The ever-illogical and beloved Viennese may house only the most precious vintages in their own cellars and their palates may be educated to appreciate only the noblest wines, but when the first green bush appears from under the caves of a vintners house in the little suburb of Grinzing, they arc off-as one man to the Heurige to drink Grinzinger 1957.
In German the word bauring means “this year's” or just “this.” It is most often used in describing heurige Kar ioffeln, new potatoes, words without romance or music. But Vienna speaks an enchanted language of her own. There, Heurige means the fragrant, fresh, new wine of Grinding and all that surrounds the lighthearted, carefree drinking of it. It means the place, the wine, and the age-old customs. The Viennese go to the Heurige and they drink Heurige and they call it all by the single word. It means Scbrammclmusik and zither playing; it means the indescribable atmosphere, the Stimnumg, the charm, the green wine hills, and the first taste of the cold, pale golden wine. It means the effect of the wine, different from that of any other, and the feeling of gaiety and happiness, of romance and enchantment, It means the traditional vendors who carry their heavy wooden trays of sweets and confections through the village from Hutrige to Heurige. It means good food-Wiener Backbendel, Grinzhiger Salat, and kalter Auf schbnitt-it means Vienna and it means spring.
The green bush that signals that a vintner is pouring new wine is a small bunch of evergreen boughs tied to the end of a staff and hung out from his low white house. The mo ment it is in view, word travels fast and far that Poldi's or Franzl's wine is ready, and every heart in Vienna begins to sing. From Jani the shoemaker's assistant right up to Herr Graf and Frau Grafin there is no one in Vienna who is going to miss the Heurige. It is said that a passing stranger once observed, “There must be a hole in heaven-over Griming.”
Heurige cannot be bottled or transported; it must come straight from the casks in the vintner's cellars to the tables set out in his garden. Since the Heurige cannot go to the Viennese, the Viennese, with Mohammed's wisdom, go to the Heurige. They go right out to the grape arbor at the back of the vintner's little house and, while they happily drink Grinzinger '57, Grinzinger '58 grows green on the wine hills behind them.
liver since the first vintners poured out their new wine to avoid taxes and discovered that the young golden wine was, in fact, a gold mine, there have been established procedures which are still followed. Originally, all the vintners drew lots, and each hung out his green bush only after the casks of the Heurige next in line before him had been drained dry. But as the taste for the new wine grew, it was possible for several vintners to hang out their bushes at the same time. Thus Jani and his Resl could find a primitive Heurige to suit their simple tastes, while Herr Graf and Frau Grafin went to the Heurige that their fathers and grandfathers had patronized before them. Fortunately the vintner always provided a son and heir to the vineyard, while the Graf and Grafin produced an heir to the title, so the noble family could go on for generations with a Heurige that they considered practically their own.
Austria is the only country in the world that grows most of its best wines within the city limits of its capital. Jani and Resl, who couldn't possibly afford more than a few tumblers of wine, packed their sausage, bread, and cheese in a rucksack and walked out to Grinzing. They chose a Heurige that provided only the wine and the rough wooden tables and benches in the garden; itinerant musicians might stop to play heurigen Lieder and pass the hat for coppers before they moved on. Jani and Resl sat arm in arm in a garden that overlooked Vienna. They watched the sun setting and they ate their heavy slabs of black bread and sausage. They drank the delicious new wine from thick tumblers as casually as they would have drunk water, and they saved their last coppers for the sugar-men whose tempting trays were piled high with traditional confections. There were always little sticks strung with sugared dates and figs, which were sold by the stickful. For those who could afford such sweets, there were wedges of Pisebingertorte or little chocolate confections wrapped in foil. The wine was cheap and the Viennese were born musicians. Many brought their own guitars, and all linked arms and sang as the magic of the evening drew them together.
