Cervelat

Cervelat, also cervelas, servelat or zervelat, is a kind of cooked sausage produced mainly in, and in parts of. The modern Swiss variety is a mixture of, , and packed into  intestines, slightly smoked and then boiled.



Background
The sausage is called cervelas in the, Cervelat in the German-speaking part, servelat in the Italian-speaking part, while in it is commonly called Klöpfer. Both variants ultimately derive from , the word for, which was in early recipes. The term "cervelat" is the older of the two. It was first recorded in 1552 by, and is derived from zervelada, a dialect word. Zervelada or in, cervelato, means a "large, short sausage filled with meat and pork brains."

The modern recipe, which does not include brains, arose towards the end of the 19th century in, as reworking of the traditional recipe. The taste might be somewhat alikened to that of a frankfurter, 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. Some 160 million cervelats weighing 27,000 s 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, , , , and , which helps bind the ingredients, along with s, 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 s and s. A cervelat may weigh from about.

Cervelats are prepared and eaten, , or. They are also served cold, either in a salad or with bread and.

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 ian intestines, which are not fatty and do not easily split open when roasted. However, beginning on 1 April 2006, the banned the import of many animal parts from Brazil as a measure aimed at preventing the spread of. Among these were beef intestines. Although Switzerland is not an, 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  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 and president of the Swiss Meat Association,, spoke of the national sausage's social significance, calling it a "cult sausage" and "the '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, , and.