Even the most beautifully brought-up Viennese children got our of hand when an Ausflug was brewing in the household. When Franz and Ferdinand put on their green baize aprons and started on an endless round of trips up to the attic and down to the cellar, when wine baskets and binoculars, fitted hampers and butterfly nets accumulated in the hallways, when Resi roasted and baked and Herra took the plaids from the camphor and beat them thoroughly and noisily in the courtyard, when Frau Baronin sent for her dirndls, then everyone—including the parents and the dogs—went completely to pieces with the delirium of the moment.
Preparations for the outing were not simply a matter of packing food and drink. An Ausftug required Lederbosen, leather breeches, and Lederbosen required lean, sunburned knees. Herr Baron had to time his last skiing trip so that has knees would still be brown for the first Ausflug. His unpretentious little Tyroler hat, apparently no different from those that covered every head in Austria, had to go back to Habig, Vienna's most renowned hatter, to be reblocked, and the hard-won Gemsbart, the little chamois-hair brush that decorated it—a trophy of the hunt—had to be adjusted. Herr Baron laid aside formalities along with his striped trousers. His native costume meant release and relaxation—also, it became him very well.
Frau Baronin might keep her sawdust-filled muslin dress form at Drecoll in Pan's, but this stratagem was a frivolity compared to the importance of filling into her dirndl. She quickly organized four “apple days” before the Ausflug, to insure the perfect fit of the skintight bodice. She abandoned her smart pompadour for the twisted braids of the simpler rustic hair Style, and she unearthed her beautiful old peasant jewelry and her white Loden shepherd's cape.
For some long-forgotten reason, which no one questioned, an Ausflug, a “flight out, ” could not be planned within normal bounds. Three or four elaborate and beautifully arranged courses suited to outdoor eating were unthinkable. The menu had to assume the proportions of a restaurant bill of fare, with several choices for each course. There had to be Vorsprisen, or first-course dishes, of fish as well as of shellfish and eggs. The main course had to include a selection of game, beef, and birds, salads, a selection of fruit, vegetables, and rice, and desserts a choice of both pastries and creams as well as the omni-present Torte. On top of all this, the fruits of the season were gathered by the children and added to the menu. Certain preparations were made to accommodate this battery of food most advantageously—little barquetts and shells were baked to hold the Walderbeeren—the wood strawberries that the children would pick—and the chilled Bowie lacked only the fresh Waldmeisfer, or woodruff, also to be supplied by the children when they arrived at the outing spot. Aspects not only of seasonal perfection but of geographical suitability affected the menu planning. If an Ausflug went to the Danube, a Litizerlorta and a light Klosterneuburger wine were essential; if it went to Baden, the occasion called for Badener Krapfen. No opportunity for including more food could be missed. The making of the menu became doubly complicated since, on an Ausflng. everyone was allowed to order his Leibspeise, his favorite dish. Frau Baronin loved cold trout, Herr Baron would start with crayfish and follow it with a rare filet of beef, interrupting his meal only to taste a little of the trout and a little of everything else. The children always insisted on mandarin oranges stuffed with pheasant mousse, less out of passion for the dish than delight in the name. They had long since conjured up a magnificently bearded old mandarin who lived exclusively on pheasant mousse, and each year they revived him and his insatiable appetite. Out of respect for Frau Baronin, everyone ate a slice of her special Linzersorte. If they had no room left for any more food, they would play a strenuous game before proceeding to the desserts.
When the preparations were well under way, Herr Baron always Said, “Also—where shall we go this year?” This was a delightful game: everyone suggested a different place, from mountainous Semmering to Krems, on the Danube. The family discussed every location in happy detail and weighed all pros and cons seriously. They could play this game quite safely since they all knew perfectly well that they would end by going to Durnstein They had gone there ever since Herr Baron, as a little boy, had discovered a marked resemblance and a deep sympathy between himself and Richard Löwenherz, the Lion-Hearred, who had lain imprisoned there in a deep dungeon, in 1193.
After the location was settled, the day had to be set. This matter also inspired endless discussion, since complicated factors like aspic entered into the calculations. The Ausflug could not possibly take place before the wood strawberries were ripe and the cyclamen was in bloom, it could nor be before there was spring in the air and just enough warm sunshine so that everyone could play Blinde Kub (blind cow, a romantic blindman's buff), but not so much sunshine that the carefully prepared aspics would run or the ice around the Bowle would melt.
