Austrian Cookery — Vienna — Salzburg — Baden — Carlsbad — Marienbad — Other Towns. Austrian Cookery Of the many good things that might be said con- cerning Austrian cookery, the best is, that there is no country in the world, not even excepting France, where the average of good cookery in inns and hotels is so high as in Austria. It is an exception, even in the smallest inns, to be served with an ill-cooked meal, and the red and white or blue and white tablecloths spread on the little tables under the trees in any country hotel garden always seem to be clean. One characteristic of Austrian cookery, and a very good one, is that the cook, in cooking a meal, adds to his dishes all the salt and spices that can be required in carefully considered quantities. The diner never has to half empty a salt-cellar or send a rain of black pepper on to his meat. The Wiener Rostbraten , the steak of the capital, the Wiener Schnitzel , differing from that of Hanover and Hamburg in its garnish of anchovies, olives, and hard-boiled eggs, are two of the best-known of the Austrian dishes. Others are— Ver- micelli with poppy seeds ; Smoked beef, sauerkraut and dumplings ; Styrian mutton and herbs ; Ester- hazy roast beef and minced vegetables ; Pork chops fried in bread crumbs ; Lentil soup with sausages ; 320 ^Austria 321 Vienna pancakes; Smoked pork ribs; Carp stewed with onions and pepper. Some of the Austrian en- tremets, simple but delicious, should find their way to England. The soufflee omelette is beautifully light, and the Stephanie omelette, which is a soufflee omelette enveloping a spread of greengage jam, is a very favourite ending to a repast. Salzburg Knockerl is another light dish, and the cakes of sago and other light food stuffs, eaten with fruit-juice, are good, plain, sweet- tasting food. Apfelstrudl, , an admirable apple turn- over, Kaiser schmarren, which is shreds of pancake and raisins, are two other popular Austrian sweet dishes. The Austrian bread and Austrian pastry are the best in Europe, and the Austrian coffee is just as well made as any coffee served in France. An Austrian house- wife once explained to me the secret of this. “ You English,” she said, “ always talk of your chalky hard water, and excuse your poor coffee on that score. In Austria every housewife looks carefully at her coffee- berries before she roasts them, and also after they are roasted, for she knows that a greasy berry or a burned one will spoil a whole making of coffee.” An Austrian housewife will never allow metal to touch coffee, but I fancy that this is more a matter of super- stition than of practical coffee-making. An Austrian housewife does even more wonderful things with a goose than a German one does. She cuts up her bird, spices its liver in a little casserole, boils its back and serves it with rice, spices its breast and bakes it, and makes a brown stew of its giblets and feet. Each province has a cookery all its own. Bohemia, for instance, prides itself on its apple tarts and on its muffins stuffed with poppy-seed jam, its dumplings of cream cheese, ham, egg, cream, and apricot jam, and its wonderful crumpets. This, the lunch eaten by King Edward when he visited the Austrian Exhibition in London, and 322 Utile Gourmets Guide to Europe lunched at the Austrian restaurant, is a very good -specimen of an Austrian meal : — Kalte Vorspeise (Hors d’ oeuvre).

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Austrian Cookery — Vienna — Salzburg — Baden — Carlsbad — Marienbad — Other Towns. Austrian Cookery Of the many good things that might be said concerning Austrian cookery, the best is, that there is no country in the world, not even excepting France, where the average of good cookery in inns and hotels is so high as in Austria. It is an exception, even in the smallest inns, to be served with an ill-cooked meal, and the red and white or blue and white tablecloths spread on the little tables under the trees in any country hotel garden always seem to be clean. One characteristic of Austrian cookery, and a very good one, is that the cook, in cooking a meal, adds to his dishes all the salt and spices that can be required in carefully considered quantities. The diner never has to half empty a salt-cellar or send a rain of black pepper on to his meat. The Wiener Rostbraten , the steak of the capital, the Wiener Schnitzel , differing from that of Hanover and Hamburg in its garnish of anchovies, olives, and hard-boiled eggs, are two of the best-known of the Austrian dishes. Others are— Vermicelli with poppy seeds ; Smoked beef, sauerkraut and dumplings ; Styrian mutton and herbs ; Esterhazy roast beef and minced vegetables ; Pork chops fried in bread crumbs ; Lentil soup with sausages ; ^Austria 321 Vienna pancakes; Smoked pork ribs; Carp stewed with onions and pepper. Some of the Austrian entremets, simple but delicious, should find their way to England. The soufflee omelette is beautifully light, and the Stephanie omelette, which is a soufflee omelette enveloping a spread of greengage jam, is a very favourite ending to a repast. Salzburg Knockerl is another light dish, and the cakes of sago and other light food stuffs, eaten with fruit-juice, are good, plain, sweettasting food. Apfelstrudl, an admirable apple turnover, Kaiser schmarren, which is shreds of pancake and raisins, are two other popular Austrian sweet dishes. The Austrian bread and Austrian pastry are the best in Europe, and the Austrian coffee is just as well made as any coffee served in France. An Austrian housewife once explained to me the secret of this. “ You English,” she said, “ always talk of your chalky hard water, and excuse your poor coffee on that score. In Austria every housewife looks carefully at her coffeeberries before she roasts them, and also after they are roasted, for she knows that a greasy berry or a burned one will spoil a whole making of coffee.” An Austrian housewife will never allow metal to touch coffee, but I fancy that this is more a matter of superstition than of practical coffee-making. An Austrian housewife does even more wonderful things with a goose than a German one does. She cuts up her bird, spices its liver in a little casserole, boils its back and serves it with rice, spices its breast and bakes it, and makes a brown stew of its giblets and feet. Each province has a cookery all its own. Bohemia, for instance, prides itself on its apple tarts and on its muffins stuffed with poppy-seed jam, its dumplings of cream cheese, ham, egg, cream, and apricot jam, and its wonderful crumpets. This, the lunch eaten by King Edward when he visited the Austrian Exhibition in London, and 322 Utile Gourmets Guide to Europe lunched at the Austrian restaurant, is a very good -specimen of an Austrian meal : — Kalte Vorspeise (Hors d’ oeuvre).

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