Etiquette rigidly prescribed the entire Jour procedure, it deckled who was to sit on the fauteuils and who was not to sit at all, who was to curtsy, who might say Du and who Sie, what should be served and how much could politely be eaten. It specified that young ladies kissed older ladies' hands and gentlemen kissed all ladies' hands, which they did with varying degrees of warmth, admiration, and indifference.
No young, unmarried people entered the inner circle. They were fringe guests, and gravitated to an outer group as automatically as their elders went straight to the heart of the Jour. The salons were furnished with well-defined little islands of chairs and settees, arranged around gilt-and-marble tables, with seas of empty parquet floor separating them. The hostess always presided at a central group with her most honored guest on her right. If an even more august personage arrived, the hostess had to move a chair to the left in order to make a place on her right. This game of musical chairs usually resulted in the establishment of a chain of dignified and increasingly important elderly ladies and gentlemen who stayed until they had eaten some of everything and absorbed all the gossip they could possibly overhear.
No one risked transporting a cream-filled pastry or a sugar-drenched cake from table to mouth. The guests held their plates up under their thins, well over their ornate poitrines or fancy waistcoats. They draped their lace serviettes over the hands that held the plates or secured them to brooches and vest buttons, thus minimizing danger of spots. Although there was a constant undulating ride of raised cups and saucers and lowered plates, conversation was unbroken and no one came away from a Jour without being well up on the latest social news and well stuffed with the latest combinations of sugar, butter, and ingenuity.
Many of the Ladies were heavy smokers. They preferred Turkish cigarettes, which they inserted into holders of varying lengths and design. When imported cigarettes were no longer available, they resignedly smoked a dark and acrid mixture which they charmingly called their Wiener Wald, or Vienna Wood.
Gradually the Jours had to adapt themselves to changing times, to hardships, shortages, and even to rationing. Between World Wars, when most of the footmen disappeared, the Ladies jointly employed one asthmatic old footman. Jour-Litdwig wore the perennial white cotton gloves of his profession and a livery composed of remnants of finery gleaned from his prewar employment.
He went out by the day and wheezed his way through Jours that could boast only Karotten-Saccharine-Toric and Ersatz-Kaffee instead of the miraculous confections he had once served. A really popular Jour follower could meet Ludwig several times a week. With freshly laundered gloves and his inscrutable manner he succeeded in looking like the perfect old family servant, although everyone knew that he left the Jour immediately after the last guest and turned up just before the first guest at the next day's rival Jour, Messenger boys, most of them over seventy years of age, delivered the Jour cards, and the guests may have been a little threadbare and shiny, but the charm and congeniality remained and a Jour card still meant an invitation to a continuous party. The Jour still exists in Vienna, although, natiirlich, it has done the inevitable; it has become the Cocktailjour.
The Cocktailjour still begins with tea to satisfy the traditions, but it is only a step from rum-laced tea to an iced Daiquiri and no distance at all from a Daiquiri to a really sweet Viennese Martini or Manhattan. The spirit of the old Jours has not changed. The Gemiltliebkeit and leisure linger on, their leitmotiv of sweetness now borne along by sugared cocktails and grenadined drinks. A treasured Viennese cocktail recipe of today is for a Martini at four to one—four parts sweet vermouth to one part gin, with a dash of Curaçao. Another secret formula for a Martini calls for one dash of Angostura bitters, one dash of Curaçao, two jiggers of gin, and a maraschino cherry. A special Manhattan consists of a lump of sugar soaked in Angostura bitters, a dash of Curaçao, half a jigger of whiskey, two jiggers of Cinzano, and a slice of lemon. Then there is a special Jourcocktail: a jigger of Cognac, half a jigger of crème de cacao, a dash of vanilla, and a dash of cherry brandy, featuring a coffee spoon of heavy cream.
