Austrian Cuisine, "Österreichische Küche" in German, is a style of cuisine native to Austria and composed of influences from throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Regional cuisines from Italy, Hungary and the Balkans in particular have had an effect on Austrian cooking, and in turn this mélange of styles was influential throughout the Empire.
The famous Wiener Schnitzel, for example, is thought to have originated in Milan in the 16th century, from where it was taken to Vienna, and popularised as Wiener Schnitzel throughout the Empire and beyond.
Austrian cuisine is most often associated with Viennese cuisine, but there are significant regional variations.
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Mealtimes in Austria
Breakfast is of the "continental" type, usually consisting of bread rolls with either jam or cold meats and cheese, accompanied by coffee or juice. The midday meal was traditionally the main meal of the day, but in modern times as Austrians work longer hours further from home this is no longer the case. The main meal is now taken in the evening, usually at around 6pm.
A mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack of a slice of bread topped with cheese or ham is referred to as a "Jause" (pronounced roughly as "yowzer"), and a more substantial version akin to a British "Ploughman's Lunch is called a "Brettljause" after the wooden board on which it is traditionally served.
Sweets
Cakes
Austrian cakes and pastries are a well-known feature of its cuisine. Perhaps the most famous is the Sachertorte, a chocolate cake filled with apricot jam, traditionally eaten with whipped cream. Other favourites include the caramel-flavoured Dobostorte and the delicately-layered Esterhazy Torte (both of which originated in Hungary during the Austro-Hungarian empire), as well as a number of cakes made with fresh fruit and cream.
These cakes are typically complex and difficult to make, and are generally not made at home but eaten at a café or bought by the slice from a bakery. Traditionally, Germans and Austrians go out for "Kaffee und Kuchen" (coffee and cake) on a Sunday afternoon. A "Konditorei" is a specialist cake-maker, and the designations "Café-Konditorei" and "Bäckerei-Konditorei" are common indicators that the café or bakery in question regards itself as specialising in this field.
Desserts
Austrian desserts are typically simpler than the elaborate cakes described above. The most famous of these is the Apple Strudel, layers of thin pastry surrounding a filling of apple, usually with cinnamon and raisins. Other strudels are also popular, such as those filled with sweetened curd cheese called Topfen.
Another favourite is Kaiserschmarr'n, a rich pancake broken into pieces and served with a fruit compote (traditionally made of plums and called Zwetschkenröster) for dipping, while a speciality of Salzburg is the meringue-like "Salzburger Nocken".
Drinks
Coffee
Austria is credited in popular legend with introducing coffee to Europe after bags of coffee beans were left behind by the retreating Turkish army after the Battle of Vienna in 1683. Although the first coffehouses had appeared in Europe some years earlier, the Viennese café tradition became an important part of the city's identity.
Coffee is served in a variety of styles, particularly in the Viennese cafés. An Austrian Mokka or kleiner Schwarzer is similar to espresso, but is extracted more slowly. Other styles are prepared from the Mokka:
- großer Schwarzer - a double Mokka
- kleiner Brauner or großer Brauner - single or double Mokka plus milk
- Verlängerter - "lengthened" (i.e. diluted) Mokka with more water plus milk
- Melange - half Mokka, half heated milk, often topped with foamed milk
- Franziskaner - Melange topped with whipped cream not foamed milk
- Kapuziner - kleiner Schwarzer plus whipped cream
- Einspänner - großer Schwarzer topped with whipped cream
Traditionally Coffee is served with a glass of still water.
Hot Chocolate
Viennese hot chocolate is very rich, containing heavy cream in addition to chocolate, and sometimes thickened further with egg yolk.
Soft Drinks
Almdudler is an Austrian soft drink based on mountain herbs and with a flavour reminiscent of elderflower beverages. It is now manufactured and distributed by the Coca-Cola group. Popular energy drink Red Bull also originates in Austria.
Beer
Beer is generally sold in the following sizes: 0.2 litre (a Pfiff), 0.3 litre (a Seidel, kleines Bier or Glas Bier) and 0.5 litre (a Krügerl, Halbe or großes Bier). At festivals one litre Maß and two litre Doppler in the Bavarian style are also dispensed. The most popular types of beer are pale lager (known as Märzen in Austria), naturally cloudy Zwicklbier, and wheat beer. At holidays like Christmas and Easter bock beer is also available.
Austrian beers are typically in the pale lager style, with the exceptions noted above. A dark amber "Vienna Style" lager was pioneered in the city during the 19th century but is now not common there.
