Fernsa Kuche Echte österreichische Küche
A rustic table laid with home cooked Alpine dishes

Fernsa Kuche · An Austrian Kitchen Journal

Austrian Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Schnitzel fried golden in butterschmalz, goulash soup built on lard and sweet paprika, Kaiserschmarrn torn straight from a buttered pan. Six classics of the Alpine table, cooked the way Austrian homes cooked them long before seed oils existed.

"Eine gute Küche beginnt mit guter Butter."

A good kitchen begins with good butter. The old Viennese saying is still the only rule this journal follows.

Butter zuerst · Golden butterschmalz · Never a drop of seed oil

The Recipes

Six dishes from the Austrian table

Meat, fish, vegetable, soup, bread and one sweet indulgence. Every recipe below is cooked with butter, butterschmalz or lard. Nothing else touches the pan.

45 minutes · Serves 4 · Intermediate

The Viennese classic, pounded thin, breaded by hand and fried in deep clarified butter until the crust ripples and puffs away from the meat. Lemon and lingonberries on the side, nothing more.

A golden pan fried cutlet plated with sides

Ingredients

  • 4 veal or pork loin cutlets, about 150 g each
  • Fine salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp heavy cream
  • 100 g plain flour
  • 150 g fine breadcrumbs from stale white rolls
  • 350 g butterschmalz (clarified butter)
  • 1 lemon, cut into wedges
  • A few sprigs of flat leaf parsley
  • Lingonberry preserve, to serve

Method

  1. Lay each cutlet between two sheets of plastic and pound gently to about 4 mm. Season both sides with salt.
  2. Set out three shallow dishes: flour in the first, eggs beaten with the cream in the second, breadcrumbs in the third.
  3. Dredge a cutlet in flour, pull it through the egg, then lay it in the crumbs. Press only very lightly so the coating stays loose. Repeat with the rest.
  4. Melt the butterschmalz in a wide, deep pan to about 170 C. The fat should be deep enough for the schnitzel to swim.
  5. Fry one schnitzel at a time for 2 to 3 minutes per side, swirling the pan so hot fat washes over the top and the crust souffles.
  6. Drain on a rack, salt lightly and serve at once with lemon wedges, parsley and a spoon of lingonberries.

30 minutes · Serves 2 · Easy

Whole mountain trout dusted in flour and turned through foaming brown butter with almonds, lemon and parsley. A quiet dish from Austria's cold lake country.

A pan seared fish dish finished with herbs

Ingredients

  • 2 whole trout, gutted and patted dry
  • Fine salt
  • White pepper
  • 4 tbsp plain flour, for dusting
  • 130 g butter
  • 3 tbsp flaked almonds
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 1 lemon, sliced, to serve
  • A handful of chopped flat leaf parsley
  • Boiled waxy potatoes, to serve

Method

  1. Season the trout inside and out with salt and white pepper, then dust all over with flour, shaking off the excess.
  2. Melt half the butter in a large pan over medium heat until it foams.
  3. Lay the trout in the pan and cook 4 to 5 minutes per side, turning once, until the skin is golden and the flesh flakes at the backbone.
  4. Lift the fish onto warm plates. Add the remaining butter and the almonds to the pan and let both turn hazelnut brown.
  5. Pull the pan off the heat, add the lemon juice and parsley, and swirl.
  6. Spoon the brown butter and almonds over the trout and serve with lemon slices and boiled potatoes.

1 hour 20 minutes · Serves 6 · Easy

Rotkraut the Austrian way: shredded red cabbage slowly braised in butter with apples, vinegar and juniper until glossy and sweet sour. The standing partner of every roast in the country.

A dish of slowly cooked seasonal vegetables

Ingredients

  • 1 small red cabbage, about 1 kg, finely shredded
  • 60 g butter
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 tart apples, peeled and grated
  • 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tbsp redcurrant jelly
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 4 juniper berries, lightly crushed
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Salt and 150 ml water

Method

  1. Melt the butter in a heavy pot and soften the onion without letting it color.
  2. Add the cabbage and turn it through the butter until every shred glistens.
  3. Stir in the apples, vinegar, sugar, juniper, bay leaf, a good pinch of salt and the water.
  4. Cover and braise on low heat for about 1 hour, stirring now and then and adding a splash of water if the pot runs dry.
  5. Stir in the redcurrant jelly and cook uncovered a few minutes until the cabbage is glossy.
  6. Taste, balance with more vinegar or salt, and rest 10 minutes before serving. It is even better the next day.