When the Jour began to include cocktails, the host had to be promoted from his relatively obscure position as greeter and hoverer to the exalted position of bartender. Instructive little books entitled liar des Hausherrn or Bargetranke or simply Die Bar were published, and recipes for delectable mixed drinks were made available. Present-day hosts work as hard at perfecting these concoctions as their mothers worked over their tea blends. As with the Martini and Manhattan recipes, mysterious alterations took place. A recipe could not become truly Viennese without the addition of several remarkable ingredients. A Champagne cocktail, Viennese style, was made with two coffee spoons of spun sugar, a dash of Angostura bitters, a jigger of Curaçao, sweet Champagne, and a slice of lemon. Champagne Cobblers were mixed with sweet Champagne, spun sugar, a dash of maraschino, and half a jigger of green Chartreuse. These were served with a sour cherry. Another very popular drink consisted of a glass of Malaga wine, a jigger of Curaçao, a dash of cherry brandy, a dash of Cognac, and all the fruits of the season. A highly recommended Flip contained an egg yolk, powdered sugar, a glass of Malaga, a jigger of crème de cacao, and a grating of nutmeg. A Daisy was made with a jigger of any available liqueur and the juice of half an orange. This was placed in a tall glass which was then filled with soda water. When the only available liqueur was kummel, crème de menthe, or anisette, the resulting Daisy was likely to be very unusual.
Needless to say, it is now a sign of the best breeding to substitute an English word for a German one. Mixen is now a verb and gemmixte drinks are produced in Mixbecber. The Gnädiger Herr and Frau have forgotten how to speak French; their dogs are English terriers called Visky und Zoda and their car is terribly smart, an imported Fortwagen. The Jour guests now enjoy Pink Ladies and Specials, Slings and Sours, all of them extremely sweet. They nibble on Cocktailbissen and have given up their Turkish cigarettes and their Wiener Wald for Camels and Kents.
But the food at a Cocktailjour is still very much the same. Nothing could prevent a Viennese hostess from preparing one of her beloved Torten whenever guests are expected. The Jour now starts with tea and sweet “bakeries” and goes on to salt “bakeries, ” Joursandwiehes, and Scbnitten and Bissen of every kind. Kartoffelcbips are much admired. And finally, Vienna still being Vienna, the guests happily follow several four-Special-Martinis with Sacber Tone.
The Cocktailjour is full of wit and charm. There are still chairs to sir on, hands to kiss, and heels to click. The guests may arrive in tiny red road-bugs or on smart teardrop scooters instead of in stately carriages, but the jour is still a leisurely and relaxed occasion when friends meet and know that, happily, they will meet—and eat—together again.
Spitzbuben
Cut 1 ½ cups butter into 3 cups all-purpose flour sifted with ½ cup sugar. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and work the ingredients into a smooth dough. Chill the dough thoroughly. Roll it out as thin as possible on a lightly floured board and cut out rounds with a 2-inch fluted cutter. Cut a 1-inch center out of half the rounds. Bake rings and rounds on an unbuttered cookie sheet in a moderately slow oven (325° F.) for 15 minutes. Dust the hot rings with sugar, spread the rounds with apricot jam, and lay the rings on them. Sprinkle the jam with chopped blanched almonds. Makes about 48.
Hörnehen
Have all the ingredients for (his recipe as cold as possible, and work in a cool place. Cut 1 cup less 2 tablespoons butter into 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour sifted with ½ cup sugar. Add ½ cup blanched ground almonds, 2 egg yolks, and ½ teaspoon vanilla, and work the ingredients into a smooth dough. Chill the dough for at least an hour. Roll the dough into strips the thickness of a finger and cut the strips into 2-inch pieces. Roll out each piece until it is 3 inches long and curve it into a crescent. Bake the crescents on a buttered baking sheet in a slow oven (300° F.) for about 20 minutes, until they are dry and very faintly colored. Sprinkle a plate heavily with vanilla sugar—powdered sugar in which a vanilla bean has been buried for several days. With a spatula carefully transfer the warm crescents to the plate and sprinkle them with more vanilla sugar. Makes about 60.
Flûses Encbantées
Beat I cup sugar, 4 eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla until the mixture is light and creamy. Fold in thoroughly 1 cup all-purpose Hour. Drop the mixture by teaspoons onto a buttered baking sheet at least 3 inches apart. With a knife spread the batter out as thin as possible. Make only 6 wafers at one time. Place the baking sheet on top of a second baking sheet to keep the wafers from browning too fast and bake them in a very hot oven (450° F.) for 7 minutes. or until the edges are brown. Remove from the oven.
Loosen the wafers with a spatula and roll them, while they arc still warm and flexible, into tubes ½ inch thick. Lay the wafers seam-side down to keep them rolled. If the wafers harden too quickly, return the pan to the oven for a minute. As they cool they become brittle. Repeat this process, baking 6 wafers at a time, until the baiter is used,With a pastry bag fill the tubes with praline cream and dip the ends in melted sweet chocolate. Makes 48.
