German-speaking Switzerland

Ächti Schwiizer Chuchi

Swiss Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Rösti crisped in golden Bratbutter. Veal in cream from alpine dairies. A braided Zopf on the table every Sunday morning. Six classics from the German-speaking cantons, cooked the way Swiss grandmothers still cook them.

See the Recipes ↓
A heavy pot simmering on the stove in a home kitchen
FROM THE CANTONS OF ZURICH, BERN AND THE GRISONS
How we cook

Three rules from the alpine kitchen

Bratbutter
The Swiss frying fat

Clarified butter is the traditional cooking fat of the German-speaking cantons. It browns a Rösti deeply, takes real heat without burning, and gives every pan dish its unmistakable nutty finish.

From the Alp
Dairy does the work

Cream, butter and mountain cheese carry these recipes. When a sauce needs body or a soup needs richness, it comes from the dairy, the way it has for generations of alpine cooking.

Nie Pflanzenöl
Never vegetable oil

No canola, no sunflower, no soybean oil. Every recipe on this site is cooked only with butter, Bratbutter, lard, tallow, ghee, olive oil or coconut oil. Nothing else, ever.

The recipes

Six classics of the German-speaking cantons

Meat, lake fish, potatoes, soup, bread and a bakery tart. Each one authentic, each one made entirely without vegetable oil.

Zürcher Geschnetzeltes, sliced veal in cream sauce

Zürcher Geschnetzeltes

Zurich
40 minServes 4Medium

Zurich's signature dish: tender strips of veal and mushrooms in a silky white wine cream sauce, mounted with butter. Traditionally served beside a golden Rösti.

Ingredients

  • 600 g veal cutlets, cut into thin strips
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 250 g white mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 tbsp flour
  • 150 ml dry white wine
  • 250 ml heavy cream
  • 100 ml veal or beef stock
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • Salt and white pepper to taste
  • 2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

Instructions

  1. Pat the veal dry and season with salt and white pepper. Melt 2 tbsp butter in a wide skillet over high heat and sear the veal in batches, about 1 minute, so it stays juicy. Remove and set aside.
  2. Lower the heat, add the remaining butter and cook the onion for 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook 5 minutes until golden.
  3. Dust with flour and stir for 1 minute. Pour in the wine, scraping up the browned bits, and reduce by half.
  4. Add the cream and stock and simmer about 5 minutes until the sauce coats a spoon.
  5. Return the veal with its juices and warm gently for 2 minutes without letting the sauce boil. Season and add the lemon juice.
  6. Scatter with parsley and serve at once, ideally with Rösti.
Butter fried lake perch fillets with herbs

Butter-Fried Lake Perch

Lake Zurich and Lake Lucerne
30 minServes 4Easy

Egli-Filets, the pride of the Swiss lakeshore restaurants. Delicate perch fillets dusted in flour, fried in foaming butter and finished with lemon and parsley.

Ingredients

  • 700 g perch fillets (or another small white fish)
  • 100 ml whole milk
  • 80 g flour, for dredging
  • 5 tbsp butter
  • 1 lemon, half juiced and half in wedges
  • 2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
  • Fine sea salt
  • White pepper
  • Boiled potatoes, to serve

Instructions

  1. Pat the fillets dry and season with salt and white pepper. Dip briefly in the milk, then dredge lightly in flour, shaking off the excess.
  2. Heat 3 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium high heat until the foam begins to subside.
  3. Fry the fillets in batches, about 2 minutes per side, until golden and just cooked through. Keep warm.
  4. Wipe the pan, melt the remaining 2 tbsp butter and let it turn a light hazelnut brown. Stir in the lemon juice and parsley.
  5. Spoon the hot butter over the fillets and serve with lemon wedges and boiled potatoes.
Golden Berner Rösti in a cast iron pan

Berner Rösti

Bern
45 minServes 4Medium

Bern's crisp golden potato cake, fried in Bratbutter with a little bacon and finished with alpine cheese. The definitive Swiss side dish that often becomes the whole meal.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg firm potatoes, boiled in their skins and cooled overnight
  • 3 tbsp Bratbutter (clarified butter)
  • 60 g bacon, diced
  • 1 small onion, thinly sliced
  • 100 g Emmentaler or Gruyère, grated
  • 1 tbsp butter, for finishing
  • Fine sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Peel the cooled potatoes and grate them on the coarse side of a box grater.
  2. In a heavy skillet, render the bacon in 2 tbsp Bratbutter over medium heat. Add the onion and soften for 3 minutes.
  3. Add the potatoes, season well, and toss to coat. Then press into an even cake with a spatula.
  4. Cook over medium heat for 12 to 15 minutes, shaking the pan now and then, until the underside is deep golden brown.
  5. Slide the Rösti onto a plate, add the remaining Bratbutter to the pan, and flip the cake back in. Cook 10 minutes more.
  6. Scatter the cheese on top with a knob of butter, cover for 2 minutes to melt, then slide onto a board and serve in wedges.
Bündner Gerstensuppe, creamy barley soup

