Papet Vaudois.

Name: Papet Vaudois (Swiss Leek and Potato Stew with Sausage)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 55 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Switzerland
Ingredients: 4 saucisses aux choux, or 2 large saucisses de Morteau; 1 kg leeks, white and pale green parts, split, washed and sliced 1 cm thick; 700 g floury potatoes, peeled and in 3 cm chunks; 1 onion, finely chopped; 40 g butter; 200 ml dry white wine, ideally Chasselas; 400 ml chicken or vegetable stock; 2 bay leaves; 100 ml heavy cream; 1 pinch freshly grated nutmeg; to taste salt and coarsely ground black pepper

Swiss Leek and Potato Stew with Sausage

Papet vaudois · say it: pah-PAY voh-DWAH

Papet vaudois is a stew of leeks and potatoes cooked until they collapse into each other, with a smoked cabbage sausage poached whole on top. The word papet comes from the local dialect for a mash or pap, and that is exactly the texture you are aiming for: not a soup, not a purée, but a soft, spoonable mass in which the potato has broken down and the leeks have gone silky and sweet. The sausage does the seasoning. As it warms through, smoke and fat drip down into the vegetables and turn something plain into something that tastes cured. Cut open at the table, it releases more of the same. It is the winter dish of the canton of Vaud, above Lake Geneva, and it is deliberately, unapologetically simple.

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Swiss Leek and Potato Stew with Sausage

Gate: SwitzerlandVaud
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 55 min
Total time: 1 hr 15 min
Serves: 4
Status: Medium
Nutrition / serving · estimated: Calories 640 kcal; Protein 24 g; Carbs 48 g; Fat 36 g; Fiber 7 g; Sodium 1250 mg

Why this recipe works.

Leek-forward ratio, so the finished papet tastes green and sweet instead of like plain mashed potato.
The sausage poaches on top rather than in the liquid, which is what keeps it whole and lets its fat season the pot.
Gives the texture target in plain words — spoonable, not soupy, not a purée — so you know when to stop.
Honest substitutes for saucisse aux choux, which is nearly impossible to buy outside Switzerland.

Tips from our kitchen.

Wash the leeks properly. Split them lengthwise before slicing and fan the layers under cold running water — grit trapped in a leek ruins the whole pot and cannot be fixed later.
Use the green parts as well as the white, up to where the leaves turn tough and fibrous. They carry most of the flavour and all of the colour.
Prick the sausage once or twice at most, or not at all if it looks sturdy. Too many holes and the fat you want in the vegetables ends up as scum on the surface.
Never let the pot boil once the sausage is in. A hard boil splits the skin. You want lazy bubbles at the edge and nothing more.
Season at the end, not the beginning. A smoked sausage can carry a lot of salt into the pot and you will over-season if you guess early.
If the papet is soupy when the sausage is done, lift the sausage out and cook the vegetables uncovered for a few minutes to drive off the excess.

Substitutions.

Saucisse aux choux → Saucisse de Morteau, Montbeliard sausage, Polish kielbasa or another coarse smoked pork sausage: Morteau from the French Jura is the closest widely available match and behaves identically in the pot. Any smoked, raw, coarse-ground sausage that needs poaching will work; a fully cooked hot dog style sausage will not, as it adds nothing to the vegetables.
Dry white wine → An extra 200 ml of stock plus a teaspoon of white wine vinegar: The wine adds acidity that keeps a very starchy pot from feeling flat. If you skip it entirely, add the vinegar at the end instead.
Heavy cream → A large extra knob of butter, or nothing at all: Plenty of Vaudois cooks finish without cream. The papet is a little more rustic and less rich, and that is a legitimate version rather than a compromise.

Variations.

Papet with boudin: Served with blood sausage instead of, or alongside, the cabbage sausage — a common pairing at Vaud autumn festivals, often with apple compote on the side.
Cream-free papet: Finished with butter alone and a heavier hand on the leeks, giving a looser, greener stew that tastes more of vegetables and smoke.
Papet with cabbage: A wedge of green cabbage cooked in with the leeks for the last twenty minutes, echoing what is inside the sausage.

