Food in Upper Austria
Upper Austria is a province famous for its beer. The same is true of Salzburg, too, and even more so of Bavaria, just across the frontier in Germany. For many years, in fact, the Upper Austrian Innviertel (the region near the River Inn) belonged to Bavaria. Beer soup is just as much a part of traditional fare in Upper Austria as it is in Salzburg. The normal type of liver dumpling soup popular all over Austria is served in a modified version in Upper Austria. There the dumplings are deep fried before they are added to the soup. They may also be eaten as a main course, in which case they are usually accompanied by cooked sauerkraut. The preparation of this type of liver dumpling is a laborious and time-consuming procedure and for that reason they are often fried in large batches and stored in the freezer. In the Innviertel they can be bought ready-made at some butchers’ shops.
Upper Austria is famous for its dumplings, a fact which is taken into account by the catering trade during what are known as "Dumpling Weeks", when every kind of dumpling imaginable can be ordered. One of the basic ingredients of the Upper Austrian dumpling is the potato. Reiberknödel (grated dumplings) are made from roughly equal quantities of grated raw potato and sieved boiled potatoes. Their name is derived, not as popular etymology would have it, from "Räuberknodel" ("robbers dumplings"), but from the grating process (reiben) involved in their preparation. Griessknödel (semolina dumplings) can be found in a variety of forms, and the same applies to Mehlknödel (flour dumplings) and Brotknödel (bread dumpling). Classic flour dumplings consist entirely of boiled potatoes, flour and salt. Depending on what one chooses to add to the basic recipe as a filling, flour dumplings can be transformed into: Speckknödel (bacon dumplings), which are sometimes fried instead of boiled; Fleischknödel (meat dumplings); Grammelknödel (dumplings filled with crackling or greaves); Bratknödel (fried dumplings); Mondseer or "zusammengelegte" Knödel (Mondsee or "hotchpotch" dumplings with a filling of finely-chopped leftovers of beef or sausage), Innviertler "Durcheinanderknödel" (Innviertel "topsy-turvy" dumplings filled with bacon); Krautknödel (white cabbage dumplings), and many others besides. Whereas the classic potato dumpling is a side dish, all the others mentioned are served as main dishes with sauerkraut, a warm white cabbage salad, or some other kind of salad.
To the east, Upper Austria borders on the Waldviertel and the Lower Austrian part of the Mostviertel. These neighbouring regions are not only very similar from the point of view of landscape: many parallels can be seen between the types of food eaten there. This applies not only to potato dumplings and potato doughs in general but also to meat dishes like the Mühlviertel Saumeise (for a description of Saumeise refer to the section on Lower Austria), Mostbratel (a casserole made from well-hung beef filet cooked in cider), etc. A pig’s caul is used in the preparation of other dishes apart from the Saumeise - for wrapping Leberbunkl (liver balls), for example, which are then fried. Leftover Leberbunkl are sometimes cut into slices or diced and used as a soup garnish.
Upper Austria has its own version of the deep- fried doughnut, often referred to as a "Bauernkrapfen" ("farmer's doughnut"). In actual fact it has nothing to do with farmers; since the name only began to appear in cookery books after the beginning of the 19th century it is more likely to have been invented, in a fit of nostalgia, by the authors of those books. The farmers themselves refer to them simply as "Krapfen" or otherwise as "ausgezogene Nudeln" ("stretched noodles") or "Hauberlinge" ("little hoods"). The Upper Austrian doughnut is round in shape and thicker at the edge than in the middle. The indentation can either be filled with jam or the doughnut can be served plain and simply dredged with sugar.
Two cakes which were originally Upper Austrian specialities, the Linzertorte and the Zaunerstollen are now found all over the country. The Linzertorte is made with a delicate short pastry dough containing roughly equal quantities of flour and ground almonds or hazelnuts. The dough is pressed into a round baking tin, spread with red-currant jam and the top decorated with the thin Tolls of dough arranged lattice-fashion that give the Linzertorte its characteristic appearance. The surfac is sprinkled with flaked almonds before baking. A ready-made Linzertorte bought in a package with the city’s own special emblem - the "beauty of Linz" with her gold regional headdress - makes an apt and elegant souvenir.
"Zauner" is a famous cake shop and café in Bad Ischl, the resort where the emperor Franz Joseph I used to spend his summers. The founder of the business, a master pastry-cook by the name of Johann Zauner, was not a native of Bad lschl. He came from Haugsdorf in Lower Austria. Zauner first arrived in Bad Ischl in 1820, and he opened his cake shop and café in the Pfarrgasse in 1832. By the middle of the century he had been appointed purveyor to the imperial household, an honour not confined to the emperor’s local summer residence but one which extended to the imperial court in Vienna as well. The Zaunerstollen (a mixture of crushed wafer biscuits, toasted ground hazelnuts and a thick chocolate-flavoured cream, coated with chocolate icing) is sold throughout Austria and, like the Sachertorte, it is dispatched to places all over the world.
