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Basel Fasnacht and the cheese tart

Three days of carnival from 4 a.m. on the Monday after Ash Wednesday, kept going by flour soup and cheese tart.

Morgestraich Carnaval de Bâle (Suisse) 18 février 2013
Photo: Claude TRUONG-NGOC, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cheeses for Basel Fasnacht and the cheese tart

The Carnival of Basel starts at exactly four in the morning on the Monday after Ash Wednesday with the Morgestraich, when the lights of the old town go out and lantern processions of fifes and drums set off. It lasts exactly seventy-two hours. The food that keeps the cliques going is plain and hot: Mehlsuppe, a soup of browned flour, and Wähe, flat tarts of which the Fasnacht kinds are Zwiebelwähe, with onion, and Käsewähe, with grated cheese, eggs and cream. Restaurants in the old town serve them through the night. The festival has been on UNESCO's intangible heritage list since 2017.

The cheeses

GruyèreGrated into the custard of the Käsewähe.EmmentalMixed with Gruyère in many tart recipes.
About this page

Written by the EveryCheese desk with AI assistance. Background: "Carnival of Basel" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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