Food in Salzburg
The Salzburg Schottsuppe (curd soup), like the Lower Austrian "sto" soup, is a tart-flavoured soup (the sour flavour, in this case, may be imparted by buttermilk curds, for example); it, too, used to be served as part of the early morning meal. Salzburg is anotherAustrian province famous for its beer.
Beer soup is made by adding butter, egg yolk and heavy cream to the boiling beer; it is then seasoned with salt, pepper, sugar and nutmeg. The garnish for this soup is Bierfleisch (meat cooked in beer).
Salzburg Bierfleisch is prepared as follows: beef (750 g) is cut into finger-thick slices and browned with ham (150 g) in butter in which chopped onion has been sweated. The contents of the pan are dredged with flour and half a litre of beer is poured on. Herbs and seasonings (salt, pepper, thyme, parsley and a bay leaf) are added; the meat is simmered until tender and flavoured with sugar and vinegar. This dish is served with noodles.
Salzburg Nockerln, now famous all over the world, have become something of a cliché. This light, fluffy concoction, consisting mainly of stiffly beaten, sweetened egg-whites, is browned quickly in a hot oven and served immediately.
The language used in the kitchen in Austria, just as everywhere else, no doubt, has its own bewildering vocabulary of specialized terms. In Salzburg, for example, the word for pulp or pudding is "Koch"; in other parts of Austria it is called "Mus". In Salzburg, on the other hand, the word "Mus" means a kind of "Schmarren" (a dish made of warm shredded dough of some kind).
A particularly delicious "Koch" is Lungauer Rahmkoch, a creamy pudding which originated in the Lungau region of the province. A litre of sweet heavy cream is heated in a saucepan to boiling point and is left to simmer until beads of fat appear on the surface (aniseed and a stick of cinnamon may be cooked with the cream, but they are removed before the next stage); "Brocken" (small clumps of paste similar to the soup garnishes made from flour and water dough) are added to the cream with a small knob of butter, and the mixture is simmered for a while. The addition of raisins or sultanas and a little sugar is optional. The mixture is stirred until it drops easily from the spoon and is then poured into a shallow serving dish. This pudding may be eaten either hot or cold; when served cold it is cut into portions.
A dish traditionally served at midday on Christmas Eve (otherwise known as Bachltag) in the old days was called "Bachlkoch" (or "Baschlkoch"). Every member of the household had to eat some of this pudding. Symbolically, too, not only the elements but the trees in the orchard and the cattle, as well, were invited to partake of this midday meal, the belief being that this would encourage the trees to bear abundant crops of fruit and the cattle to multiply.
One other traditional Christmas speciality is sold by bakeries and cake shops as well as being baked at home. This speciality, a bread dough with a filling of dried fruit, is known as Kletzenbrot. Kletzen are actually dried pears, but the filling also contains other types of dried fruit such as prunes and figs; for an even richer filling nuts, dates and candied citrus peel may be added. For many people the Kletzenbrot season is synonymous with Christmas time.
