Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

cervelat a German sausage which takes several forms—it may be spreadable but is usually intended for slicing—and is usually mild in flavour. The several types include Braunschweiger (Brunswick) Cervelat, of beef, lean pork, fat bacon, and seasoning. This fairly large sausage is cured for three weeks and then cool smoked.

See also cervelas, a French sausage which has an etymological connection with the German product. (This adds to the confusion already pervading foreigners’ perceptions of Cervelat, a confusion caused by the fact that one observer will have encountered the spreadable sort and another the sliceable kind and each may be convinced that what he or she ate or bought is the one and only authentic sort.)