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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Vaud
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.
Traditional dish from Vaud
Also known as: papet aux poireaux, papet
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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Papet vaudois — Vaud, Switzerland
Papet vaudois is the signature dish of the canton of Vaud. Leeks and potatoes are cooked together in water and white wine until they form a creamy mixture, which is served with saucisse aux choux, a smoked pork-and-cabbage sausage. The canton has listed papet in its inventory of intangible heritage, and in the application to protect the sausage the combination is described as a true Vaudois national dish.
Papet is an old word from the Romand dialect meaning a porridge or thick soup. The colors of the dish — the green of the leeks and the white of the potatoes — are the same as the canton’s flag, a coincidence that the people of Vaud like to point out.
The sausage that accompanies it has a legendary origin dating to the year 879; it is likely, however, that it only became widespread in the 19th century, when pork became less rare and expensive. The Saucisse aux choux vaudoise has PGI protection and is produced only in the canton. It is cooked whole, in water kept below boiling, or directly on top of the papet, without being pierced.
Good papet should not be watery or contain loose pieces: leeks and potatoes break down into each other, seasoned with white wine, a little cream or butter, and pepper. The sausage is sliced at the table and served over the purée.
It is a cold-season dish, eaten from mid-September to April, and many restaurants do not serve it in summer. Since 2009, Vaud butchers have promoted the Journée du papet on the first Friday in October, and on January 24, Vaud’s day of independence, papet is served in squares in several towns of the canton.
Vaud
The best-known culinary specialty of Vaud, listed in the canton’s inventory of intangible heritage.
Leek, potatoes, white wine, stock or water, butter or a little cream, salt and pepper; Saucisse aux choux vaudoise PGI (pork and cabbage) or another smoked sausage from the canton.
Very hot, with the sausage sliced on top of the leek-and-potato purée. The sausage casing is not eaten. Served with mustard and regional white wine.
From mid-September to April; Journée du papet (first Friday in October) and January 24, Vaud’s day of independence.
Your questions
A rustic purée of leek and potato cooked in white wine, served with saucisse aux choux, a smoked pork-and-cabbage sausage.
From mid-September to April. There is also the Journée du papet on the first Friday in October, and distributions in town squares on January 24.
No. The sausage is sliced at the table, and the filling is served over the papet.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