Praline Cream
In a copper or enamel saucepan cook 1 cup sugar with 1/3 cup unblanched almonds and ½ cup hazelnuts over medium hear until the sugar melts, stirring constantly. Turn the mixture out on a lightly oiled baking sheet to cool and harden. Crush the praline with a rolling pin to make a medium coarse powder.
Cream ½ cup butter well with 2/3 cup powdered sugar and 2 egg yolks. Melt 4 ounces sweet chocolate over hot water and stir in ½ teaspoon triple-Strength coffee, ½ teaspoon vanilla, and 2 tablespoons cream. Combine the chocolate and the butter mixture and beat the cream until it is smooth. Stir in the praline powder. Chill the cream well before using it.
Fürst Metternicb Torte
Cream 1 ½ cups butter with 1 ½ cups sugar. Add ½ teaspoon each of vanilla and rum and 1 teaspoon triple-Strength coffee, and gradually beat in 6 eggs. Sift together 3 cups Hour, 1 ½teaspoons double-action baking powder, and 1 tablespoon cocoa. Fold the flour mixture gradually into the butter mixture to make a smooth batter.
Pour one third of the batter into a buttered 11- by 17-inch jelly-roll pan—a baking sheet with shallow sides—and bake the cake in a moderate oven (350° F.) for 15 minutes. Turn the cake out on a towel dusted with powdered sugar and with a sharp knife quickly cut out two 8-inch rounds. The cake becomes crisp as it cools. Bake 2 more sheets in the same way, to make 6 rounds in all. If preferred, the cake may be baked in 6 8-inch layer-cake pans. Use a spatula to spread the baiter evenly in the pans. Cool the layers.
Cream 1 cup butter well with 1 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon cocoa. Stir in 3 tablespoons dark rum and the grated rind of 1 orange and blend well.
Spread this butter cream between the layers and on the sides of the cake. Dust the sides with ½ cup chopped toasted hazelnuts.
Melt 4 ounces sweet baking chocolate and 1 tablespoon butter over hot water. Add 4 tablespoons rum and 2/3 cup sugar and stir the icing over hot water until it is smooth. Spread the top of the 'I'orte with this icing and decorate it with whole hazelnuts.
Mandeltorte
Beat 8 egg yolks with ½ cup sugar until the mixture is very light and creamy and add 2 cups blanched ground almonds, ½ cup cooky crumbs, ½ teaspoon almond extract, and the grated rind of 1 lemon. Beat 8 egg whites until they are stiff but not dry. Fold the egg whites into the first mixture and turn the batter into a deep spring-form cake pan which has been oiled and dusted with powdered sugar. (If a deep pan is not available, tie a collar of buttered paper around the rim of the pan to allow room for the cake to rise.) Bake the Torte in a moderate oven (350° F.) for 1 hour, or until it tests done. Unmold the cake and let it stand for 24 hours. Cut it horizontally into ½-inch layers and fill and ice it with chocolate rum butter cream. Decorate the Torte with almonds and with rosettes of rum cream forced through a pastry bag.
Chocolate Rum Butter Cream
Cream 1 cup butter with the yolks of 3 hard-cooked eggs that have been forced through a fine sieve. Stir in gradually 1 ½ cups powdered sugar, 2 ounces sweet baking chocolate, melted, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 teaspoon rum. Spread the cream on the cake with a spatula dipped in hot water.
Rum Cream
Cream ¼ cup butter with ½ cup powdered sugar and add 1 tablespoon rum. Add more sugar if the cream is too soft to hold its shape.
Mokka Baumstamm (Coffee Log)
In the top of a double boiler over very low heat beat 5 eggs and ¾ cup sugar for 15 minutes, or until the mixture has tripled its original volume. Remove the pan from the heat, add ½ teaspoon vanilla, and continue to beat for 5 minutes longer.
Sift together 2/3 cup flour, 1/3 cup potato starch, and ¼ teaspoon baking powder and fold the flour into the egg mixture. If the batter is nut entirely smooth, beat it for no more than a minute. Line an 11- by 17-inch buttered baking sheet with shallow sides with heavy paper or parchment, butter the paper, and spread the batter evenly in the pan. Bake the cake for 25 minutes in a moderate oven (350° F.).Loosen the edges of the cake and invert it at once on a lightly sugared towel. Remove the paper, trim the edges off the narrow ends, and spread the cake evenly with coffee butter cream. Roll the cake up lengthwise as tightly as possible. Wrap the roll in paper and chill it.
