Muesli

Cereals ( in Switzerland and in southern Baden- Württemberg muesli [ myəz̥li ], muesli or Birchermues; muesli as of autonomous diminutive of Swiss German Mues, standard language Mus) is a preparation of oatmeal and other cereal based products ( for example, corn flakes ) and fruit or dried fruit which is usually eaten with milk, soy milk, yoghurt or fruit juice to breakfast.

Muesli is next to Swiss chocolate fondue and a Swiss specialties that are eaten around the world. Today cereal is an important part of European breakfast culture. In Switzerland, however, cereal is eaten rather than light meal for dinner. - Birchermüesli complet is Birchermus with bread and butter and milk coffee.

The original apple diet food "d Spies "

The original Birchermues is a Swiss specialty and was developed around 1900 by Aargau doctor and nutritionist Maximilian Oskar Bircher -Benner reformer. The founder of the sanatorium " living force " at the Zurich mountain called his creation apple diet dining, or simply d Spies ( Swiss German, the food, ' [t ʃpi ː z] ). From 1902 he tried to guests closer to a full- value diet with fresh fruit in his Zurich sanatorium in this way - what he achieved. The Birchermus was passed as easily digestible dinner. Bircher -Benner had not developed the muscle on its own, but this " pretty strange food" discovered on a mountain hike in the Alps, as it had hosted a milkmaid with a raw food diet meal, as they took the herdsmen been around for more than a hundred years ago to be had: consisting of oatmeal, apples, nuts, lemon juice and sweetened condensed milk. Bircher -Benner was convinced that unprocessed vegetable raw as it is used for a cereal, " biologically effective light quanta" contained, from which the body can win "life force" - a hypothesis that later proved wrong turned out (see biophotons ).

Nevertheless Bircher -Benner regarded as the true pioneer of whole food nutrition. As a representative of vegetarian raw food diets were for Bircher -Benner with the peel and core the apples freshly grated the most important thing, not the cereal. He used evaporated milk because fresh milk, pasteurized at the time, represented a high risk of developing tuberculosis. Meanwhile the manufacturing process for oatmeal have improved. The available now fine flakes only need to be soaked briefly.

In the French-speaking Switzerland, the apples are usually small cut and not rubbed.

History

The diet reformer Bircher held numerous lectures about raw food nutrition and applied it its apple diet food. At a first breakthrough and first recognition in German-speaking helped the Birchermus the countless cookbooks and writings of members of the Bircher family. Already in the 1920s, was the apple dish on the menu of vegetarian restaurants. Today, the cereal found in the Swiss gastronomy predominantly, often heavily sweetened and garnished with plenty of whipped cream on the dessert menu. Correct the popular Birchermus was initially only in Switzerland. From the 1940s and 1950s, the Birchermus was taken regularly for dinner. Also in the kitchens of prisons, nursing homes, monasteries and the military it was regularly on the menu.

With the popularity soon came up with recipes that differed from the original. Increasingly in place of the oats were dry mixtures industrially produced since the early 1940s. Condensed milk is replaced with yogurt, milk or cream ( cream).

• Birmus ( Obsthalle AG in Roman Horn, 1942) a complete muesli with dried apples, milk powder, cereals, raisins and hazelnuts.
• Frutifort (1946 ), the " ready - mix according to Dr. Bircher muesli " ​​, the Thurgau husking mill Zwicky AG, however, contained no fruit, but only different cereal varieties. The packaging has been specifically pointed out that one should add the mixture of fresh fruits.
• 1954 was founded by Hipp in Sachseln in central Switzerland, the company Somalon AG, which initially offered the Hipp baby food in Switzerland. After a short time, however, this turned on the industrial production of muesli mixes to, and succeeded. The company is now called bio-familia AG and belongs to Hipp group of companies.

In the '68 movement, the cereal part of the alternative, ecological lifestyle. End of the 1960s abolished the cereal thanks to the environmental movement 's global breakthrough. 1985 Kellogg's tried to obtain protection for the brand name cereal. This failed because of an eight year old entry in Germany. As a compromise Müslix and Müeslix were registered.

The term today

Commercially, the term muesli usually stands for finished blends of breakfast cereal, cereal, raisins, dried fruit and nuts. They are often enriched with additional vitamins and minerals. The so-called breakfast cereals are among the most enriched foods, as a study of the project was building a Swiss Food Composition Database. You will be counted for functional food.

According to Stiftung Warentest the "fruits " of most mixes 2006 consisted primarily of raisins that are inexpensive and cute. Crunchy muesli contains a substantial proportion of sugar.

Extended use of language and cultural

• As muesli or granola derogatory or seed eaters, see also kohlrabi apostles are alternatively referred to people living in Germany.
• The alternative health Apostles dedicated the Cologne rock group BAP her song muesli men.
• Beginning of the 1980s was the radio comic character Matthias cereal SWF3 of a cult. Author and player was Jacky Dreksler.
• The Bernese songwriter Roland Zoss wrote in 2011 a dialect song about the ingredients in muesli.
• In English there is the sociological concept of muesli belt for the typical residential belt ecology and health-oriented middle class citizens with nutritional awareness.
• A residential estate of wohnreformierten New Architecture in Winterthur, Switzerland, is commonly referred to as " muesli - quarters " because of the street name, which was originally meant slightly derogatory, is now associated with the special housing quality and avant-garde of classical modernism.

Muesli and muesli

In Switzerland and the southern parts of Baden-Württemberg is - even in Swiss High German - only the original form Birchermüesli common. Muesli - with long ü - however, in most Alemannic dialects, the diminutive of Muus ( "mouse" ), meaning there " little mouse ". The spelling of muesli but also from nationally known manufacturers of flakes and baby food used ( inter alia, the company Snow Mountain and Hipp ).