Pantli
A dried sausage from Appenzell, pressed into a long, angular shape and dominated by garlic. It is eaten raw as an afternoon snack or at supper, with brown bread and cheese.
In the back room of an Appenzell butcher’s shop, sausages that are still round lie side by side in a tray, between damp plates. A spring-loaded lid presses them for several days: they will come out angular.
Origin
The Appenzell region long lived on cattle and milk: in 1876, according to Culinary Heritage of Switzerland, it counted 8000 head of cattle for only 3500 pigs, whereas smoked pork was what people preferred to eat. Butchers therefore learned to draw a similar taste from beef: the fine cuts made Mostbröckli, the trimmings went into sausages to be eaten raw, the Pantli among them. There is a record of it in 1892, in an advertisement in a Zurich newspaper praising an “Appenzell Landjäger”. The name is said to come from the shape: the Idiotikon, the dictionary of Swiss German, calls a big, thick, clumsy thing a “Pantli”.
Making
Only Swiss meat goes in: beef, pork and bacon, minced to a grain that stays visible. It is seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper and other spices, sometimes a little wine. Once stuffed into their casings, the Pantli spend three to ten days under a press, where the meat turns red, then hang to air-dry, sometimes with a few puffs of smoke from untreated wood, never above 40 °C. In this way they lose 30 to 40% of their weight, says the Swiss PDO-PGI Association; in all, it takes four to fourteen days, according to Culinary Heritage of Switzerland.
At the table
Measuring 30 to 50 cm and weighing 80 to 400 g, the Pantli shows a smooth cut surface, dotted with small cubes of bacon. Garlic dominates, sometimes underlined by a smoky note. It is eaten raw, as an afternoon snack or at supper, with dark bread and cheese. Culinary Heritage of Switzerland advises serving it at room temperature, when its flavour comes through fully, and notes that people today prefer it tender rather than hard.
Today
Since January 2018, Appenzeller Pantli has been a protected geographical indication (IGP); it is made in both Appenzells and in the canton of St. Gallen. At the time of the application, the 21 members of the association behind it were producing some 89 tonnes. It has a little brother, the Klübler, almost half as heavy, and a cousin found all over Switzerland, the Landjäger.
Sources: Culinary Heritage of Switzerland, entry “Appenzeller Pantli (GGA/IGP)”; Swiss PDO-PGI Association, factsheet “Appenzeller Pantli IGP”; Federal Office for Agriculture, summary of the registration application for Appenzeller Pantli.