Herr and Frau Müller went out to Grinzing on the tramway, from which they alighted at the last stop on the Grinzitiger Platz. They walked up one of the steep cobbled streets that wind through the wine hills of Vienna's suburbs and chose a slightly more pretentious Heurige, one with a large garden, with lanterns and checkered tablecloths, a Heurigv with four musicians. They selected a Heurige that served just enough food to counteract the effect of the wine and to enable the guests to stay from late afternoon through the long evening without bringing their own supper. The Midlers could request their favorite songs from the musicians, who went from table to table, and they could order any of the numerous kalte Aufscbnitte, large tempting platters of cold meats. These became increasingly elaborate when Herr Miiller ordered a feiner (or even a sebr feiner) kalter Aufsehnitt. feiner meant the addition of butter rosettes and salads, sebr feiner always meant a little goose liver pate. When the vintner's wife was enterprising, the Müllers could order Cobenzl eggs, named for the hill behind Grinzing, and Suite. They invariably missed the last streetcar back to the inner city at midnight so that they could walk home with the musicians.
Herr Graf, on the other hand, approached the whole thing quite differently. He was, after all, a connoisseur of wines and pleasure. Having kept a careful eye out for the days of sunshine and the days of cloud or rain during the previous spring and summer, he knew just about what to expect of his Heurige. He had also gone cut during the winter to spend a few quiet, pleasant evenings with Pepi and Mina Huber, his family vintners, to determine how the young wine was coming along. He had sat in the small low-ceilinged room with its warm tile stove and lovely old guitar. He had enjoyed a pipe and tasted the new, as well as some very good old wine.
When the wine was ready and the day was set, Herr Graf and Frau Grafin invited their guests. Pepi Huber was not only a good vintner, he had the added advantage of a strong baritone voice and a repertoire that included all the beloved old songs, and he could accompany himself on the guitar. Herr Graf engaged a zither player to entertain while Pepi was drawing the wine, for he considered the ensemble required for Sehrammelnusik too pretentious. Pepi Huber's Mina knew what was wanted from her. She fattened her pullets and slowly dried golden rolls for perfect bread crumbs. She churned butter, and when the day finally came, she prepared crisp, juicy Wiener Backbendel and served it with an enormous Gurkensalat and beurige Kartoffeln. Her dessert was invariably the same. Ever since Oskar Pischinger, Vienna's famous nineteenth-century confectioner, had contrived his Pitcbingertorte, it had been the accepted bcurigen sweet. Mina made the richly filled Torte herself.
The Graf and his guests enjoyed their Heurige as sincerely and simply as Jani and Resl enjoyed theirs. They loved the primitive garden with its benches and long table, the scent of lilac and linden in bloom mingled with the delicious fragrance of Backbendel, :he soft twang of the zither and Pepi Huber's Licder, and they looked forward to the Heurige all year. For all of them it was a part of Vienna that could nor be imitated anywhere-(0 drink new wine in the landscape that has produced it, in Grinzing, an ageless, unchanged Grinzing.
Wiener Baekhendel (Viennese Fried Cbicken)
Wipe with a damp cloth and dry two 2-pound broilers. The birds should be at room temperature. Cut them in quarters and sprinkle the pieces with salt. Crush enough Holland risks or dry rolls to make about 1 ½ cups crumbs. Roll the chicken pieces in flour-they should be well coated-dip them in a mixture of 2 eggs beaten with 2 tablespoons water and I teaspoon salt, and roll them in the crumbs.
Heat ½ cup fat in a skillet and in i fry the chicken, 3 or 4 pieces at a time, over moderate heat for about 30 minutes, or until it is golden brown and tender. Turn the pieces only once, to keep the breading intact.
Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a roasting pan in a very slow oven (250° F). Transfer the chicken pieces as they brown to the roasting pan and pour over each piece a little melted butter. The chicken can be kept warm in the oven for about 15 minutes.
Grinzhiger Salat (Grinzing Salad)
In separate bowls soak 1 cup each of lentils and dry white beans in cold water for 14 hours, adding more water if it is all absorbed. Drain both lentils and white beans. Boil the lentils in salted water to cover for 15 minutes and let them Cool in the cooking water. Boil the white beans in salted water to cover for 45 minutes and let them cool in the water. Both the lentils and beans should be soft but not at all mushy. Drain them well.