With the choice finally made, Resi, Franz, and Ferdinand spent most of the eve of the Ausflug counting, checking, and worrying; the Ansflugsmabl had taken three full days to cook and would take half a night to pack. Visky and Zoda dug themselves into the hampers so that they wouldn't be forgotten, someone remembered the cameras, everyone forgot the films. The cars came around early and were packed and repacked with the voluble assistance of every Viennese who happened 10 be passing. The Herrscbaft—the master and mistress—rode in the first car, the children with part of the equipment in the second. Franz and Ferdinand followed in the third car, holding the fragile baked food and the delicate aspics and suffering over what might have been forgotten and the safety of the silver. As paper plates and cups were unheard of, and china was impractical, the toasters set out their precious food on silver and heavy crystal service, which they packed in velvet-lined cases (or the journey. The caravan stopped to rendezvous with other cars full of guests, all of whom had brought along a little something to eat.
The Ausflug left the city and wound its way through the beautiful vineyard-covered and wooded hills along the Danube. At Durnstein they climbed the hill to the ruins of the old castle and spread their feast on the finest linen, choosing a level spot against a sun-warmed wall of the old foundations. Far below them lay the road on which Blonde) traveled in search of his king. How Richard heard Blondel's song or how he managed to answer it is not known, since the road and the dungeon were far apart and the sinister Hadmar II kept careful watch over the royal crusader. After the children had gathered the woodruff, they made little baskets of leaves pinned together with twigs to hold the strawberries. They picked cyclamen to decorate the cloth and made wreaths of wild flowers for all the feminine heads. Franz and Ferdinand set out sauces and whipped cream, which they had brought in jars, and they found shady spots to store the ice-packed dishes and the Bowle. The climb and the fresh air made it possible for everyone to cat a little of everything—it would have been tragic to return to Vienna and realize that one had mined a taste of the duck or hadn't had a crumb of the Torte. It was understood that everyone ate a normal portion of the dish he had chosen and just a taste of everybody else's dishes. Games after luncheon helped everyone to avoid falling asleep, and a small fire was always elegantly laid with kindling, paper, and wood that had been neatly packed and brought from Vienna. Over this blaze Franz made coffee, for which he even had brought the water, since everyone believed firmly that only Viennese water could produce proper coffee. When the sun set over: the Danube and family and friends looked across at the meadows and hills on the other side and heard the faint ringing of the cowbells, they knew exactly where they would go when Herr Baron said “Also—” next year.
Kalte Forelle (Cold Stuffed Trout)
Ia a shallow pan, poach 6 cleaned trout for 15 to 20 minutes in suited water to cover, with 1 carrot and ½ onion, both sliced, 1 bay leaf, and 3 peppercorns, Remove the cooked trout from the water and let them cool. Remove the skins carefully, leaving the heads A intact. Skin and slice enough large tomatoes to cover the serving platter that will hold the fish. Fill the cavities of the trout with fresh caviar and lay the fish on the tomatoes. Lay a line of finely chopped tarragon along the center of each trout. Lay a line of finely riced hard-cooked egg yolk and a line of finely riced hard-cooked egg white on either side of the chopped tarragon. Decorate the platter with parsley and place a circle of lettuce leaves at each end. Fill 3 small hollowed-out tomatoes with a sauce made by mixing 1 ¼ cups thick mayonnaise with 4 shallots, finely minced, 3 tablespoons dill, chopped, and salt and pepper to taste. Place the tomatoes on the lettuce beds. Serve each guest a trout and a tomato and pass Melba toast made by sprinkling thin slices of 2-day-old bread with salt and browning them in a very slow oven (250° E).
Cold Filet Durnstein
Sift 3 ½ cups flour with 1 ½ teaspoons salt and cut in 1 ½ cups chilled butter. When the butter and flour are evenly mixed, sprinkle the particles with 6 tablespoons ice water and gather the dough rapidly into a smooth ball. Chill the dough overnight.
