Austria's cuisine ( Österreichische Küche) is derived from that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Regional influences from Italy, Hungary, Germany and the Balkans have had an effect on Austrian cooking, and in turn this fusion of styles was influential throughout the Empire.Austria's cuisine : The famous Wiener Schnitzel, for example, is thought to have originated in Milan in the 16th century, from where it was taken to Vienna, and popularised as Wiener Schnitzel throughout the Empire and beyond.
Austrian cuisine is most often associated with Viennese cuisine, but there are significant regional variations.
Breakfast is of the "continental" type, usually consisting of bread rolls with either jam or cold meats and cheese, accompanied by coffee, tea or juice. The midday meal was traditionally the main meal of the day, but in modern times as Austrians work longer hours further from home this is no longer the case. The main meal is now taken in the evening, usually at around 6pm.
A mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack of a slice of bread topped with cheese or ham is referred to as a "Jause" (pronounced roughly as "yowzay"), and a more substantial version akin to a British "Ploughman's Lunch is called a "Brettljause" after the wooden board on which it is traditionally served.
Popular dishes of Vienna
Main article: Viennese cuisine
Kaiserschmarrn with mountain cranberry sauce
Germknödel with vanilla sauce
* Rindsuppe (beef soup) a clear soup with golden colour.
* Tafelspitz, beef boiled in broth, often served with apple and horseradish sauce)
* Gulasch, a hotpot similar to Hungarian pörkölt - Austrian goulash is eaten often with rolls, bread or dumplings ("Semmelknödel")
* Beuschel (a ragout containing calf lungs and heart)
* Liptauer, spicy cheese spread, eaten on a slice of bread
* Selchfleisch (smoked, then cooked meat) with Sauerkraut and dumplings.
* Powidl a thick sweet and spicy jam made from plums.
* Apfelstrudel, apple strudel
* Topfenstrudel cream cheese strudel
* Palatschinken pancakes similar to French Crêpes, filled with marmalade, jam, sprinkled with sugar etc.
* Kaiserschmarrn soft, fluffy pancake
* Germknödel, a fluffy yeast dough dumpling with a mix of poppy seeds and sugar, filled with spicy plum jam and melted butter on top, often eaten with vanilla cream.
The most popular meats in Austria are pork, beef and chicken. The famous Wiener Schnitzel is traditionally made of veal. Pork in particular is used extensively, with many dishes using offal and parts such as the snout and trotters. Austrian butchers use a number of special cuts of meat, including "Tafelspitz" (beef), and "Fledermaus" (pork), named for its shape which resembles a bat. Austrian cuisine has many different sausages, like "Frankfurter", "Debreziner" (named after Debrecen in Hungary), or "Burnwurst", "Blunzn" made out of pig-blood and "Grüne Würstl" - green sausages. Green means raw in this context – the sausages are air dried and are consumed boiled. Bacon in Austria is called "Speck", bacon can be smoked, raw, salted, spiced etc. Bacon is used in many traditional recipes as a salty spice.