Wine
Wine is principally cultivated in the east of Austria. The most important wine-producing areas are in Lower Austria, Burgenland, Styria, and Vienna. The Grüner Veltliner grape provides some of Austria's most notable white wines and Zweigelt is the most widely planted red wine grape. Southern Burgenland is a Region that mainly grows red grapes while the "Seewinkel" area around the Neusiedlersee has more mixed wine cultures. Wine is even grown within the city limits of Vienna - the only European capital where this is true - and some is even produced under the auspices of the city council.
Young wine (i.e. wine produced from grapes of the most recent harvest) is called Heuriger and gives its name to inns in Vienna and its surroundings which serve Heuriger wine along with food. In Styria, Carinthia and Burgenland the heuriger inns are known as Buschenschanken.
Other alcoholic drinks
In Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Styria and Carinthia, Most, a type of cider or perry is widely produced, whilst Sturm, a semi-fermented grape-juice is drunk after the grape harvest.
At the close of a meal, schnapps of typically up to 60 % alcohol or fruit brandy is drunk, which in Austria is made from a variety of fruits (for example apricots), as well as rowanberries, gentian roots, various herbs and even flowers. The produce of small private schnapps distilleries, of which there are around 20,000 in Austria, is known as Selberbrennter or Hausbrand. A very high percentage schnaps is called "Umblachter" and has up to 85% Alcohol.
Snack food
For food consumed in between meals there are open sandwiches "belegte Brote", different kinds of sausage with mustard, ketchup and bread, as well as sliced sausage, Leberkäse rolls or Schnitzelsemmeln (rolls filled with schnitzel). Traditionally you can get a "Wurstsemmel" (a roll filled with Ham or Bacon often with a slice of Cheese and a Pickle or Cornichon )at a Butcher or at the delicatessen counter in a supermarket.
There are also other common delicacies, which may not be cordon bleu, but which are typical of Austrian food, for example the Bosna or Bosner (a spiced bratwurst in a hot dog roll) which is an integral part of the menu at Austria's typical fast-food joint, the sausage stand (Würstelstand).
Most Austrian Sausages contain Pork.
Regional cuisine
Vienna
Typically Viennese dishes for example are:
- Apfelstrudel (a kind of apple dessert)
- Beuschel (a ragout containing calf lungs and heart)
- Gulasch (a hotpot similar to Hungarian pörkölt - gulyás is a soup in Hungary)in austria its eaten often with rolls, bread or dumplings ("Semmelknödel")
- Rindsuppe (beef soup)a clear soup with golden colour.
- Selchfleisch (smoked, then cooked meat) with Sauerkraut and dumplings.
- Tafelspitz (boiled beef, often served with apple and horseradish sauce)
- Liptauer cheese to be eaten on a slice of bread
- Powidl a kind of jam.
- Topfenstrudel (a cream cheese strudel)
- Palatschinken (like french Crépes ) filled with Marmalade, Jam, cream etc.
- Kaiserschmarrn soft sweet dish made out of the same recipe as "Palatschinken"
- Germknödel, which is a hill of fluffy dough with a mix poppy seeds and sugar and melted butter on top.
Often also eaten with vanilla cream. The Danish pastry is said to originate from Vienna and in Denmark is called wienerbrød (Viennese bread). But that is probably because it uses a certain kind of dough consisting of butter and flour in the classic cuisine referred to as "Viennese Dough".
Lower Austria
In Lower Austria, local delicacies such as Waldviertel poppies, Marchfeld asparagus and Wachau apricots are cultivated. Famous are the "Marillenknödel" small dumplings filled with apricots and warm butter-fried breadcrumbs on it. Their influence can be felt in the local cuisine, for example in poppy noodles "Mohnnudeln". Game dishes are very common. Lower Austria is striking for the differences within its regional cuisine due to its size and the variety of its landscape.
Burgenland
Burgenland's cuisine has been influenced by Hungarian cuisine and Balkan cuisine owing to its former position within the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Dishes consist mainly of fish, chicken or pork. Potatoes are the most common side dish, for example mashed potatoes with onions called "Grö´ste". Thanks to Hungary's Balkan influences, often Burgenlandish dishes are spicier than elsewhere in Austria, often indicated with the terms "Zigeuner..." ("Gypsy") or "Serbisch..." Polenta is a popular side-dish within Burgenland's Croatian minority. On St Martin's Day (November 11) a Martinigans (St Martin's goose) is often prepared, whilst carp is a typical Christmas dish.
Styria
In Styrian Buschenschanken (inns), Verhackertes (a spread made from finely chopped raw bacon) is served. Schilcher, a very dry rosé, is the regional style of wine in West Styria. A typically Styrian delicacy is pumpkin seed oil, which lends itself particularly to salads on account of its nutty taste. Many varieties of pumpkin dish are also very popular. Heidensterz, a pancake made from buckwheat flour, is a local dish enjoyed in cold weather.
