Recipes & info on Graubünden specialities

Christmas time and New Year's Eve/New Year's Day without pear bread - you can't imagine it in Graubünden! The preparation of this dark, moist, slightly sweet bread wrapped in a thin light bread dough requires a certain amount of time, and therefore several loaves are baked at once.

On the other hand, it can be kept in a cool place for 10 - 14 days. It goes well with a spicy Chur Röteli, a liqueur made from cherries, with which you can toast the new year.

The Nut Tart - once mainly produced in the Engadine valley - did not originate in Graubünden. It was brought to Graubünden by local confectioners from the southern regions where the walnut is at home. Today it is a common «souvenir» from Graubünden.

Ever since people learned to cook, they have wrapped their food in some kind of greenery. The Indians wrapped maize porridge in maize leaves, the Chinese wrapped fish, meat and rice in lotus or bamboo leaves, and in this country food is wrapped in cabbage stems, spinach, lettuce or savoy cabbage - or, as with capuns, in chard leaves! Capuns is synonymous with the art of cooking in Graubünden, with experimentation and imagination - there is not one recipe for capuns, but countless different ones.

They are up to 35 cm long, red and juicy - the Graubünden Dried Meat pieces. In a complex working process, the pieces of beef are processed and refined into specialities. Each piece of Graubünden Dried Meat carries a piece of age-old tradition and traditional knowledge. And when such an «energy donor» - cut wafer-thin and eaten by hand - also tastes delicious, then you can well understand why this natural product has become an unmistakable part of the canton.

Probably the most famous soup in the Grisons is the Graubünden barley soup, which is known far beyond the borders of the country. There are dozens of variations of this. In every valley in Graubünden there is a different recipe. We have selected one of them for you.

Our cows summer on the Chur Alps in Arosa. Their milk is processed into alpine cheese and the new «Alpine City cheese» at the Maran alpine dairy. The naturally matured semi-hard cheese is produced in a reduced quantity and is characterised by its mild, nutty aroma. With increasing age, the aromas intensify and the Alpine City cheese becomes more pure. For those who like to incorporate Alpine City cheese into a modern recipe with regional ingredients, we recommend the Alpine City Sushi recipe.

Maluns is not an ancient recipe, because it requires potatoes. And these first appeared on the table of Marschlins Castle in 1758. If you look a little deeper into the cooking pot, you will see that the composition of this dish (as with others) often reflects the hard physical work of the peasantry.

Pizokels is a flour dish known throughout Graubünden in countless variations. The dough can be compared to that of Knöpfli or Spätzli. It is always spread on a wet wooden board and should not be too thin. Using a sharp knife, strips, corners or pieces - pizokels - are cut directly into the liquid.

A showpiece from Chur's cuisine is the Chur meat pie. Here, too, there are variations, especially when it comes to the choice of meat. For example, beef can be used instead of mixed minced meat. Either way, the tart will be delicious!

The Chur Röteli is one of the oldest Graubünden specialities. It is made from fruit brandy, kirsch and possibly pure alcohol, water, sugar, dried mountain cherries, cinnamon, vanilla sticks, cloves and cardamoms. The special aroma and flavour of the Chur Röteli is given - in addition to the spices - by the juice and stones of the increasingly rare mountain cherries, which are harvested at the beginning of August.