Burgenland
The Burgenland, previously part of Hungary, was the last region to become a province of Austria. The territory was ceded to Austria under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon in 1919, but it was not finally incorporated into the country until 1922, following a plebiscite on the question of Sopron (Odenburg). Burgenland cooking bears the particular stamp of the region’s Hungarian past and, in equal measure, of the harrowing poverty which once reigned in the province. Even though conditions prompted thousands to emigrate to America, bonds with the old homeland have never been completely severed. Many items of what used to constitute the poor man’s diet are among the favourite dishes on present-day menus. They have come to be regarded as the region’s own specialities, an instance of the extent to which food is capable of instilling a sense of identity and a feeling of attachment to one’s native roots.
Since meat was scarce in those days, beans were a necessary and inexpensive source of protein. An entire three-course meal, from soup to dessert, can be prepared from beans - bean soup, bean mash or bean strudel for the main course and bean cake for dessert. Bean soup with "scipi", a kind of small dumpling, is the "national dish" of the Croatian community, one of the minority groups in the Burgenland.
The Burgenland cook’s partiality for paprika as a seasoning is a symptom of the old Hungarian influence. The dividing line between regions where salt and paprika are to be found on the Gasthaus table and the rest of Austria - where salt and pepper are customary - is sometimes referred to as the "paprika equator". Paprika chicken has long since taken the Austrian kitchen by storm. In the Burgenland one still comes across it described as "Paprikasch", derived from the original Hungarian term for the dish.
The pièce de résistance of any rural wedding feast used to be crisp roast suckling pig cooked on a spit and carried in on a platter with a red silk ribbon around its neck and a walnut in its mouth. The rich also used to eat this special delicacy on New Year’s Eve. In the "Gypsy Baron", the operetta by Johann Strauss the younger, the eponymous character devotes one of his songs to the subject of the roast suckling pig ("What I want from life is pigs’ bristles and fatty pork..."). Burgenland wedding celebrations are famous, even today, not least of all on account of the many different kinds of cakes, pastries and other sweet concoctions prepared by the women in charge of the catering. Before the opening of the festivities, guests even go along ahead of time to "inspect the goodies" which are the pride and joy of the caterers and bride and groom alike.
If ever one is invited out in the Burgenland a good thing to order is boiled strudel, For this dish, white cabbage or curd-cheese strudel is cut into slices and cooked in salted water. The normal, baked strudel is, of course, also known in the Burgenland and it sometimes contains a special type of filling made from beans, perhaps, or potatoes, white cabbage or root vegetables.
The Burgenland is another province where Jewish cookery has left its imprint. There were once several large and important Jewish communities in the region - the one in Deutschkreutz, for instance. Jewish-style chicken livers and a dish made from goose giblets are just two examples of the legacy left behind by those communities. Geese in general play an important role in the Burgenland. In the old days they used to be part of the normal village scene. That was before the ponds began to disappear and concrete and cement transfigured the local landscape. The goose is also the emblem of St. Martin, the patron saint of the province. On November 11th, Martinmas, it is a custom in the Burgenland to go out to eat Martini goose. This dish is now served in restaurants all over the country to celebrate the festival of St. Martin.
