or Alsatian..

Here in Alsace (NE France) a similar salad of sausage, cheese and dressing is available in lots of restaurants as 'Alsatian salad.

When you say gherkins, do you mean sweet gherkins, or cornichons?

Randy, Cornichons ;)

AUSTRIAN! (i think). the swiss version has tons of mayo in it, at least that's where the difference lies for me! perfect picnic food!

Never knew you could make a salad containing sausages! Thanks for sharing, I have to bookmark this .

As far as I know, Wurstsalat with cheese is the swiss version - at least in local bavarian and franconian restaurants. Maybe the Swiss tell otherwise. The bavarian is more puristic using only onions, sausages and pickled gherkins.
Using flavorful pumpkin seed oil is a very nice idea - I've never heard of an Austrian Wurstsalat, but with pumpkin seed oil it's definitely Styrian.
I think also the vinegar needs to be addressed - it has to be a very gentle one, otherwise it dominates and destroys the whole salad.

A fair amount of medium strength mustard in the dressing is imperative! ;) Franconian sausages of choice are Weissgelegter and Rotgelegter along with maybe some Schinkenwurst. The mere thought of this makes me crave Worschtzoloot for breakfast. ;)

Definitely Swiss, because of the cheese!

Using Gruyère instead of Emmentaler or half and half gives this recipe a nice touch - plus you might try to grate the cheese instead of cutting it into cubes, using a grater with big holes (Röstiraffel) ... Yummy! I'll prepare one over the weekend. Wurstsalat is very common in Switzerland, mostly served with a mixed salad as a side dish - or even french fries.

Ich kenne die Version mit Käse unter dem Namen "Straßburger Wurstsalat" - um mal noch eine andere Bezeichnung ins Rennen zu werfen ;-)

Allerdings ist Wurstsalat - ob mit oder ohne Käse - so gar nicht mein Ding...

Viele Grüße und schöner Tag noch,
Juliane

The pumpkin seed oil is really a good idea. Just one question - my mother in law always makes a close variant of this salad, but she blanches the onions for a moment before adding them to the salad, turning them a little less poignant... I always thought it a good idea, but admittedly never had one with raw onions. Would you think raw is better, with more bite, or is blaching a good idea?

Dear Reuben, I've read about blanching the onions, but never had the chance to deliberately try these in a salad. I'm pretty sure, if you choose the milder red onions and cut them really thin, the raw onions won't bother you at all, but you save both, time and some bite ;) Let me know, if you like it with raw red onions!

My family loves this salad with appenzeller cheese andthinly sliced red bell pepper. Together with crispy bread and boiled eggs they say "yum"!

The sausage salad made in Switzerland calls for mayonnaise (not lots, just a tablespoon) and mustard in the dressing. The sausage and cheese are cut into slices, which imho makes a big difference to the taste. The term "Swiss sausage salad" is used in Southern Germany to describe sausage salad with cheese.

Brings back good old memories from my childhood in Konstanz. :-)

Greetings from Berlin,
Martin

Oh, ich liebe den Schweizer Wurstsalat, also den mit Käse. Habe ich auch schon selbst gemacht, war aber nicht 100% zufrieden mit den Ergebnis - also danke fürs Rezept.

I loved this as a child (still do) and used to consume very unhealthy amounts of this for breakfast! Funny, I never thought of making it at home.

My guest family introduced me to Wurschtsalat and I immediately loved it. Their recipe doesn't use cheese, but radishes, and it was very good!

Oooooh, I love how pretty and dressed up this salad looks. I've never made anything like it, yet it feels so familiar - like a pasta salad tossed with salamis. I'm a vegetarian right now, but I'm feeling a little cheat coming on for the hubby's sake - as he'd adore this with a nice pint.

This is probably the most delicious thing I've seen in a long time. I love salads like this. Only thing left is to pair it with a nice entree and a wine...if you have trouble with the wine side of things, I use Chris Riccobono. He's been the most knowledgeable one I've found on the net. I think his website is http://pardonthatvine.com

Thanks again for this awesome salad!

Great!
After our (me and Paolo) bike holiday along the Romantische Strasse, I've had the difficult task to replicate the Wurstsalate.
You help me a lot.
Thanks

Hi Rossella,
How nice to hear from you! If you replicate this salad, please let me know :)

Oooh this basically looks like the best salad ever!! Amazing!

Surprisingly this is so easy to prepare and perfect indeed for beer gathering.

Harcout

If you want to order Swiss Sausage Salad in a restaurant in Badem-Würtemberg you can either have the version with cheese (Swiss) or without (probably German?) But, @Johanna, living in Switzerland for 38 years now, I've never ever had any kind of Sausage Salad that contained mayonnaise, here it's traditionally made with a vinegar and oil sause.