Bündner Gerstensuppe

The Grisons
1 hr 30 minServes 6Easy

The hearty barley soup of the Grisons Alps. Pearl barley, root vegetables and smoked pork simmered slowly, then rounded off with cream.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 leek, halved and sliced
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 150 g celeriac, diced
  • 150 g pearl barley, rinsed
  • 120 g smoked bacon or air dried beef, diced
  • 1.8 liters beef or vegetable broth
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 150 ml heavy cream
  • Salt, pepper and chopped chives

Instructions

  1. Melt the butter in a large soup pot and sweat the onion, leek, carrot and celeriac for 5 minutes without coloring.
  2. Add the bacon and barley and stir for 2 minutes so everything is coated in butter.
  3. Pour in the broth, add the bay leaf, and simmer gently for 60 to 70 minutes until the barley is completely tender.
  4. Remove the bay leaf. Stir in the cream and simmer 5 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper.
  5. Ladle into warm bowls, scatter with chives and serve with crusty bread.
Freshly baked braided Butterzopf loaf

Butterzopf

Sunday bread of the cantons
3 hrMakes 1 loafMedium

The braided Sunday loaf of German-speaking Switzerland, rich with butter and milk. Golden outside, soft inside, best sliced warm with alpine butter and honey.

Ingredients

  • 500 g white bread flour
  • 7 g dried yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1½ tsp fine salt
  • 60 g soft butter
  • 300 ml lukewarm whole milk
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tbsp milk, for the glaze

Instructions

  1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the lukewarm milk and let stand 5 minutes until frothy.
  2. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the milk mixture and soft butter and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.
  3. Cover and let rise in a warm spot for about 1½ hours, until doubled.
  4. Divide the dough in two and roll each piece into a long rope. Braid a classic two strand Zopf, tucking the ends underneath.
  5. Place on a lined tray, cover, and rest 30 minutes. Whisk the egg yolk with 1 tbsp milk and brush generously over the loaf.
  6. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 30 to 35 minutes until deep golden and hollow sounding when tapped. Cool on a rack before slicing.
Apfelwähe, Swiss apple custard tart

Apfelwähe

Bakeries everywhere in the cantons
1 hr 15 minServes 8Medium

The Swiss fruit tart found in every bakery of the German-speaking cantons. Apples on a buttery shortcrust, bound with a vanilla custard of cream and eggs.

Ingredients

  • 200 g flour
  • 100 g cold butter, cubed
  • 1 tbsp sugar, plus 3 tbsp for the custard
  • Pinch of fine salt
  • 60 ml cold water
  • 4 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
  • 2 eggs
  • 200 ml heavy cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp ground hazelnuts

Instructions

  1. Rub the cold butter into the flour, salt and 1 tbsp sugar until it looks like coarse crumbs. Add the water, bring together into a dough, and chill 30 minutes.
  2. Roll out and line a 28 cm tart tin. Prick the base with a fork and chill while the oven heats to 200°C (400°F).
  3. Scatter the ground hazelnuts over the base. They keep the crust crisp under the fruit.
  4. Arrange the apple slices over the base in overlapping circles.
  5. Whisk the eggs, cream, remaining sugar, vanilla and cinnamon, and pour the custard evenly over the apples.
  6. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until the custard is set and the edges are golden. Cool slightly and serve just warm.
A rustic pot of vegetables cooking slowly on the stove
Our Kitchen

Chuchi is Swiss German for kitchen

Rendav Chuchi is an English language home for the everyday cooking of German-speaking Switzerland: the Rösti of Bern, the Geschnetzeltes of Zurich, the barley soup of the Grisons valleys and the braided Zopf that appears on Swiss tables every Sunday.

We test each classic in an ordinary home kitchen and write it down the way it has always been cooked in the cantons: with butter, Bratbutter, lard and olive oil, and never with refined vegetable oils. No shortcuts, no substitutions, no seed oils hiding in the ingredient list.

Everything here is free to read, cook and share at your own table. If a dish comes out of your pan golden, buttery and honest, our Chuchi has done its job.