Some traditional Swiss dishes, such as fondue and raclette, are more typically eaten in the winter. Others, such as muesli – also known in Switzerland as Birchermüesli – and rösti are popular all year round and come in many variations.
Switzerland's national dishes
Cheese fondue
A cheese fondue – the name comes from fondre, the French for 'to melt' – can be made in lots of variations and with different cheese mixtures. The most common combinations include grated Gruyère, Vacherin Fribourgeois and/or Appenzeller cheese. The cheese is melted with white wine and served warm in a wide-topped pot known as a caquelon. To eat the fondue, diners dip small cubes of bread on a long-handled fork into the pot. The pot sits over a burner with an adjustable flame level, keeping the cheese warm and melted.
As it's quite a heavy meal, a fondue is best paired with a dry white wine or hot tea, or even a shot of kirsch. The tradition goes that if you lose your piece of bread in the fondue while stirring, you have to accept some form of penalty. This is usually something quite innocuous, but there are no set rules and you may end up having to run barefoot though the night-time snow!
- 1 garlic clove
- 300ml dry white wine
- 3 tsp cornflour
- 400g Vacherin Fribourgeois cheese, grated
- 400g Gruyère cheese, grated
- 600–800g crusty bread
- Kirsch, pepper, nutmeg
Ingredients
Method
Slightly flatten the garlic clove with a fork and rub it around the inside of the fondue pot.
Add the white wine and cornflour, blend and heat on the stove until it starts to boil.
Lower the heat and gradually add the cheese until completely melted, stirring all the time.Add pepper, nutmeg and kirsch to taste.
Meanwhile, cut the bread into 2–3cm cubes.
As soon as the cheese mixture is smooth, place the pot over the burner.
Make sure the fondue stays warm over the burner. Use fondue forks to dip the bread cubes into the cheese. Stir the fondue well with each bread cube to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Tip: add a pinch of baking soda or baking powder to the fondue to make it lighter and easier to digest.
Rösti
Rösti is a kind of potato cake served as a main course or side dish. The potatoes are first cooked in their jackets, then peeled and grated before being fried in butter to form a round flat cake. As a main course, the rösti can be garnished with your choice of ingredients, such as fried egg, cheese, vegetables, mushrooms or meat. Rösti is also a tasty accompaniment for many main courses, such as sausages, Geschnetzeltes (creamy meat stew) or fish. What makes rösti unique is the Röstiraffel – a coarse potato grater invented in Switzerland in the late 1800s.
Each region now has its own rösti recipes. In Bern, for example, rösti is served with cheese, onions and bacon. In Zurich, where rösti originally comes from, the potatoes are not cooked before being grated. As a speciality from the German-speaking part of the country, rösti also lends its name to the Röstigraben, the cultural and linguistic 'trench' between French and German-speaking Switzerland. Rösti is now one of the country's best-known national dishes.
- 1.2kg large waxy potatoes
- 3 tbsp butter
- 2 tsp salt
- 10 twists from the pepper mill
- If you want to add onions and diced bacon or herbs, these should be added to the grated, cold potatoes.
- Never stir the rösti during the frying process (this would mash the potatoes).
- The frying time is determined by the water content of the potatoes. Depending on the variety, you may need to fry them a little longer.
Ingredients
Method
The day before, steam the unpeeled potatoes for about 40 minutes. Make sure not to overboil them. Peel the potatoes while they are still warm, then chill them overnight.
Coarsely grate the potatoes, keeping the strips as long as possible. Melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan. Add the potatoes, salt and pepper, mix gently. Using a wooden spatula, lightly press the edges around the curve of the pan. Fry the rösti on one side for about 10 minutes until golden brown, then turn it over and finish frying for 10 minutes on the other side.
Handy tips
Raclette
Raclette is a typical dish from the canton of Valais. Traditionally, half a cheese wheel is heated on one side and, as it melts, the cheese is scraped off onto a plate. An easier way to do it is with slices of Raclette cheese, which are melted on small pans in a special grill – a staple in almost every Swiss home. Raclette is eaten with potatoes, garnished with pickled onions and gherkins. It is best paired with a local white wine such as a Fendant.
- 1kg small potatoes
- 800g sliced Raclette cheese
- Pickled onions and gherkins, other pickled vegetables or fruit, pepper, paprika
Ingredients
Method
Boil the potatoes in their skins. Keep them warm in a covered basket.
Place some cheese slices in the special pans and melt them under the raclette grill, which is placed on the serving table. Then pour the melted cheese over the potatoes.
This cheese and potato dish is usually accompanied by gherkins, pickled onions, etc. and paired with white wine.
If you don't have a raclette grill, you can place the cheese slices over the cooked potatoes and melt them in the oven.
You could of course also make a raclette the traditional way: hold a large piece of cheese near the fire, wait until the top layer begins to melt and then scrape the cheese onto a plate of potatoes.
Muesli
Muesli, known in Switzerland as Birchermüesli, is a breakfast or snack consisting of cereal (oat) flakes, chopped fruit and milk. There are countless variations with, for example, honey, yoghurt and nuts. Muesli was created by the Swiss nutritionist Max Bircher-Benner at the beginning of the 20th century. His 'apple diet dish', developed as part of a raw food diet, was originally served to sanatorium patients as an easily digestible evening meal. Nowadays muesli is a staple in Western breakfast culture and is especially popular among athletes as a nutritional supplement.
For one portion:
1 level tbsp oatmeal flakes
3 tbsp water
Mix and leave to soak for 12 hours.
Add
1 tbsp lemon juice and
1 tbsp sweetened condensed milkand mix to form a sauce.
Just before serving, directly grate
2 unpeeled apples (400g), preferably acidic, into the muesli and stir to prevent the apple from browning.
Over the dish, sprinkle
1 tbsp sliced almonds or hazelnuts.
There are countless variations to the classic muesli recipe all over the world. Try it for yourself and see which ingredients and combinations you like best. Be as creative as you like – bon appetit!
