or reduced, with product somewhat dependent on the oxidizing/reducing agent...
s and antioxidant
Antioxidant
An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons or hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals. In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions. When...
s. A cervelat may weigh from about 100 to 200 gram
Gram
The gram is a metric system unit of mass....
s.
Cervelats are prepared and eaten cooked, boiled, grilled or fried
Frying
Frying is the cooking of food in oil or another fat, a technique that originated in ancient Egypt around 2500 BC. Chemically, oils and fats are the same, differing only in melting point, but the distinction is only made when needed. In commerce, many fats are called oils by custom, e.g...
. They are also served cold, either in a salad or with bread and mustard.
2008 casings shortage
Traditionally, Swiss beef intestines were used for the casings, but towards the end of the 20th century, local cattle producers lost interest in cleaning and preparing them, so meat processors switched to BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian zebu
Zebu
Zebu , sometimes known as humped cattle, indicus cattle, Cebu or Brahmin cattle are a type of domestic cattle originating in South Asia, particularly the Indian subcontinent. They are characterised by a fatty hump on their shoulders, drooping ears and a large dewlap...
intestines, which are not fatty and do not easily split open when roasted. However, beginning on 1 April 2006, the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
banned the import of many animal parts from Brazil as a measure aimed at preventing the spread of mad cow disease. Among these were beef intestines. Although Switzerland is not an EU member state, it is bound to observe European food protection laws through other treaty agreements. Hence, Swiss and German stockpiles of zebu intestines became very low by 2008, threatening production altogether, and causing some controversy in Switzerland. In January of that year, the Swiss meat industry announced that a national "cervelat task force" had failed in an exhaustive search for an acceptable alternative to zebu intestines.
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
noted that "the possible demise of cervelats visibly upset the Swiss, a normally even-tempered people." The cervelat production crisis was covered closely by the Swiss media and in a newspaper poll, 72% of those surveyed said the "cervelas, as they knew it, had to be saved." The cervelat crisis was brought up in a parliamentary debate wherein state councillor
Swiss Council of States
The Council of States of Switzerland is the smaller chamber of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, and is considered the Assembly's upper house. There are 46 Councillors....
and president of the Swiss Meat Association, Rolf Büttiker
Rolf Büttiker
Rolf Büttiker is a Swiss politician and business consultant. He was President of the Swiss Council of States for the 2005/2006 term. A member of FDP.The Liberals, he was elected to the Council of States in 1991. From 1987 to 1991, he was member of the National Council.-External links:*...
, spoke of the national sausage's social significance, calling it a "cult sausage" and "the worker
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
's steak". The Swiss government entered into negotiations with the EU to seek an exception for zebu intestines, and Swiss scientists were sent to Brazil hoping to show that the intestines posed no risk of transmitting mad cow disease.
By August 2008, most of the Swiss demand for bovine intestines had been met with imports from Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
.