Bölletünne
Schaffhausen's onion tart, a thin pastry base topped with softened onions, bacon and an egg custard. It is eaten hot with a salad, preferably at midday, and above all on Fridays.
Friday, in Schaffhausen. On a bakery counter, a large round tart awaits the knife; beneath the golden custard, the onions show through. It is bought whole or by the slice, for the midday meal.
Origin
The name is in dialect: “Bölle” means onions, and “Tünne” tart. According to Culinary Heritage of Switzerland, people in the north-east of the country say “Tünne” or “Dünne” where Zurich and Basel say “Wähe”, and the word comes from “dünn”, thin, as befits this flat tart. These tarts were born at home, on bread-baking day. The dough left in the kneading trough was scraped out, rolled into a flat round and topped with whatever was to hand: fruit, vegetables, dairy produce or bacon. Onion tart itself is attested in Alsace from the 16th century; in Switzerland, it appears in print in 1853, in the French translation of a Bernese cookbook.
Making
The recipe published by SWI swissinfo.ch starts with shortcrust pastry: flour, salt, cold butter rubbed in, cold water added little by little, without kneading, then half an hour’s rest. The onions, cut into thin rings, soften in butter with diced bacon. The pastry, rolled out into a round and pricked with a fork, receives this mixture, then cream beaten with two eggs, a little starch, salt and pepper. It then needs forty minutes in the oven at 180 °C. Other recipes add milk, parsley or nutmeg, notes Culinary Heritage of Switzerland.
At the table
In Schaffhausen, says SWI swissinfo.ch, it is served hot, with a salad, preferably at midday. Culinary Heritage of Switzerland adds that it is eaten above all on Fridays. Long a meatless day, Friday has remained the day for tarts in much of German-speaking Switzerland: that is when bakers bake the most of them. According to the same entry, savoury tarts are also eaten at aperitif time.
Today
Culinary Heritage of Switzerland does not give it an entry of its own: it files it with the other savoury tarts. They are baked everywhere, at home, at the baker’s or in restaurants, and are bought more and more often by the slice. Since the 1970s, spinach, broccoli or tomato versions have been competing with them. Schaffhausen nevertheless keeps its reputation: its onion tart is regarded as a speciality of the town.
Sources: Culinary Heritage of Switzerland, entries “Gâteaux salés” and “Früchtewähen”; SWI swissinfo.ch, 2019 Advent calendar, “Türe Nummer 21: Kanton Schaffhausen”.