Birchermuesli — Switzerland

Birchermuesli is a cold breakfast dish built on rolled oats soaked in liquid overnight, then combined the next morning with grated apple, a spoonful of condensed milk or cream, and a scattering of chopped nuts. The result is a thick, pale, lightly sweet mixture eaten straight from the bowl, usually with a spoon rather than poured with extra milk. It is reported from Switzerland, where it took shape in the early twentieth century in Zurich, at a clinic run by physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner who served raw grated fruit and soaked grain to his patients as part of a diet built around uncooked produce. From the clinic the dish moved onto ordinary breakfast tables, then into cafés and hotel buffets across the country and well beyond its borders. Preparation starts the evening before: rolled oats rest in water or milk with a splash of lemon juice so the acid keeps the grated apple from browning. The next day the apple, skin left on for colour and fibre, is grated straight into the soaked oats, sweetened with honey or condensed milk, and finished with chopped hazelnuts or almonds; some cooks stir in a spoon of yogurt for extra tang. What sets this version apart from other bowls of soaked-oat muesli is the ratio of oats to grated fruit, the choice between water, milk or yogurt as the soaking liquid, and the particular nut used to finish the bowl — hazelnut here, almond or walnut elsewhere. The soaking time and the sweetener chosen also shift the texture from thin and pourable to thick enough to hold a spoon upright.