Cervelat
1276817
202237469
2008-03-31T05:56:41Z
Badagnani
308437
[[Image:Cervelat.jpg|thumb|200px|A grilled cervelat with its ends cut open in the traditional Swiss manner.]]
'''Cervelat''', also spelled ''cervelas'', ''servelat'' or ''zervelat'', is a type of cooked [[sausage]] produced mainly in [[Switzerland]] and in parts of [[Germany]].<ref name=Swissinfo2007>{{cite news|title=National sausage loses its skin|author=[[Matthew Allen]]|date=June 13, 2007|publisher=[[Swissinfo]]|url=http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/search/Result.html?siteSect=882&ty=st&sid=7920819}}</ref> In its modern Swiss variety, it consists of a mixture of [[beef]], [[bacon]] and [[pork rind]]<ref name=Swissinfo2007/> that is packed into [[zebu]] intestines,<ref name=NYT2008/> slightly smoked and then boiled.
==Name and history==
The sausage is called ''cervelas'' in the [[French-speaking part of Switzerland]] and ''cervelat'' in the German-speaking part. Both variants ultimately derive from ''[[cerebrum]]'', the [[Latin language|Latin]] word for [[brain]], in reference to the brain that used to be part of the recipe.<ref name=Swissinfo2007/><ref name=NYT2008/> The term "Cervelat" is the older of the two. It was first recorded in [[1552]] by [[Rabelais]], and is derived from ''zervelada'', a [[Milanese]] dialect word.<ref name=LeMatin2008>{{cite news|title=«Ach, gross malheur»: le cervelas est d'origine italo-française!|author=Ludovic Rocchiludovic|language=French|publisher=[[Le Matin Dimanche]]|date=27 January 2008|page=25|url=http://archives.lematin.ch/LM/LMD/-/article-2008-01-831/pauvre-cervelas-must-helvetique-par-excellence}}</ref>
''Zervelada'' or, in [[Italian language|Italian]], ''cervelato'', referred to a "large, short sausage filled with meat and pork brains".<ref name=LeMatin2008/> The contemporary recipe is derived from a late nineteenth-century reworking of the traditional recipe that was invented in [[Basel]].
==Production and preparation==
Swiss cervelats are made of roughly equal parts of [[beef]], [[pork]], [[bacon]], [[pork rind]] and [[ice]], as well as [[spice]]s, [[curing]] salt and cutter additives. The ingredients are very finely minced in a [[cutter]], packed into cow intestines, smoked for an hour at 65 to 70 [[°C]] and then boiled at 75°C.<ref name=NYT2008>{{cite news|title=Swiss Sausage Fans Fret Over How to Save Their Skin|date=February 3, 2008|author=[[John Tagliabue]]|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/world/europe/03sausage.html}}</ref> Traditionally, Swiss cow intestines were used, but producers switched to [[Brazil]]ian [[zebu]] intestines after the local materials became too rare and expensive.<ref name=NYT2008/>
Cervelats can be prepared in numerous ways. They can be eaten [[cooked]], [[boiled]], [[grilled]] or [[fried]]. They are also served raw, either as part of a salad or as a whole with bread and mustard.<ref name=Swissinfo2007/>
==Production crisis==
Effective April 1, 2006, the [[European Union]] banned the import of certain animal parts from Brazil, including cow intestines, as a measure aimed at preventing the spread of [[mad cow disease]].<ref name=Swissinfo2007/> Even though not an [[EU member state]], Switzerland is bound to observe European food protection laws as a result of treaty agreements with the Union.<ref name=NYT2008/> As a result, the Swiss and German stockpiles of the Zebu intestines that are essential to the sausage's production are expected to be depleted in late 2008.<ref name=Swissinfo2008b/>
In January 2008, the Swiss meat industry announced that a national "cervelat task force" had failed in an exhaustive search for an acceptable alternative to the zebu intestines.<ref name=Swissinfo2008b>{{cite news|title="Sausage task force" cannot help cervelat|author=Matthew Allen|date= January 15, 2008 |publisher=[[Swissinfo]]|url=http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/search/Result.html?siteSect=882&ty=st&sid=8625685}}</ref> The Swiss government has entered into negotiations with the EU to seek an exception for zebu intestines, and Swiss scientists have been dispatched to Brazil in order to establish that the intestines pose no risk of transmitting mad cow disease.<ref name=NYT2008/>
==Cultural significance in Switzerland==
The cervelat is often referred to as the national sausage of [[Switzerland]].<ref name=NYT2008/> Some 160 million cervelats weighing 27,000 [[metric ton]]s are produced in Switzerland annually, which is equivalent to a consumption of 25 cervelats per person per year.<ref name=NYT2008/> Grilling cervelats over an open fire, with the ends cut open so that they expand like a butterfly's wings, is a childhood memory for nearly every Swiss person,<ref name=NYT2008/><ref name=Swissinfo2008>{{cite news|title=The great sausage test|author=Matthew Allen|date=January 21, 2008|publisher=[[Swissinfo]]|url=http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/search/Result.html?siteSect=882&ty=st&sid=8646761}}</ref> and as a result, many Swiss are emotionally attached to the sausage.<ref name=NYT2008/><ref name=Swissinfo2008/>
A ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' report noted that "the possible demise of cervelas visibly upset the Swiss, a normally even-tempered people".<ref name=NYT2008/> The cervelat production crisis has been covered closely by the Swiss media, and in a newspaper poll, 72 percent of those surveyed stated that the cervelat had to be saved.<ref name=NYT2008/> The cervelat crisis was also the subject of a parliamentary debate, in which [[Council of States|State Councillor]] and president of the Swiss Meat Association [[Rolf Büttiker]] highlighted the national sausage's social significance, calling it a "cult sausage" and "the [[Working class|worker]]'s steak".<ref>[http://www.parlament.ch/E/Suche/Pages/geschaefte.aspx?gesch_id=20073793 Interpellation no. 07.3793] on the Swiss Parliament website; see also [http://www.parlament.ch/ab/frameset/d/s/4802/264401/d_s_4802_264401_264405.htm the minutes].</ref>
==References==
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[[Category:German sausages]]
[[Category:Swiss sausages]]
[[Category:Smoke]]
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