Storage & reheating.

Papet keeps 3 days refrigerated and genuinely improves overnight, as the smoke from the sausage works further into the vegetables. Store the sausage in the papet rather than separately so it stays moist. Reheat gently in a covered pan over low heat with a splash of water or stock, stirring, until it steams — it thickens considerably in the fridge. It freezes for up to 2 months, though the potato turns slightly grainy on thawing; a hard stir and a little added cream brings it back.

Serve with

Sharp mustard on the side, a glass of Vaud Chasselas, and dark bread to catch what the spoon misses.

The story behind Papet Vaudois.

Vaud is the large French-speaking canton on the northern shore of Lake Geneva — vineyards on the slopes, dairy country above them, and a butchery tradition built around the pig. The saucisse aux choux is its emblem: a coarse pork sausage bulked out with cabbage, smoked over pine or spruce, and protected today as a regional speciality with IGP status. Cabbage in a sausage was originally a way of stretching expensive meat, and the result turned out to be better than the reason for it, because the cabbage holds moisture and the sausage stays juicy through a long poach.

Papet is what the sausage is traditionally cooked in and on. Leeks and potatoes were what a Vaudois household had through winter, and setting the sausage over them meant one pot, one fire, and no fat wasted. That logic is visible in how the dish is built: the vegetables are barely seasoned at the start because the sausage will season them, and the pot is never allowed to boil hard because a bursting sausage loses its juices into the pot in the wrong way — leaking rather than perfuming.

The dish belongs to the calendar as much as the kitchen. It turns up at village fêtes, at the abbayes and shooting festivals of the Vaud countryside, and above all around the Fête des Vignerons and the autumn slaughter season. Every Vaudois family will tell you the ratio their grandmother used, and the arguments are about proportion rather than principle: more leek or more potato, wine or no wine, cream at the end or not. The version below leans on leeks, uses a splash of the local white wine that Vaud produces in quantity, and finishes with a modest amount of cream — all three of which are common practice in the canton, and none of which will be universally approved there.

Questions, answered.

What is a saucisse aux choux and what can I use instead?

It is a coarse smoked pork sausage from the canton of Vaud made with cabbage mixed into the meat, sold raw and cooked by poaching. Outside Switzerland the closest match is saucisse de Morteau from the French Jura; Montbeliard, kielbasa or any coarse raw smoked pork sausage will also work. Avoid pre-cooked frankfurter-style sausages, which contribute almost nothing to the pot.

Why did my sausage burst while cooking?

The water was too hot. Once the sausage goes in the pot must stay at a bare simmer, with only occasional bubbles breaking the surface. A rolling boil expands the filling faster than the casing can stretch and it splits. Pricking the sausage in several places also encourages it to tear, so limit yourself to one or two small holes.

How thick should papet vaudois be?

Thick enough that a spoon dragged through the pot leaves a track that fills in slowly. The potato should have broken down and be holding the leeks together, but you should still see distinct pieces of leek. If it pours like soup, cook it uncovered for a few more minutes; if it stands up like mashed potato, loosen it with a little stock.

Can I make papet vaudois in advance?

Yes, and it is arguably better the next day. Cook it completely, cool it and refrigerate the sausage sitting in the vegetables so it stays moist. Reheat slowly over low heat with a splash of stock or water, since the potato thickens overnight. This makes it a practical dish for feeding a crowd.

Is papet vaudois the same as leek and potato soup?

No. Both use the same two vegetables, but a soup is thin, usually blended and eaten with a spoon from a bowl, while papet is deliberately stewed down until it is thick enough to hold a sausage on a plate. The smoked sausage is not a garnish here — it is the seasoning for the whole dish.

What kind of potatoes should I use?

Floury or all-purpose potatoes such as Bintje, Maris Piper or Russet, because you want them to break down and thicken the pot. Very waxy salad potatoes hold their shape and leave you with a watery stew full of intact cubes, which is not the texture the dish is after.

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