Around the World: McDonald's Swiss-Themed Burgers

McDonald's Switzerland is in the midst of an annual Swiss Weeks line of limited-time burgers featuring local tastes and ingredients. And just what does Swiss ingredients mean? Swiss beef and Swiss cheeses (but not Swiss cheese as we know it).

The current burger featured is the Simmental Prime. It's so named for the Simmental cattle from which its beef patty is sourced.  Accompanying the patty are a crispy baguette, Cafe de Paris sauce, two slices of cheese, lettuce, and diced tomatoes.

A few weeks back, there was the new McGrischun and before that the McRaclette; both named for the respective cheese they sport.

The McGrischun features a Swiss beef patty, a slice of Grisons organic mountain cheese, Grison-style thin-sliced, air-dried beef (known as Bündnerfleisch), arugula, gherkins, and grilled beef pepper sauce, on a ciabatta bun. It sounds rather ambitious compared to the typical McDonald's fare.

The McRaclette consits of Swiss beef, three slices of Kaltenbach raclette cheese, pickles, onions, and raclette sauce on a ciabatta bun. Raclette is a Swiss cheese that is usually served by melting part of it and scraping the melted portion onto your plate.

Each Swiss Week burger was/is sold for 7.90 Swiss Francs (~US 8.91 US) each. A Big Mac is Switzerland is about $6.81 US, so if McDonald's ever decide to sell these burgers in the US, the price would probably be around $4.50.

To round out McDonald's Swiss Weeks menu, there are hash brown fries called "Rosti Fries." Apparently, according to McDonald's, "the hash brown is an essential part of Swiss cuisine." The more you know...