What is the Swiss national dish? It’s a tricky question, as culinary specialities are usually linked to a specific canton or region. But the cervelat is a serious contender. This small, plump, pink sausage – unpretentious yet steeped in history – has been a fixture on plates, in rucksacks, on barbecues and in surprisingly passionate discussions among the Swiss for over a century. Along with fondue, raclette, chocolate and rösti, cervelat (cervelas in French) is often cited as one of Switzerland’s most emblematic culinary products. But fondue and raclette are very local products that have only become nationally popular since the middle of the 20th century, under the combined effect of marketing by the cheese industry and the propagation of a national identity built around the myth of an “Alpine nation”. As for chocolate, it is only a processed product whose main ingredient, cocoa, doesn’t grow in Switzerland. So, along with rösti, cervelat remains one of the strongest contenders for …