Sauté 1 pound chicken livers in 2 to 3 tablespoons butter until they are tender, Mash the livers with a fork and set them aside to cool. In the butter remaining in the pan saute ½ pound mushrooms, minced, until they are soft and set them aside to cool. In the same pan sauté L onion, minced, until it is transparent, and let it cool. Mix livers, mushrooms, and onions together with ¼ pound ground ban and 2 ½ ounces liver paste. Add salt and pepper and chill the liver mixture.
Dust a thick beef filet, weighing 4 ½ to 5 pounds, with dry mustard and tie larding pork or bacon over it. Lay it in a roasting pan on slices of larding pork or bacon and roast it for 30 minutes in a hoc oven (400° F.). Remove the bacon or pork tied to the filet, cool the meat, and then chill it. Spread the top and the sides of the chilled filet with the cold chicken liver mixture and chill it again.
Roll the dough into a rectangle large enough to enclose the filet, with enough extra to make 8 or 9 heart shapes. Cut the hearts out of the edges of the dough with a cookie cutter and trim the rectangle. Lay the filet on the rectangle of dough and carefully wrap it. Have the seam on the bottom and the two ends securely turned in. Transfer the wrapped filet to an oven-proof serving platter. Paint one side of the heart cutouts with egg white and fix them securely on the dough for decoration. Prick the top and the sides of the dough with a fork and paint it with an egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water. Bake the filet it a moderately hot oven (375° F.) for 30 minutes. If the crust is still too pale, increase the heat and bake for a few minutes more, until the pastry is golden. Cool the filet very slowly and then chill it, leaving it on the platter. Just before serving, remove any fat or liquid from the platter and surround the filet with horseradish cream rosettes, water cress, and spiced sweet cherries. Serves 8.
You may hake the filer on a small baking sheet, but you must transfer sheet and all to the serving platter. The crust will break otherwise.
Horseradish Cream Rosettes
Grate enough fresh horseradish root to make ½ cup, tightly packed, cover the grated horseradish, and chill it. Whip 1 cup heavy cream almost stiff, add 1 teaspoon sugar and ½ teaspoon salt, and continue to whip until the cream is very stiff. Carefully fold in ¼ cup orange juice and 2 tablespoons granted orange zest. Fold in the grated horseradish, correct the seasoning, and turn the horseradish cream into a mold rinsed in cold water or pipe it with a pastry tube onto wax paper in large rosettes. Chill the cream for at least 2 hours in the coldest part of the refrigerator or in the freezer, Dust the cream with chopped parsley and serve it with filet Durnstein.
Bristol Ente (Cold Duck Bristol)
Truss and salt 3 ducks and place them on the rack of a very large roasting pan. Prick the skin with a fork and roast the birds in a moderate oven (350° F.) for about 2 hours, or until they are tender. Set the ducks aside to cool, reserving the juices in the roasting pan. Remove the breasts from the 3 cooled birds, using a sharp knife, and set aside the 6 breasts. Cut the remaining meat and skin from one of the ducks and discard the carcass.
Sauté 2 tablespoons chopped onion in 1 tablespoon butter until it is transparent, remove it from the pan, and drain it well. Add 1 ½ tablespoons butter to the pan and sauté 1 pound mushrooms, coarsely chopped, until they are soft. Drain the sautéed mushrooms. Add to the pan 2 pounds chicken livers and the 3 duck livers and sauté them in the butter until they are tender, adding more butter if necessary. Drain the livers. Squeeze 2 oranges, reserving the juice. Scrape the white pulp from the inside of the orange rinds. Combine the duck meat cut from the carcass, the skin from the 6 breasts, the chicken and duck livers, the mushrooms and onions, 2 ½ ounces goose liver pâté, the 2 orange rinds, and 2 tablespoons chopped parsley. Put the mixture through the finest blade of the food chopper twice, to obtain a smooth paste. Moisten the paste with equal parts of orange juice and Sherry. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper and add more Sherry to taste. The paste should not be too dry. but it must be stiff enough to hold its shape. Peel and slice 3 truffles. Cut heart or diamond shapes out of the largest slices. Chop the smaller slices and scraps and add them to the paste.