Cook I celery root and 2 potatoes in water to cover until they are tender, and cool, peel, and dice them. Combine the lentils, white beans, potatoes, and celery root and add 1 onion, finely diced, 2 tablespoons small capers, ½ cup tarragon vinegar, and salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Stir the ingredients carefully, using a wooden spoon to avoid breaking the vegetables. Add 8 slices of Bologna, cur into small squares, 1 dill pickle, diced. 3 anchovies. chopped, and ¼ cup wine herring, drained and chopped.
Combine 2 egg yolks with the juice of half a lemon and ½ teaspoon brown mustard. Beat in I cup olive oil, drop by drop, to make a stiff brown mayonnaise. Stir the mayonnaise into the salad and let it rest for at least 2 hours. Press the salad down firmly in the bowl and invert it on a bed of shredded lettuce on a serving platter. Sprinkle the mound with chopped parsley and garnish the platter with hardcooked eggs, cut in quarters. The salad can be stored in the refrigerator for several days.
Sulze (fellied Pigs' Knuckles)
Put 6 or 8 well-washed pigs' knuckles in a large kettle with 1 ½ quarts Witter. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1 onion, 8 peppercorns, half a bay leaf. 2 sprigs of thyme, 2 cloves of garlic, and ½ cup vinegar. Simmer the knuckles, uncovered, for about 2 hours, adding more water if it boils away to less than half the original quantity. The knuckles arc clone when the bones pull out of the meat easily. Take the knuckles from the broth and cut the meat into strips or cuius. Sprinkle the meat with 2 tablespoons chopped parsley and with freshly ground pepper. Strain the broth, simmer it ½ hour longer, and let it cool. Skim off all the far, return the meat to the broth, and simmer it for 15 minutes. Correct the seasoning and add a pinch of sugar, Soften 1 envelope of gelatin in ¼ cup water, remove the broth from the heat and dissolve the gelatin in it.
Spoon the meat into an enameled bread pan, arrange on it ½ cup each of chopped Jill pickle and diced tongue, 3 whole hard-cooked eggs, and 1 tablespoon capers, and pour in the broth. Chill the Sulze until it is set, unmold it, and serve it thinly sliced. Top each slice with a Utile finely chopped onion and pass the vinegar separately or serve it with vinaigrette sauce (September, 1957).
Pettier Kalter Aufscbnitt (Cold Meat Platter)
CUT 6 very thin slices each of Prague ham, smoked tongue, roast veal, and roast pork and arrange them on a very large flat platter. On these arrange 6 slices of rare fillet of beef, 6 paper-thin slices each of Italian salami and Bologna or mortadella sausage, and 6 slices of Sulze, cut ½ inch thick. Dot each slice of Sulze with I teaspoon minced onion. In the center of the platter pile shaved curls of fresh horseradish and surround the horseradish with finely cut radish roses.
Chop finely 3 hard-cooked eggs and bind them with mayonnaise mixed with a Hide brown mustard. Cut 6 paper-thin slices of Westphalian ham, roll the slices into cornucopias, and, with a teaspoon, fill them with the egg salad. Arrange the cornucopias around the radish ring alternately with 6 rosettes of cold butter. Combine butter and cream cheese in equal amounts, flavor with anchovy paste so taste, and pipe the mixture around the platter. Set into this border slices of dill pickle and sweet gherkins. If desired, arrange on the meat 6 small mounds of jellied meat aspic, diced {August, 1957). Accompany the platter with a basket of pumpernickel, rye bread, and other dark breads, sliced.
