Birchermüesli: from cure to cult
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Birchermüesli: from cure to cult
Today, Dr Bircher’s muesli is the symbolic breakfast of Swiss cuisine and has conquered the world. However, conventional medicine originally turned up its nose at this raw food recipe.
Everyone knows it, many consume it regularly, but only a few know the origins of this speciality – the revolutionary idea of a Swiss doctor. Birchermüesli is one of the best-known and most popular Swiss dishes.
At the end of the 19th century, middle-class society was convinced that eating fresh fruit and vegetables should be avoided in order to prevent infections and digestive problems. It was considered better to eat meat, which was considered richer and more nutritious.
A Swiss doctor was of a different opinion: Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner from Aargau firmly believed in the health benefits of a raw food diet and considered cooked and processed foods to be harmful.
In 1895 Bircher-Benner treated a patient’s persistent stomach pain with a diet of raw vegetables. Bircher-Benner then began to use raw food to treat his own jaundice.
He also prescribed it to patients at his sanatorium “Lebendige Kraft” (living power), which opened on the Zürichberg in 1904.
Over the years, the clinic has hosted famous names such as the King of Siam, the Tsars of Russia, and authors Hermann Hesse and Thomas Mann.
According to the book Lebendige Kraft : Max Bircher-Benner und sein Sanatorium im historischen Kontext (Living power: Max Bircher-Benner and his sanatorium in a historical context), Hesse is said to have described the sanatorium as a “hygienic penitentiary” in reference to Bircher-Benner’s strict health regime, to which the patients always submitted voluntarily.
Inspired by the diet in the Alps
Inspired by the diet of people in the Alps, who ate fruit, nuts, milk and oatmeal in the evening, Bircher-Benner developed a new recipe for his clientele.
Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner emphasised that the core of his nutritional philosophy, Birchermüesli or d’Spys (the dish), as he simply called it, was related to the food of Swiss mountain farmers and Alpine herdsmen.
This soon became Birchermüesli, whereby the “e” is both written and pronounced in contrast to the High German Müsli.
The “li” is the typical Swiss German diminutive form, in this case of Mus, which means porridge or puree. Birchermüesli is thus a “small porridge from Dr Bircher”.
The marketing of industrially produced Birchermüesli from the late 1950s onwards meant that the word muesli was the only Swiss food to enter the vocabulary of English and several other languages.
The original Birchermüesli recipe calls for soaking a tablespoon of rolled oats in three tablespoons of water for 12 hours and then adding a tablespoon of condensed milk, the juice of half a lemon, a whole grated apple and a tablespoon of chopped nuts or almonds.
The apple is the real main ingredient in the recipe, as it is used whole – with peel and core. This is why Birchermüesli was originally called “apple dessert” and was eaten in the evening.
The success of a pioneering idea
Bircher-Benner’s philosophy attracted many people, especially from the wealthy German-speaking regions of Switzerland, who were looking for a different lifestyle from that of increasing industrialisation.
From the 1920s onwards, his ideas spread to many European countries and his writings were translated into various languages.
Between the 1930s and 1940s, Birchermüesli became part of the dietary preferences of Swiss families and also found its way into institutions such as schools, prisons, nursing homes, monasteries and the military. Muesli mixes were also launched on the market.
As a symbol of healthy and natural nutrition, Birchermüesli has enjoyed increasing popularity since the ecological and nutrition-conscious wave of the 1980s.
Over time, the original recipe has evolved in many ways. Today there are numerous variations, some of which differ greatly from the original. Birchermüesli is mainly eaten for breakfast or as a snack, and some people even enjoy it for dinner.
Today we know that a plant-based, wholesome diet is beneficial to health. However, at the time of Bircher-Benner, his nutritional theories were revolutionary and were not recognised by official medicine.
Birchermüesli is therefore not just a simple Swiss recipe for success, but the product of a natural philosophy of life that has managed to transcend national borders and endure over time.
1 tablespoon oat flakes, soaked in 3 tablespoons of water overnight
1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
Juice of half a lemon
2–3 small or 1 large apple with skin and core
1 tablespoon chopped nuts
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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