Slice the 6 breasts to make 12 to 16 thin slices of duck and Spread the slices smoothly with the paste. fill the 4 cavities from which the duck breasts were removed with the remaining paste. building up the filling generously to cover the breast bones. Decorate the reformed duck breasts with the truffle cutouts and chill the 2 birds and the sliced breasts. Skim the fat from the juices in the roasting pan and add enough bouillon to make 3 cups liquid. Reheat the liquid. add 7 teaspoons beef extract and Sherry to taste, and bring the mixture to a boil. Soften 2 envelopes of gelatin in ½ cup water. Remove the roasting pan from the heat and dissolve the softened gelatin in the liquid, stirring. Let the aspic cool and thicken somewhat. Paint the two ducks and the slices of duck breast masked with paste with a layer of the cool aspic. Use a pastry brush and keep the aspic warm enough to flow but not to run off the birds. Paint the ducks with several layers of aspic, until they are heavily coated. Place them on serving platters and surround them with the glazed breasts. Pour the remaining aspic in a thin layer around the ducks and let it set. Decorate the platters with half oranges hollowed out and filled with lingon-berries. Serve a spoonful of the paste from the re-formed birds with each slice of breast meat. Serves 14 to 16.
Fasan in Mandatinen Orangen (Mandarin Oranges with Pheasant Mousse)
Select 16 mandarin oranges or any small oranges. Cut l/4-inch slice from the top of each orange and scoop out the pulp with a pointed spoon.
Place the giblets of 2 pheasants in a saucepan with water to cover, add salt, and simmer them until they are tender, adding the liver for the last 30 minutes of cooking. Remove the giblets from the pan, reserving them for another use, and reduce the broth to half its original quantity.
Tie strips of bacon or larding pork over the pheasant breasts and roast the birds in a moderate oven (350° F.) for about 50 minutes, or until they are tender. Remove the larding pork or bacon, cool the pheasants, and then chill them. Carefully slice the breasts from the cold birds, to make 8 to 12 slices in all. Cut the rest of the meat from the carcasses and put it through the food chopper with a little of the bacon or larding pork. Salt the ground meat to taste, add about 2 tablespoons very heavy mayonnaise, and 1 egg yolk, and mix the ingredients into a very stiff paste. Skim the fat from the juices remaining in the roasting pan and add the juices to the reduced giblet broth, adding bouillon, if necessary, to obtain 2 cups of liquid. Soften 1 envelope of gelatin in ¼ cup water and dissolve it in the hot liquid, stirring. Pour the aspic ¼ inch deep into a flat dish and chill it until it is firm.
Whip ½ cup cream stiff, salt it lightly, and fold it gently into the pheasant paste. As pheasants vary in size. it may be necessary to use more whipped cream to bind the mousse. Add salt and more mayonnaise, if the mousse is too dry. Fill half the mandarin oranges with mousse and place a spiced mushroom on each. Fill the remaining oranges with a thick Cumberland sauce. Arrange the slices of pheasant breast on peeled orange slices around the edges of a chilled serving platter and place the stuffed mandarin oranges in the center. Surround the oranges with parsley. Dice the aspic into ¼-inch cubes and mound the cubes between the pheasant breasts. Serves 8.
Cumberland Same
Melt 3/8 cup red currant jelly over low heat, stirring constantly. Combine 2 teaspoons grated orange rind, 1 teaspoon prated lemon rind, ¼ cup orange juice, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, 2 teaspoons dry mustard, 1 teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon ginger, and ¼ cup Port and add these to the jelly. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer it for 5 minutes, stirring. Let the sauce stand for at least an hour before serving it,
Spiced Mushrooms
Cut the stems from 8 large, uniform mushrooms and wash the caps. Simmer the mushrooms in water to cover for 5 minutes, drain them, and lay them cap side down on a flat dish. Boil ½ cup tarragon vinegar with 1/3 cup olive oil, ½ teaspoon salt, the juice from 1 clove of garlic, crushed, and 3 sprigs of parsley. Add 3 peppercorns, a pinch each of coriander and thyme, ½ bay leaf, and ½ onion, sliced. Boil the mixture for 5 minutes and strain it over the mushroom caps. Let the caps cool in the marinade.