Cobenzl liggs
Simmer 8 eggs in water below the boiling point for 15 minutes, without turning them, so that the yolk sets on one side. Peel them and cut a slice from each egg on the side where the white is thinnest. Scoop out the yolks with a small spoon and rice them. Add 2 tablespoons mayonnaise salted to taste, ¼ onion, finely minced, and about ½ cup goose liver pate. Mix these to a smooth paste. Add more salt and onion if necessary; the mixture should not be bland. Fill the eggs and lay them in a circle, cut side down, on a bed of shredded lettuce in the center of a large platter of Kalter Aufscbnitt. Lay a small thin slice of tomato on each egg and pipe rosettes of the egg-yolk mixture onto the tomato slices. Sprinkle the rosettes with finely chopped truffle. Fill the egg circle with diced aspic jelly (August, 1957) that has been tinted pink with tomato paste. Sprinkle the aspic with finely chopped chives.
Piscbingeriorle
Make the following hazelnut praline powder: Heat ½ cup shelled hazelnuts in a slow oven (300° F.) for 10 minutes. With a rough cloth, rub off the brown skins. Any that do not come away easily can be rubbed off after the nuts are toasted. Toast the nuts in the oven about 10 minutes longer, or until they are golden brown. Shake them once or twice to prevent scorching. Boil 1 cup sugar with 3 tablespoons water and ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar in a heavy pan over low heat, without Stirring, until the syrup takes on color. Add the toasted hazelnuts and continue to boil the syrup until it is golden brown. Pour the mixture at once onto a marble slab or lightly buttered pan. Let it cool and chill it until it hardens. Pulverize the praline in a mortar or grind it with a rolling pin to a fine powder.
Cook 1 ½ cups sugar with enough witter to cover, about ¾ cup. Let the syrup boil up once, remove it from the heat, and let it cool. Melt 7 ounces sweet cooking chocolate over hot water and let it cool. Stir in the praline powder and moisten the mixture with some of the cooled sugar syrup. The mixture dries quickly and must be moistened several limes. Spread this filling over A Karlsbad oblaten, wafers which can be purchased in specialty food shops. Sandwich the oblaten, top them with a fifth wafer, and press the Torte down evenly. Chill it.
Butter the top of a double boiler and in it melt 4 ounces sweet chocolate over hot water, stirring until it is smooth. Pour a narrow ribbon of melted chocolate around the rim of the Torte and let it flow evenly down to cover the sides. Pour the rest of the chocolate in the center of the Tone and tilt the cake so that the icing spreads over the entire top. Let it dry at room temperature. Chill the Torte again. Cut the Tone in thin wedges to serve.
Waffle sandwich wafers may be used instead of oblaten. Spread 7 wafers, laid side by side, with half the filling mixture, cover with 7 more wafers, and spread these with the rest of the filling. Top the long cake bar with 7 more wafers and ice it as for the round Tone. Cut the bar in ½-inch slices to serve.
Stuffed Chocolate Figs
Cut the stems from 1 pound large soft dried figs. Slit the figs and cut and widen a pocket in each fig. Heat ½ cup heavy cream in an enamel saucepan and add 4 ounces sweet cooking chocolate, shaved or softened over hot water. Let the mixture boil up once, stirring constantly to prevent the chocolate scorching. Remove the mixture from the heat and continue to stir it until it is cold. Put the pan over ice if desired. Add ½ teaspoon vanilla extract or it dash of dark rum. Fill the figs with (he mixture. Press the slits closed and reshape the figs. Melt 2 ounces sweet chocolate over hot water, stirring until it is smooth. Dip the figs into the chocolate, coating them half way. Dry them on a wire rack or on wax paper at room temperature. Put each fig in a fluted paper cup.
Kapuziner
Toast 2/3 cup almonds, blanched and Shaved, on a baking sheet in a slow oven (300” P.) for 15 minutes, until they are golden brown. Melt 5 ounces sweet chocolate in the top of a double boiler over hot water and stir in 1 tablespoon butter and ½ teaspoon rum, orange bitters, or vanilla extract. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the almonds. Drop the chocolate-catted almonds by spoonfuls onto wax paper. Let the kapuziner cool and chill them in the refrigerator until they are hard. Serve them in individual fluted cups. Makes about 30.