Cholera Valaisanne

Cholera is a savoury double-crust pie from the canton of Valais, and its alarming name has a debated origin. A widely told folk etymology says that during a 19th-century cholera epidemic, with trade and mountain roads cut off, the people of the Goms Valley stayed home and baked whatever the cellar held — potatoes, leeks, apples, cheese, bacon — sealed inside pastry. A second, often-considered-likelier theory links the name to the Valais German 'Chole' (coal), since the pie was originally baked directly on the embers ('K' commonly shifts to 'Ch' in the local dialect). Either way it became a fixture of Goms Valley kitchens, a complete meal in a crust.

You cut through a crisp golden crust into a steaming layered filling: earthy potato, sweet softened leek, salty bacon, and surprising little hits of apple that brighten everything, all bound by molten raclette. Rich and rustic, it eats like a whole Alpine meal folded into pastry.

Pre-cooking the potatoes and sweating the leeks drives off water that would otherwise make the pastry soggy, so the crust bakes crisp. The apple's acidity and sweetness lift the heavy potato-cheese-bacon core, and sealing everything in pastry traps steam so the layers cook through and the cheese melts into the lot.