Carinthia
Carinthia's many lakes mean that fish is a popular main course. Grain, dairy produce and meat are important ingredients in Carinthian cuisine. Carinthian Kasnudeln (noodle dough pockets filled with quark and mint) and smaller Schlickkrapfen (mainly with a meat filling) are well-known local delicacies. Klachlsuppe (pig's trotter soup) and Reindling (a type of cinnamon raisin bread) are also produced locally.
Upper Austria
Various types of dumpling are an important part of Upper Austrian cuisine, as they are in neighbouring Bohemia and also Bavaria. The Linzer Torte, a cake which includes ground nuts and marmalade, is a popular dessert from the region. "Linzeraugen" are fine, soft cookies filled with a jam made of redcurrants called "Ribisel-Marmelade", which has a sharp flavour.
Salzburg
Kasnocken (cheese dumplings) are a popular meal, as are freshwater fish, particularly trout, served in various ways. Salzburger Nockerln (a meringue-like dish) is a well-known local dessert.
Tyrol
Tyrolean bacon and all sorts of dumplings including Speckknödel (dumplings with pieces of bacon) and Spinatknödel (made of spinach) are an important part of the local cuisine. Tyrolean cuisine is very simple because in earlier times Tyroleans were not very rich, farming on Mountains and in valleys in the middle of the Alpine Region. Tyrolean food contains often Milk, cheese, flour and lard.
Vorarlberg
The cuisine of Vorarlberg has been influenced by the alemannic cuisine of neighbouring Switzerland and Swabia. Cheese and cheese products play a major role in the cuisine, with Käsknöpfle and Kässpätzle (egg noodles prepared with cheese) being popular dishes. Other delicacies include Krutspätzle (sauerkraut noodles), Käsdönnala (similar to a quiche), Schupfnudla (made from a dough mixing potato and flour), Flädlesuppe (pancake soup), Öpfelküachle (apple cake) and Funkaküachle (cake traditionally eaten on the first Sunday of Lent.
Game
As there ar many woods across Austria there is a big hunting tradition.
- Deer "Hirsch"
- Wild Boar "Wildschwein"
- Roe Deer "Reh"
- Fallow Deer "Dammhirsch"
- Brown hare "Hase/Feldhase"
- Common pheasant "Fasan"
- Duck "Ente"
- Grey partridge "Rebhuhn"
etc. In Autumn Season traditionally restaurants in Austria offer game in their menu, along with seasonal vegetables and fruits like pumpkins from Styria.
Butchery Tradition
The most popular meats in Austria come from the pig, the cow and the chicken, though the famous Wiener Schnitzel is traditionally made of veal. The pig in particular is used extensively, with many dishes using offal and parts such as the snout and trotters. Austrian butchers have a number of unique cuts of meat, including beef Tafelspitz, usually boiled and served with horseradish, and pork "Fledermaus", named for its shape which resembles a bat. Austria also has a great number of different sausages, like "Frankfurter", "Debreziner" named after Debrecen in Hungary, or "Burnwurst", "Blunzn" made out of pig-blood and rolls a little bit like scottish Haggis and "Grüne Würstl" - green sausages. Green means raw in this context - they are dried by air and have to be boiled to eat. There are some sorts of bacon in Austria called "Speck", bacon can be smoked, raw, salted, spiced etc. it is used in many Traditional recipies as salty ingredient (like a spice).
Food control Laws
Austria has very strict laws regulating its food and drink industry. Every single piece of meat is quality-controlled and registered even when it is hunted game. The same strict rules are for controlling milk and cheese. The Ministry for Agriculture and "Gesundheitsamt" (Department of Health) look after the industry and farmers to make ensure the high quality level of food products "made in Austria".
Austrian consumers are typically suspicious of meat of foreign origin in particular, following the scare over BSE. Organically-produced goods are also highly-demanded, and the Austrian Government has introduced additional high-quality standards with stricter rules, such as BIO or AMA-Gütesiegel. A new standard is "Genfrei" or "Gentechnikfrei" meaning the food is free of Genetically Modified ingredients.
Following a 1985 scandal in which it emerged that Austrian wine had been adulterated with diethylene glycol (a type of antifreeze), the government introduced strict quality controls and Austrian wine is now renowned for its high quality.
See also
References
Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent German-language Wikipedia article retrieved April 2, 2005.
External links
- Find English recipes for Austrian dishes on www.thepassionatecook.com
- http://www.sheries-kitchen.com/recipes/austrian/austrian1.htm
- Österreichische Küche - AEIOU
- European and world cuisine. Austrian cuisine.
- Austrian Food Cooking - website with recipes and photos
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