Arrange the Baumstamm on a serving platter, cut off a 2-inch slice, and lay this piece at an angle with the roll to simulate a branch. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a half-moon tube with mocha butter cream and pipe parallel ridges close together down the length of the roll. Pipe similar ridges onto the “branch.” Make a swirl now and then to resemble a knothole and stick pistachio nuts in it. Leave the ends of the trunk and the end of the branch uncovered, and decorate the cake with angelica. candied leaves, and violets. Chill the Baumssamm well and cut it in diagonal slices to serve.
Coffee Butter Cream
Cream ¾ cup butter, add 1 cup sifted powdered sugar and 2 egg yolks, and beat the mixture well. Use an electric heater, if possible. Stir in ¼ cup triple-strength coffee and 1 tablespoon kirsch. If the cream separates, beat in 2 or 3 teaspoons hot water to rebind it.
Mocha Butter Cream
Melt 2 ounces sweet baking chocolate and ½ cup butter over hot water. Add ½ teaspoon each of triple-strength coffee and vanilla and 1 ½ cups powdered sugar, and stir the cream until it is smooth.
Jourkonfekt
Boil together 1 cup each of sugar and water for 5 minutes. Add the juice of ½ lemon. Stir 1/3 cup rice flour or potato starch to a paste with ½ cup water and pour it gradually into the sugar syrup, stirring constantly over low heat until the mixture is thick and transparent. Remove the paste from the heat and add the grated rind of ½ lemon and ½ cup slivered blanched almonds. Flavor the paste with 1 teaspoon lemon, pineapple, or raspberry extract, or rose water, and color it with a few drops of suitable vegetable coloring. Beat the paste well and turn it out onto a pastry board heavily dusted with sifted powdered sugar. Roll out the paste into a rectangle 1 inch thick, dust it with powdered sugar, and cut it into small squares. Dry the squares in a very slow oven (200° F.) for about 15 minutes, until they feel solid to the touch.
Kassanien (Chestnut Balls)
Slit the flat sides of 1 pound chestnuts and boil the chestnuts in water to cover for 10 minutes. Peel and skin the hot nuts and boil them in milk to cover until they are soft, about 20 minutes. Drain the nuts and press them through a sieve.
Cream ¼ cup butter with ¼ cup powdered sugar. Stir in the puréed chestnuts. 1 tablespoon heavy cream, 3 tablespoons Cointreau, and ½ teaspoon vanilla. Some chestnuts are mealier than others; add more sugar or more Cointreau as necessary to make a very thick paste. Chill the paste overnight. Sugar your hands and roll bits of paste into balls the size of chestnuts. Roll the balls in a mixture of 2 tablespoons each of cocoa and powdered sugar. Store them in a cool place. Makes 24.
Jourbrot
A Jourbrot is traditionally made from a loaf of the long narrow Kastenbrot, sliced lengthwise. The slices are filled with salty pâtés and other fillings, and the reshaped loaf is iced and decorated with piped rosettes of anchovy cream and with nuts and radishes as elaborately as a Torte.
The Kastenbrot is not obtainable here, but a Jourbrot can be made from any firm white bread. The fillings that follow are sufficient for 12 slices measuring 7 inches long by 3 inches wide by ½ inch thick. Use day-old bread, free of crusts. Lay 3 slices end to end on a tray or long board, butter them, and spread them thickly with pâté de foie gras with truffles. The layers of filling should be as thick as the bread. Cover with 3 more slices end to end, butter them, and chill.
Mix 4 hard-boiled eggs that have been pressed through a ricer with ¼ cup soft butter, 2 white onions, chopped fine, 2 tablespoons chopped chives, 4 tablespoons mayonnaise, and salt and pepper to taste. Spread the second layer of bread with this mixture.
Cover with 3 more slices of bread, butter them, and chill again. Mix 6 ounces caviar with ½ pound softened cream cheese and spread the third bread layer with this mixture. Cover with the remaining 3 slices of bread and chill.
Whip 1 pound softened cream cheese with 2 ounces anchovy paste. Spread the loaf thickly with this anchovy cream and press 1 cup toasted salted almonds, chopped, on the four sides. Decorate the top with rosettes of anchovy cream piped through a pastry tube and with a dozen rolled anchovy filets. Sprinkle with unpeeled chopped radishes. Garnish the platter with parsley.
The Jourbrot should be about 4 inches high. When it is thoroughly chilled, it can be cut into ¼-inch slices—about 80—which should then be eaten with a fork. The fillings can be varied to include smoked salmon, ham, chicken, and the like.