I remember this one from visits to my Frankonian granny, only without the cheese, but all the other of your ingredients - well she probably never knew pumpkin seed oil in her days.
In Frankonia, this is called Stadtwurst mit Musik (sausage with music).
Loevely stuff, thanks.

I am Swiss and we make it with a sausage called Cervelas. It's making me hungry! No chance of getting any as I no longer live in the homeland.

[...] di rossdibi Non so cosa mi abbia ispirato, forse la ricetta della WurstSalat di DeliciousDays WurstSalat di DeliciousDays  o forse l’aria da OktoberFest che arieggia questi giorni o forse la voglia di rivivere vecchi [...]

Ciao
I tried your recipe. Perfect !
I use it as the main theme of a dinner at home during a raining day in Rome.
I did wurstsalat with purè made of potatoes and celery and then red turnip.

http://machetiseimangiato.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/wurstel-in-insalata-e-altro/

Hi Rossella, So glad you liked it, will check out your post immediately :)

Thanks for the recipe - I'm going to make it for a fall barbecue (maybe our last!) here in Massachusetts.

About the onions - if you want them milder, you can also slice, then salt generously, and leave overnight in the fridge. Rinse well before tossing with the other ingredients.

Hi,
Inspired by your salad and Zorra's salad i made my own version. If you want to see, please go to: (http://tertuliadesabores.blogs.sapo.pt/64740.html)
The flavours reminded me my stay in Münch many years ago.
In two words: Easy and delicious.
Thank you for sharing your good recipes and photos.
Regards from Portugal

i have always loved this salad, and used to buy it ready made, now and thanks to you, i have the recipe, and will be making it soon, it really looks delicious, i love your blog, lovely photos too,

cheers from london,

pity

To my opinion only german chefs call a wurstsalat with cheese „swiss wurstsalat”. Because switzerland is the first country they are thinking of when it comes to cheese. I wouldn’t call it austrian because of the oil - the classic „saure Wurst” has normally no oil in it, and to me there is enough fat in the sausage, so I prefer the austrian version (but with poppyseed oil, maybe…) But if the sausage is no good, it won’t help. I am sure, Nicky has always great sausages in the fridge.

The real Inventors of the basic Wurstsalat (without Cheese) are missing! Who invented it? Of course the Swabian People!

I made this in large quantities while working for a small western German hotel chain in the early 90s...but hadn't thought to make it since! Thanks for the reminder of a recipe that my husband will adore.

My partner is german & he'll lurve this salad for sure! Thank you for the recipe! - hope you're doing well!! T xoxoxo

I have eaten a Swiss Sausage Salad when i was in Austria (Schuttdorf, near Zell am See), loved it and I've been searching for the recipe ever since. This recipe seems to be it and I will definately make it sometime soon, provided I will find the required sausages in Romania. Will keep you posted and thank you very much for the recipe!

This salad is very delicious, I like it

That looks fantastic. I've never had it with cheese before. My Dad is Austrian, and the version he likes my (not Austrian) mother to make is just white onions and sausage sliced in thin rounds with a simple vinaigrette as the dressing.

Aaaah, Wurstsalat – most vivid and delicious childhood memories come to mind :)

At my parent's house (near Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg), it was usually paired with a serving of Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes). My mother also adds sliced tomatoes (the lil' cocktail ones work best) to the base salad to take some of the heft out – yum!

Two tips for your US-based readers:

1) Try to find German pickles in your grocery store's international isle (Kühne, Hengstenberg & Gundelsheimer seem to be easiest to find here in the Southeastern US), they taste entirely different from the "standard" 'Murrican pickle you may be used to.

2) Finding good "Wurst" (German Bologna) can be a bit of a challenge here, but do try to ask your butcher to slice it a bit more thickly than usual. That way your Wurstsalat will a) look nicer, and b) the Wurst will retain more of its flavor.

Thanks for the Wurstsalat-reminder, haven't had that in ages! I'll have to make a batch this very weekend :)

Here in Basel, it is normally served with a few leaves of greens (and an occasional sliced radish) with a choice of French or Italian dressing. Maybe the French dressing is mistaken as mayo?

There's also a version with French Fries but without the cheese called (naturally) Wurstsalat mit Pommes-frites. My favourite!

I've been following your blog for quite a while and enjoying your wealth of good recipes. When Foodista announced that they are going to publish the best food blogs in a full color book that will be published by Andrews McMeel Publishing Fall 2010, I naturally thought of you. This recipe would be a good submission! You can enter here: http://www.foodista.com/blogbook/submit

Cheers,
Melissa

melissa@foodista.com
Editor and Community Developer
Foodista.com -- The Cooking Encyclopedia Everyone Can Edit

I love it since our vacation in Turkey... I had "Wurstsalat" there, the one with cheese, but they also had mandarins in there!! It was so delicious, I still can't put it in words...