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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Zurich
A mixture of soaked rolled oats, grated apple, walnuts or almonds, lemon and milk, created around 1900 by physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients at his clinic in Zurich. It gave rise to the muesli eaten worldwide.
Traditional dish from Zurich, Zurich
Also known as: Bircher Müesli, Birchermüsli, Bircher muesli, Apfeldiätspeise
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Birchermüesli — Zurich, Switzerland
Birchermüesli was born in Zurich at the turn of the 19th to 20th century, created by physician Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner (1867–1939). A proponent of eating more raw fruits and vegetables, he devised a simple meal for his patients and called it Apfeldiätspeise, apple diet dish. At home and in the clinic it was known simply as d'Spys, the food.
Bircher-Benner put his ideas into practice at the sanatorium he opened on the Zürichberg, the hill above Zurich, where patients followed a diet rich in raw foods, with exercise and fresh air. The name Birchermüesli, a diminutive of Mues, porridge, soon came to designate the recipe. The family-named clinic operated in Zurich until 1994.
In the original recipe, the essential ingredient was the apple, not the cereal: a spoonful of rolled oats soaked in water for hours, mixed with condensed milk, lemon juice and a whole apple grated with its skin, finished with grated walnuts or almonds. To ease the work, a special apple grater was developed in Switzerland, known as the Bircherraffel.
Between the 1930s and 1940s, Birchermüesli became part of Swiss family habits as well as school, hospital and barracks menus, and ready mixes reached shops. Over time, versions began to use yogurt, cream, berries and more oats than the doctor’s recipe called for. The cereal muesli sold around the world descends from this creation.
In Switzerland, Birchermüesli is served in the morning and afternoon and, in some homes, also at dinner, accompanied by coffee with milk, bread, butter and jam.
Zurich , Zurich
Created around 1900 by physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients at his clinic in Zurich.
Soaked rolled oats, grated apple with skin, lemon juice, milk (in the original recipe, condensed milk), walnuts, hazelnuts or grated almonds; in modern versions, also yogurt, cream and other fruits.
Cold, prepared to order or left in the refrigerator from one day to the next, served in a bowl. Accompanied by coffee with milk and bread.
Breakfast and snack year-round; in some homes, a light evening meal.
Your questions
Swiss physician Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, around 1900, for patients at his clinic in Zurich.
Birchermüesli is the original recipe, with soaked oats and lots of grated apple. Common muesli is usually a mix of dry cereals, nuts and fruits derived from that creation.
Mainly at breakfast and for snacks, but some people eat it at night with coffee with milk and bread.
Flavors of Switzerland
The solid chocolate bar that made Switzerland a world reference from the 19th century onward, with mechanized production by Cailler, Daniel Peter’s milk chocolate in Vevey, and Rodolphe Lindt’s conching in Bern.
Melted cheese with white wine in a caquelon, kept warm over a burner, into which each person dips bread cubes on a long fork. Promoted as a national dish from the 1930s onward, it is served across Switzerland in the cold months.
Hard honey biscuit with almonds, hazelnuts, candied orange and lemon peel and kirsch, covered by a thin layer of sugar. Mentioned in Basel at least since 1711, it is the city’s most closely associated sweet specialty.
Large platter with several cooked and smoked meats and sausages, served over sauerkraut and green beans, with potatoes. It is the festive dish of Bernese cuisine, traditionally linked to the victory at Neuenegg in 1798.
Grated potato patty fried in butter until a golden crust forms on both sides. It was the breakfast of peasants in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, including the canton of Bern, and became a symbol of German-speaking Switzerland, even lending its name to the Röstigraben.
Dry, crunchy meringues served with Gruyère crème double, a thick cream with at least 45% fat. The quintessential dessert of the Bénichon feast, it is one of the symbols of the Gruyère region in the canton of Fribourg.
Chocolate cauldron bearing the coat of arms of Geneva, filled with marzipan vegetables and sweets, which is broken at the end of the Escalade celebration in December. It recalls the legend of Mère Royaume and the defense of the city on the night of December 11–12, 1602.
Shortcrust pastry tart, closed on top, filled with chopped walnuts coated in caramel and cream. It is the best-known sweet specialty of Graubünden, linked to pastry chefs who emigrated from the Engadine to work elsewhere in Europe.
Chard leaf rolls filled with spätzli-like dough and Bündnerfleisch (air-dried beef) or local salami, cooked in broth and milk and gratinated with cheese. Emblematic dish of Graubünden, originating in the Surselva, with as many recipes as there are families.
Puff-pastry dome filled with veal, meatballs, mushrooms and raisins in a creamy sauce. It’s named for the city and canton of Lucerne and is also called Fritschipastete, after the local carnival figure.
Dense cake made from day-old bread soaked in milk, with cocoa, amaretti, raisins, pine nuts and often a splash of grappa. Born from a desire not to waste bread, it is considered the quintessential Ticino sweet and every family has its own recipe.
Half a wheel of cheese held close to the fire, with the melted part scraped onto the plate and served with boiled potatoes in their skins, pickled cornichons and pearl onions. It originated in Valais and was presented as a Valais national dish in 1909.
Distilled from wormwood, anise, and fennel, green or colorless, served diluted with cold water and turning cloudy when mixed. Production began in the Val-de-Travers, in the canton of Neuchâtel, at the end of the 18th century, and it was banned in Switzerland from 1910 to 2005.
Rustic purée of leek and potato cooked in water and white wine, served with saucisse aux choux, a smoked pork-and-cabbage sausage. It is the best-known culinary specialty of the canton of Vaud and is part of its intangible heritage.
Layered cake of almond meringue discs and a sponge soaked in kirsch syrup, with buttercream, covered with almonds and powdered sugar in a diamond pattern. Created in Zug by pastry chef Heinrich Höhn, who advertised it in 1915.
Thin strips of veal sautéed and served in a cream, white wine and mushroom sauce. It’s the dish Zurich residents name first when talking about the city’s cuisine, almost always accompanied by rösti.