2 hours · Serves 6 · Intermediate

The soup of Vienna's late night kitchens. Beef shin and a mountain of onions cooked down in lard with sweet paprika, caraway and marjoram until the broth turns deep russet.

A warming bowl of hearty soup

Ingredients

  • 600 g beef shin, cut into small cubes
  • 3 tbsp lard
  • 3 large onions, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
  • 1 tsp caraway seeds, crushed
  • 1 tsp dried marjoram
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1.5 litres beef stock
  • 2 waxy potatoes, diced, plus 1 tbsp vinegar and salt

Method

  1. Melt the lard in a heavy pot and cook the onions slowly until deep golden, about 20 minutes. Do not rush this stage.
  2. Add the garlic, tomato paste, caraway and marjoram and stir for a minute.
  3. Pull the pot off the heat, stir in the paprika, then immediately add the vinegar and a ladle of stock so the paprika never scorches.
  4. Add the beef and the rest of the stock, season with salt, and simmer gently, covered, for about 90 minutes.
  5. Add the potatoes and simmer 20 minutes more until both beef and potatoes are tender.
  6. Taste, adjust salt and vinegar, and serve very hot with dark bread.

4 hours, mostly rising · Makes 1 large loaf · Advanced

A dense, dark crusted country loaf scented with the classic Austrian bread spice of caraway, fennel and coriander. Baked on a hot stone, buttered thickly at the table.

A rustic loaf of freshly baked bread

Ingredients

  • 400 g rye flour
  • 300 g strong white flour
  • 480 ml lukewarm water
  • 10 g fresh yeast, or 4 g instant yeast
  • 100 g rye sourdough starter (optional, for deeper flavor)
  • 2 tsp fine salt
  • 1 tsp caraway seeds
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
  • Half tsp ground coriander
  • Butter, for the bowl and for serving

Method

  1. Dissolve the yeast in the water, then mix in both flours, the starter if using, salt and all the spices to a sticky dough.
  2. Knead 8 to 10 minutes. Rye stays tacky, so wet your hands rather than adding flour.
  3. Place in a buttered bowl, cover, and rise in a warm spot for about 90 minutes, until nearly doubled.
  4. Shape into a tight round on a floured cloth, seam side up, and prove another 45 to 60 minutes.
  5. Heat the oven to 240 C with a baking stone or heavy tray inside. Flip the loaf onto it, slash once, and throw a splash of water into the oven floor for steam.
  6. Bake 15 minutes, then lower to 200 C and bake 35 minutes more, until the crust is deep brown and the base sounds hollow.
  7. Cool completely on a rack before slicing. Serve with cold butter and salt.

40 minutes · Serves 4 · Intermediate

The emperor's torn pancake: a tall, souffled batter cooked in plenty of butter, torn into ragged pieces, caramelized with sugar and served under a fall of icing sugar with stewed plums.

Golden torn pancake pieces dusted with sugar

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs, separated
  • 250 ml whole milk
  • 160 g plain flour
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar, plus more for caramelizing
  • 1 tsp vanilla sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3 tbsp raisins, soaked in warm water or rum
  • 60 g butter
  • Icing sugar, for dusting
  • Stewed plums (Zwetschkenröster), to serve

Method

  1. Whisk the yolks with milk, flour, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt into a smooth batter.
  2. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks and fold them in gently, keeping as much air as possible.
  3. Melt half the butter in a large pan, pour in the batter, scatter over the drained raisins, and cook on medium low until the base is golden.
  4. Cut the pancake into quarters, flip each piece, add the remaining butter and cook until set.
  5. Tear into rough bite sized pieces with two forks, sprinkle with sugar and toss briefly over higher heat so the edges caramelize.
  6. Pile onto warm plates, dust generously with icing sugar and serve with stewed plums.

Our Kitchen

Cooking the old Austrian way

Fernsa Kuche is an editorial kitchen devoted to the traditional cooking of Austria: the schnitzel houses of Vienna, the lake kitchens of the Salzkammergut, the farm tables of Styria and Tyrol. We publish the dishes as they were handed down, with their original fats intact.

For most of its history, Austrian food knew only butter, butterschmalz, lard and rendered drippings. Refined vegetable oils are a recent arrival, and we simply leave them out, because the old fats are what give these dishes their taste and their character.

Every recipe on this site is written for the home cook, tested in a home kitchen, and kept as close to its traditional form as an ordinary stove allows.