Cervelat sausage filled with meat and pork brains." Modern recipes do not include brains, and arose towards the end of the 19th century in Basel, as a reworking of the traditional recipe. The taste of the sausages depends on the region, but generally they are similar to that of a frankfurter, but with a smokier flavour and a texture brought about by its fat shape and the tightly wrapped natural casing. Various European semi-dry cervelat are similar to summer sausage in the U.S., and Thuringian sausage can be considered a type of cervelat. In Switzerland, cervelats are cooked (slightly smoked and
Cervelat Among these were beef intestines. Although Switzerland is not an EU member state, it is bound to observe European food protection laws through other treaty agreements. Hence, Swiss and German stockpiles of zebu intestines became very low by 2008, threatening production altogether, and causing some controversy in Switzerland. In January of that year, the Swiss meat industry announced that a national "cervelat task force" had failed in an exhaustive search for an acceptable alternative to zebu intestines. The "New York Times" noted that "the possible demise of cervelas visibly upset the Swiss, a normally even-tempered people." The cervelat production crisis