A cholera is a

pastry Pastry refers to a variety of Dough, doughs (often enriched with fat or eggs), as well as the sweet and savoury Baking, baked goods made from them. The dough may be accordingly called pastry dough for clarity. Sweetened pastries are often descr ...

filled with

potatoes The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

vegetables Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including flowers, fruits, ...

fruits In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

and

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

, originated from the

Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...

region of Switzerland. Originally, the local ingredients for such a dish were

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in late summer into mid-autumn. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the Family (biology), family Rosaceae, bearing the Pome, po ...

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

es,

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

leek A leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of ''Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek (synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of Leaf sheath, leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a "s ...

raclette Raclette (, ) is a dish of Swiss cuisine, Swiss origin, also popular in the other Alpine countries (France, Italy, Germany, Austria), based on heating cheese and scraping off the melted part, then typically served with boiled potatoes. Raclette i ...

cheese (usually Gomser) and

bacon Bacon is a type of Curing (food preservation), salt-cured pork made from various cuts of meat, cuts, typically the pork belly, belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central in ...

. The dish is mostly known in the region of Valais within Switzerland.

Etymology

The origin of the unusual name for the dish remains unclear. A folk etymological explanation purports that during an epidemic of the disease cholera in 1836, people in the region improvised a dish involving pastry and whatever food they had at hand, as normal trade was disrupted. After the epidemic subsided, chefs returned to the concept of putting regional ingredients in a savoury tart, and the "cholera" dish has lasted since. However, various other linguistic theories try to link the origin of the name to or (Valais German for

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

) as the pastry would be baked on coals. Alternatively, is also the Valais German term for a specific room within a bakery where coal would be gathered.Joh. Siegen: ''Brot im Lötschental.'' In: ''Schweizer Volkskunde'' 46 (1956), S. 65–71, hier S. 67; Rudolf Hotzenköcherle und Rudolf Brunner (Bearbeiter): ''SDS Phonogramme. Begleittexte zu den Tonaufnahmen für den Sprachatlas der deutschen Schweiz,'' Heft 2. Francke, Bern 1976, S. 9.

References

External links

Cholera, a Valaisian art form
MySwitzerland.com. Retrieved 15 July 2013. Swiss cuisine Swiss pastries Valais Savoury pies Tarts Potato dishes Bacon dishes Cheese pastries {{Switzerland-cuisine-stub