Salade Strasbourgeoise

From Alex Jackson, author of Frontières, published in 2023: “A Strasbourg salad is sort of unashamed in that the salad part is minimal and it consists mostly of sausage and cheese, which is obviously brilliant.”

If you know me at all, you know that that sentence alone made me have to make this salad. I’ll have sausage and cheese as an hors d’oeuvres, as a breakfast, dinner, lunch, or in the form of a salad. It’s a no brainer.

To continue: “The cheese should really be Emmental, although I bet this would be great with a young Gruyere. Either way, buy a piece in a block so that you can cut it the way you want.”

And then: Most importantly, the sausage. This is made with Cervelas, a slightly smoked, chubby, pale boiling sausage, which is common to Alsace, Switzerland, and parts of Germany.”

I found it at Swiss Favorites.

The sausages should be mild, only lightly smoked, and emulsified within. From Cuisine Helvetica, “One theory suggests that the name of this sausage comes from the Latin word for brain: cerebellum (in French, cervelle or in Italian, cervello). However, no historical recipes discovered thus far have brain in the ingredient list.”

Another note from Alex Jackson: “There are varying schools of thought as to how to cut the salad. A fine julienne? Thin, flat, long strips? Cubes? Sausages sliced lengthways into quarters? I do like the look of the sausage and cheese cut the same way – into chunky strips that will tumble down into the salad. Do it any way you want.”

Salade Strasbourgeoise

2 Cervelas sausages*, saveloys, or frankfurters, cooked and chilled
3 1/2 ounces Emmental
2 ripe tomatoes
2 heads baby gem, separated
2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
1 small white onion
Cornichons
Chopped chives, to garnish

For the vinaigrette:
A bit of garlic
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon water

Slice the sausage into strips about 2” long and 1/4” thick. Cut the cheese into pieces the same size and shape. This was a little challenging. I trimmed the sausages slightly to make them more “square.”

Cut the tomatoes into thin wedges. Arrange the tomatoes, sausages, and cheese on top of the lettuce.

Sprinkle over a few slices of the onion, and tuck in quarters of hard boiled egg.

Chop the cornichons and sprinkle over the top, followed by the chives.

Mix together the ingredients for the mustard vinaigrette and spoon over enough to moisten the whole salad “but not drown it”.

This was incredible. Of course, it was mostly sausage and cheese! But everything really worked well together. I especially loved the onions and cornichon added in.

*I never found Cervelas sausages online. I did find Cervelat sausages, which are supposedly Swiss (and also Russian) and they looked and sounded like what the author described. Saveloys were easier to find, but some were jarred in liquid, and all required international shipping.