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Fermentation Atlas

Meat from Switzerland

Bündnerfleisch IGPBündnerfleisch

Trimmed cuts of beef leg are salted with curing salt and spices, stacked in their own brine for five days to five weeks, then air-dried for months and pressed several times into a rectangle. A white noble mould grows on the surface while it dries. It is a salt-and-drying cure, never smoked, with no lactic stage. Made in 5 steps over 34 days – 7.2 months. The longest step, air-dry and press several times, takes 28 days – 6 months (Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft BLW 1999) and runs at 1–18 °C (Verein Kulinarisches Erbe der Schweiz (Patrim…).

Key numbers
Main step28 days – 6 monthsSet[bf-spec][pc-ch]Air-dry and press several times
Temperature1–18 °CReported[pc-ch]Air-dry and press several times
AciditypH 5.4–6.2Set[bf-spec]Trim the chilled beef cuts
Fully documentedMeat34 days – 7.2 monthsMore meatMore from Switzerland

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification sets the cuts, the curing and drying steps and the end product, not the salt or spice amounts; each maker uses a house blend.
Beef leg muscles (topside, eye of round, silverside, knuckle) · Trimmed of fat, sinew and fascia; raw meat pH 5.4–6.2[bf-spec]
Salt with curing agent · Salt and spices alone are allowed if product safety is assured[bf-spec]
Spices such as pepper, garlic, ginger, juniper, bay leaf and allspice · Each maker's own blend[bf-spec]
At most 0.5 g per 100 g of raw meatAdded carbohydrate (sugar)[bf-spec]
Starterspontaneous (surface noble mould)

Total time across the recorded steps: 34 days – 7.2 months

Start
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pH 5.4–6.2

What changes: Starting material: chilled beef leg muscles, trimmed clean

Step 1 of 5
Trim the chilled beef cuts
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 5.4–6.2
Set
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds

Output: lean leg muscles with no fat, sinew or fascia.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Bündnerfleisch is preserved only by salt and drying and is never smoked. Repeated pressing gives its rectangular shape, and it must lose 45–55 % of its weight.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Walliser Trockenfleisch (IGP)Air-dried beef from the canton of Valais.

Safety

The specification preserves it only with salt and drying, and requires a water activity of at most 0.92 in the finished product.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

German travel writers described it from the 18th century. The old name Bindenfleisch refers to the cloths (Binden) the meat was wrapped in. Tourism raised demand in the late 19th century, and slicing machines made thin slices common from the 1950s. Protected as an IGP in 1999.

  1. [bf-spec] Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft BLW, Pflichtenheft Bündnerfleisch, geschützte geografische Angabe (GGA), Verfügung vom 24. September 1999, amended 2003, 2010 and 2017spec
  2. [pc-ch] Verein Kulinarisches Erbe der Schweiz (Patrimoine culinaire suisse), Bündnerfleisch (GGA/IGP) / Pulpa, inventory entry 342archive