potatoes, tomatoes and peppers were missing. How to make snipe soup and Linzer cake. Some of the recipes from 275 years ago

A Viennese cookbook from 1749 with a strong impact on the fine cuisine of Sibiu is still kept at the Brukenthal National Museum Library.

It is considered one of the most important Viennese cookbooks of the mid-18th century, and comes from the personal library of Baron Samuel von Brukenthal (1721-1803).

Gudrun-Liane Ittu, Constantin Ittu and Ioan Bondrea, the former rector of ULBS, wrote about her in the book “From the history of fine cuisine from the Renaissance to the present day. Siberian landmarks”.

It is about the book published by Ignaz Gartler in the Viennese publishing house of Leopold Johann Kaliwoda (1705-1781), Wienerisches bewehrtes Kochbuch, (Viennese cookbook with verified recipes), whose first edition dates from 1749.

“The copy kept in Sibiu is quite worn, missing the cover and the title page, which is why, in the library catalogs, it was registered with an unknown author. It is not known if the said book was purchased by the baron or if it was brought to Sibiu by one of his Viennese chefs.

Fortunately, the first page of the book was preserved, from which it is clear that it appeared in 1749, at the Kaliwoda publishing house, under the privilege and high patronage of Empress Maria Theresia.

These data were sufficient for us to identify the author, the work being accessible online in digital format.

The large number of editions and re-editions proves that it is a famous and very popular book.

In 1804, fifty-five years after the princeps edition, the twenty-fifth edition was published, enriched with recipes and practical advice by Barbara Hikmann. Considering the high degree of wear and tear of the book from the famous library of Baron Samuel von Brukenthal, we can say with certainty that, in the palace kitchen in Piaţa Mare, delicacies were prepared according to the recipes proposed by the author and served to the Baron, his relatives and guests” , write the authors of the book.

Almost all the ingredients were found in Transylvania. But certain vegetables were not used

Since the recipes proposed by the Viennese author were sophisticated, but not extravagant – almost all the ingredients used in their preparation were available in Transylvania – they also suited the well-to-do patricians from this distant province of the Empire, note the authors of the volume. So they are convinced that the “Wienerisches bewehrtes Kochbuch” was present not only in the Brukenthal palace, but also in numerous houses of the Siberian and Transylvanian elite, greatly influencing the fine cuisine of the German environment in Transylvania.

Today, 275 years after the appearance of the collection of recipes, many of the dishes proposed by Ignaz Gartler could satisfy the tastes of refined gourmets, and others, which due to the combination of ingredients seem strange to us, should be tried and, why not, brought back to life.

Being designed for the Catholic environment, where the food prescriptions for fasting days and periods are much milder than in the Orthodox environment, the Romanian reader will probably be surprised that the fasting menus contain milk and dairy products, fish, crayfish, clams, as well as eggs, only the consumption of game meat, birds and domestic animals being prohibited.

Regarding the amounts of ingredients needed to prepare the recipes, the author sometimes omits to indicate them, probably counting on the experience and skill of the cook. When the quantities are indicated, the author uses the usual ones at the time, in the space.

It is very interesting that from the composition of the dishes proposed by Ignaz Gartler, at least three vegetables frequently found in our usual menus are missing, namely the potato, tomato and pepper.

Although at the time of the book’s publication the potato had already arrived in Europe, where, thanks to its interesting purple and white flowers, it was regarded as a decorative plant, its cultivation as a food only began in 1684 in Lancashire, in 1716 in Saxony, in 1728 in Scotland, in 1738 in Prussia and in 1783 in France.

Recipes from Baron Brukenthal’s cookbook:

Snipe soup

Take nice snipe, take out their guts, chop them up, fry them in butter, breadcrumbs and cream. (No. Snipe are medium-sized birds (25 – 28 cm) characterized by a long beak. The eyes are placed laterally, providing them with a large visual range. Compared to other waterfowl, the legs are shorter).

Take the slices of bread and roll them in the sour cream. Brush them with the fried intestines mixture and place them in a tray and bake them. Fry the snipe and slice them. Prepare a good broth and boil two fried buns in it, then pass the liquid through a sieve.

Add the meat to the soup and serve with slices of toasted bread.

“The snipe soup recipe, (Scolopax rusticola, lat.) contains in its first part the famous Schnepfendreck, in French pain de bécasse, a paste for the preparation of which is used, along with other ingredients, part of the bird’s intestine, together with the entire content this one.

The paste was spread on slices of bread, which were then roasted in the oven. Along with pâtés with elaborate fillings, Schnepfendreck was considered a delicacy of great refinement, eaten only by the wealthy. This is where the proverbs Schnepfendreck und Pasteten sind dem Bauer nicht vonnöten (‘Snake bread and pasties are not to the peasant’s taste’) or Was teuer ist, geht weg, wär’ es auch nur Schnepfendreck (‘What -it’s expensive, it passes quickly, even if it’s only snipe shit’).

In Sanda Marin’s famous cookbook, published in the first edition in 1936, the dish can be found under the name Intestine de sitari 262. Today, the dish is almost forgotten, rather belonging to the history of gastronomy”, it is stated in the volume ” From the history of fine cuisine from the Renaissance to the present day. Siberian landmarks.

Snipe soup. Photo source: Lapozz.hu

Beef stew with gooseberries

Boil the beef. Fry breadcrumbs in butter and add gooseberries, then a good beef broth and let it boil. Add spices, cheese and cream. If the gooseberries are too sour, you can first boil them in water and use only enough to get a sour soup. Serve with the meat.

“In Gartler’s cookbook, gooseberries and currants, fresh or preserved – in the form of compote, jam or jelly – are used to prepare soups, sauces, but also as a filling for cakes and tarts. Here I would like to remind you that, a few decades ago, in most gardens of the Germans in Transylvania, and implicitly those in Sibiu, such shrubs grew, and their fruits were used in recipes similar to those in the book in question. With the massive emigration of the Saxons, the appearance of urban gardens changed, in the sense that, in most cases, the new owners, having a different gastronomic culture, gave up shrubs (often also fruit trees) in favor of growing vegetables. Among the almost extinct plants in the Siberian gardens is rhubarb, also called rhubarb or rhubarb266, a herbaceous plant whose stems are used, like currants or gooseberries, in the preparation of soups, sauces, jams and cakes”, the authors write.

Photo source: sweetesthour.com

Cinnamon Linzer Cake

3 Vierting (420 g) of butter, 9 egg yolks, added one after the other, ½ Pound (280 g) of ground almonds, ½ Pound (280 g) of powdered sugar together with 2 Loth (35 g) of ground cinnamon rub a full hour, then add 3 Vierting (420 g) of fine flour.

Everything is mixed well. The obtained dough is divided into two. A cake form is greased, in which the first part of the dough is placed, dough to which a layer of currant jam is applied.

From the second part of the dough, form a grid or a spiral placed over the dough with jam. It is baked at the right temperature. Prepare a sugar glaze and apply on top.

Photo source: “From the history of fine cuisine from the Renaissance to the present day. Siberian landmarks”

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