Schnitzel & Bread
I actually got quite lucky, cooking-wise, when I moved to Austria. See I’m from the South. The deep south. The cornbread and collard greens south. We do food two ways, boil it to death or fry it to a crisp.
And in Austria, they do the same thing, boil and fry. So even if the food is different, it was somewhat easier to find my way around things.
The national dish is pretty much Schnitzel, which, in preparation struck me as very much like making chicken friend steak. With chicken fried steak, you either use this tool thing that breaks up the connective tissue and makes it thin so that it cooks fast.. Or you pound the crap out of it, usually with the side of a plate, to break up the connective tissue and make it thin so that it cooks fast.
Then you salt it and dredge it in seasoned flour, then seasoned eggs, then seasoned flour again and fry it up in oil till it’s crispy. Oh Lord! I’m making myself hungry just thinking about it.
And schnitzel is done the very same way, pounded flat and breaded and fried. But in Austria, it’s slightly different. It’s pork, to begin with. (I do not do veal, veal has absolutely no flavor) and I have a hammer thingie to pound it with, then salt it and flour it and egg it and then coat it with bread crumbs, seasoned on every level, and fry it up.
I have found out that the bread crumbs matterr. It HAS to be Semmelbrösel, which are bread crumbs from a Semmel, which is a kind of roll similar to a kaiser roll. A bit dense and only slightly chewy. They are dried and roasted and they are the absolute secret to the taste of schnitzel.
I’ve tried to make schnitzel with various other bread crumbs and Peter will say it’s good, but it doesn’t taste like it should.
They have unbelievably delicious breads in Austria, in every shade from white to deep, dark brown. And they are all incredibly delicious. Just wow.
It’s embarassing to admit this though. As much as I love Austrian bread for smearing and butter and jam and such, for sandwiches, I can’t leave the American behind. I buy the tacky American Supersoft sliced bread in the plastic package at the grocery store.
It’s horrible, I know. But a grilled cheese or a BLT doesn’t taste right to me, when it’s made with a bread that has texture. Now, a ham and Gouda sandwich on a semmel, that is perfect. That is my picnic food.
But I was noticing that. american bread foods, hamburger buns, hotdog buns, rolls and such, the “national” favorites, the ones you eat at Thanksgivinng, are soft and textureless. Maybe it’s a southern thing. I know for a fact we have VERY diferent foods down south. My daughter visited Boston as a teenager for about 5 days and she was visibly thinner when I picked her up at the airport. The first words out of her mouth were “Get me a cheese burger please!”
She just could not adjust to the differences. So maybe up north the breads and rolls have more texture. My only exprience with Rye bread in the US was the one you get roast beef on at Arby’s. And it did not have texture or the deep, almost black color and complex flavor of the Rye bread I have had in Austria.
To eat bread, just as bread, I would pick the Austrian breads anytime. They are so much more than what I ever thought bread could be. But to me sandwich bread is a vessel for what is inside of it and should not compete for flavor. Isn’t that strange? It’s such a silly opinion, even to hear myself say it. But it’s mine and it’s tested.
Wherever you are, try out sandwiches in other breads than you usually use and see what you think. You may change your mind or you may decide, like me, that you like sandwiches on only a certain type of bread, but it will be a delicious experiment.
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