When a Bowle is to be served at noon, start preparations the previous evening. When it is to be served in the evening, start preparations in the morning. Prepare all ingredients in proper proportion to fill a punch bowl of average size and, if a larger quantity is required, prepare an equal quantity of punch to fill a second bowl. Do not pour fresh wine into the dregs of the first bowl.
Waldmeisterbowle (Woodruff Punch Bowl)
For one punch bowl chill 2 bottles light Rhine wine, 2 bottles Moselle, and 2 bottles Champagne. Open 1 bottle Moselle before chilling and pour off 2 cups of wine. Steep 1 ½ cups fresh or ½ cup dried woodruff in the Moselle, at room temperature. Clean 3 pints strawberries and divide them into two equal amounts, putting the larger berries together, and chill these until needed. Dust the smaller strawberries with ½ cup sugar, pour over them 1 cup brandy and enough Moselle to cover, and chill them.
At serving time, strain the wine from the woodruff into a chilled punch bowl, discarding the woodruff. Add the unsugared strawberries. Discard any wilted sugared berries and add the rest, with their marinade, to the bowl. Add the chilled white wine and the Champagne. To serve, place a few of the most perfect strawberries in each glass and ladle in the wine. Pack the punch bowl with ice, but do not put ice in the punch.
Walderbeeren Scbifjcben (Wood Strawberry Barquttes)
Sift 2 cups flour onto a pastry board, make a well in the center, and in it put ½ cup sugar, 2 egg yolks, and the grated rind of 1 lemon. Work the egg yolks into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon and then, with the hands, incorporate into the yolks as much more of the sugar and flour as possible. Cut 7/8 cup chilled butter into thin slices and lay them on top of the mixture. With the hands, work in the butter just as quickly as possible, to make a smooth dough. Chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured pastry board to a scant ¼-inch thickness. Press the dough into buttered oval fluted tartlet or barquette molds and trim the edges. Bake the pastry shells in a moderate oven (350° F.) for 15 minutes, or until they arc golden brown. Or you may cut the dough with a 3-inch fluted cookie cutter, press it over the backs of buttered muffin tins, and bake the pastry shells for 10 to 12 minutes. Handle the fragile little Scbiffcben very carefully. Fill them with sugared wood strawberries or with raspberries, pipe sweetened whipped cream over the fruit with a pastry tube. and garnish with a row of berries. Depending upon the size of the molds, this recipe should make about 30 Scbifjcben.
Hazelnut Rum Linzertorte
Sift 1 ¾ cups flour with ¼ teaspoon tartrate baking powder onto a pastry board and make a well in the center. In the well place 2/3 cup sugar, 3 egg yolks, and 2 teaspoons rum and grate the rind of 1 lemon over all. With a wooden spoon, incorporate as much flour as possible into the liquid ingredients. Cut ¾ cup chilled butter into thin slices and lay them on the flout mixture. Grate 1 cup hazelnuts to obtain 2 ¼ cups grated hazelnuts and sprinkle these over the butter. Work all ingredients into a smooth dough as quickly as possible and chill it in the refrigerator for ½ hour. Cut the dough in half and roll out one part on a floured pastry board to a scant ¼ inch. Butter a 10-inch flan ring on a baking sheet or a 10-inch spring-form pan. Line with the dough. Allow the dough to extend only about ¼ inch up the straight sides of the pan. Spread the shallow unbaked pastry shell with 1 cup strawberry jam thinned with 2 teaspoons rum. Roll out the second part of the dough a little thinner than the first and cut it with a scalloped pastry wheel into ½-inch strips long enough to cover the Torte. Paint the rim of the pastry shell with a lightly beaten egg white. Lay strips of dough across the jam, ¾ inch apart. Press the ends of the strips onto the rim and lay a second set of strips across the Torte in the opposite direction, to make a lattice Paint the rim again with egg white and use a strip of dough to edge the Torte, covering all the ends of the strips. Paint the lattice and the edging with 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water. Bake the Torte in a moderate oven (550° F.) for 50 minutes, or until it is golden brown. As Linzertorte burns easily, it is best to place it on second bilking sheet in the oven. Let the Torte cool and sift over it powdered sugar in which a vanilla bean has been buried for several days or weeks. Allow the Linzertorte to ripen for 2 or 3 days before serving it. Serves 8.