Food in Vienna
The term "Viennese cookery" is quite often synonymous with "Austrian cookery", and many Viennese dishes are standard items on household or restaurant menus all over the country. Some are nonetheless deemed to be typically Viennese, as the attributive may imply - Wiener Schnitzel, for example.
Beef always used to play a very important role in the regular Viennese diet. Free meals provided by charitable institutions for the needy people of Vienna usually took the form of a beef soup of some kind. More often than not, the kitchens of the Wiener Allgemeiner Hilfsverein (Viennese General Welfare Association), founded in 1847, would hand out "Rumford" soup, named after a Bavarian count. This was a nourishing meal in itself made from stock thickened with cornflour in which the main ingredients were pulses and potatoes.
Ever since the Middle Ages town-dwellers had been in the habit of eating large quantities of meat. There is evidence to show that in 16th century Vienna average annual consumption per head of the population was 100 kg. In the 18th and 19th centuries people continued to eat a lot of meat - twice daily in middle-class circles and even several meat dishes in the course of each meal in the upper strata of society.
To some degree it was not just the quantity but also the type of meat that varied from one class to another. In Biedermeier times, Backhendl (fried, breaded chicken) came to be the status symbol of the upper middle classes. Beef in those days, unlike now, was cheap by comparison, and it appeared frequently on the table in middle-class households. Nowadays beef dishes are considered to be something of a delicacy, particularly Tafelspitz (boiled rump), Lungenbraten (roast filet) and Rostbraten (broiled or pan-fried sirloin). While veal is used for the truly authentic Wiener Schnitzel, it is quite often made with pork escalopes prepared in a similar way. Potato salad is the classic accompaniment to a Schnitzel.
Bouillon, a clear beef stock, is still the basis of most soups. For the sake of variety, any one of a wide range of garnishes may be added: Griessnockerl (small semolina dumplings), Kaiserschöberl (unsweetened sponge-cake baked in a tin and cut into strips), Frittaten (shredded pancakes), Lungenstrudel (strudel pastry filled with cooked lights and seasonings, baked and cut into slices), Backerbsen (small balls of deep-fried choux pastry), or the yolk of an egg are some of the favourite gamishes. A common and popular device for indicating quality is to prefix the name of the dish with the word "Kaiser" ("pertaining to the emperor"), as in the case of Kaiserschöberl (see above) or Kaiserschmarren (shredded pancakes sprinkled with raisins and powdered sugar and often served with a thick purée of plums). Anything imperial cannot, after all, be anything less than superlative.
Fried calf's head, pickled veal and stuffed breast of veal are illustrations of the Viennese predilection for expensive types of meat.
The favourite and most familiar cooking method for chicken is to deep fry it with a breadcrumb coating (Backhendl). Alternatively it may be sautéed or served as paprika chicken. During the last few years grilled chicken has become increasingly popular. The deep fried version is considered to be a good, satisfying meal, and it is not without reason that the stately paunch of many a citizen of Vienna is referred to as a "graveyard for fried chicken".
The Viennese are very fond of offal. Cooked lungs are made into Beuschel (lights) or, in the case of calf lungs, Salonbeuschel (literally translated, this means "drawing room lights"!). Liver and kidneys are often sautéed, but pan-fried or breaded liver is equally popular.
Goulash is a dish which any Gasthaus always has in stock, so to speak, and supplies never run out. This explains why it tastes infinitely better in those places than anywhere else. Goulash can be ordered at any time of the day or night and it rounds off many a party or night that has been danced away. The succulent Viennese version is made with shank, a front cut of beef streaked with tendons, containing the gelatine necessary for the rich gravy. Viennese goulash, unlike the ordinary beef, pork or veal variety, is not thickened with flour.
The list of Viennese cakes and pastries is practically endless, which makes it impossible, in the present context, to describe more than a few. A visit to a cake shop here is the most convincing object lesson in the art of the Viennese pastry cook. One may be faced with the choice between apple strudel, Marmorguglhupf (a marble cake baked in a fluted mould), snowballs, or Faschingskrapfen (a kind of doughnut which used to be a carnival season speciality but which may now be bought at any time of year), walnut or poppy-seed crescents, curd cheese strudel or Kolatschen, Sachertorte (a rich iced chocolate cake) or Esterhazytorte (an iced cake with a butter cream filling), and many others besides. A typical Viennese dessert is one version or other of the Wiener Koch, a kind of Charlotte Russe or trifle composed of ready-baked cake or biscuits combined with a variety of other sweet ingredients for flavouring and arranged in a soufflé dish.
The Sachertorte (see above) was invented by Franz Sacher, who began his career in the service of Prince Metternich as an apprentice cook. His son Eduard, the owner of a high-class Viennese hotel, made this "inimitable" cake famous throughout the world. A dispute between the Hotel Sacher and Demel, the royal imperial court pastry cook, as to which of them possessed the authentic recipe, ended in a compromise.
The Viennese housewife also likes to bake a Sachertorte to accompany afternoon coffee, and she usually serves it decorated with whipped cream. Another standard coffee cake is the Gugelhupf (a cake made of sponge or yeast dough and baked in a special fluted Guglhupf mould); this cake is not only served at coffee parties, a popular form of home-entertaining, but is also a standard item on the Sunday morning breakfast table.
During the carnival season it was customary, in the old days, to invite friends in "for a Faschingskrapfen", and the regular clientele of a particular Gasthaus were served these doughnuts free of charge. Nowadays, as was mentioned earlier, Faschingskrapfen are no longer a seasonal speciality but can be bought at any time of year.
Other Viennese specialities, sometimes served as main meals as well, are Kaiserschmarren and Milchrahmstrudel (strudel pastry with a filling made from white breadcrumbs, curd cheese, eggs and sour cream) accompanied by a creamy vanilla custard.
Coffee is an absolutely essential feature of the Viennese gastronomic tradition and it also provides an excuse for getting together socially, either at a coffee party at home, or in a coffee-house or cake-shop where people meet to that over a cup of coffee and a piece of cake. On these occasions a favourite beverage is the mélange, consisting of roughly equal quantities of pure coffee and milk. On a hot summer’s day people might prefer to order a Viennese iced coffee (cold coffee with an ice-cream float topped with whipped cream).
In the evenings the Viennese like to meet at one of the many "Heurigen" rustic inns run by vintners who sell their own wines. A large selection of small home-made buffet dishes is available at these inns.
For a quick snack during the day or after the theatre or a ball, any of the numerous typically Viennese sausage stands, which stay open well into the small hours, is to be recommended.
