Book Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Nice but....
Great recipes, but you need a scale to measure products. I also didn't like the fact that no oven temperatures were given unless you have an oven from England. If this book is to be sold in the US market, the editors could have at least adapted the information to our standards. I'm no amateur in the kitchen, but someone who is will have a tough time calculating oven temps. The layout of the recipes could've been better by listing the ingredients and then instructions. Instead it was done in a paragraph form which can make it confusing. All in all I'll keep the book, but am a bit disappointed with how it was put together.

Authentic Austrian Cooking
This small book is chock full of Austrian recipes.As I was told, my grandmother from Austria regularly cooked these meals from scratch.Unfortunately, the recipes were not put down on paper to pass on through the generations.If you think boiled meat sounds frightening, think again.Purchase this book and prepare Tafelspitz and your taste buds will never stop thanking you for it!

You can gain weight just reading this book, but your mouth will be happy!
A passionate home cook that has been honing her cooking skills for the last 25 years, concentrating on Italian cooking for the last 10 years, writes this review.My favorite cookbooks are "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute and "Culinary Artistry".With more than 500 cookbooks in my collection I am usually disappointed in my recent cookbook acquisitions.This particular book is on loan from an Austrian friend, whose two brothers are chefs in Austria.Given that a woman born and raised in Austria thinks the recipes in this book are authentic I have to assume that she knows more than the reviewer that disagrees.

The book is outlines as follows:
1. I'd like to explain
2. Soups and their Garnishes
3. Fish
4. Meat, Game and Poultry
5. Some Cold Dishes
6. Vegetables
7. Salads
8. Savoury Sauces
9. Dumplings and the Like
10. Desserts - Hot and Cold - including Sweet Sauces
11. Cakes, Pastries and Biscuits
12. Gateaux and Icings

Before I review the book, I must say that if you are on a diet, this is not the book for you.I think that you could gain weight just reading this book.However, if you are a fan of desserts, WOW what a book!

The first chapter the author explains the difference in some of the typical ingredients of Austria.She also provides a table that translates the European Gas Marks into degrees, which I do not see very often in foreign cookbooks.

The garnishes for the soup alone are worth the cost of the book.I have never seen such variation in noodles and dumplings.And then, there are the schnitzel recipes.Can you say yummy?Where do you even begin talking about how wonder a well-made schnitzel can be?Makes me long for Berghoff's Restaurant in Chicago, an institution that is now gone.

The Austrians apparently have their own version of Risi Bisi, which I was certain was Venetian.But maybe I am incorrect.The difference between the two versions seems to be that the Austrian's do not use Arborio rice.

The Dessert sections are absolutely amazing.The Austrians have taken dessert making to a new level.Each recipe is more mouthwatering than the next.There is a recipe for Strudel dough, and every Austrian dessert that I could think of.If you love desserts, these chapters make the book worth buying alone.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone that loves Austrian food, or just good food.I borrowed this copy from an Austrian friend, but I will be ordering my own copy.

Austrian chef tested this book and cooked 2/3 of recipes
I am an Austrian chef and very interested in cookbooks; especially books that are written in English, for they are read worldwide and so influence what people think of Austrian cuisine, and how they cook if they want to cook Austrian. (...)
All in all that book is worth the money, most recipes are quite original, and the instructions are good. Photos would be helpful. For this price I would buy it again.

Bland Offering of Exciting Cusine
Having some Austrian ancestry in me and having sampled some fine Austria fare, ventured to try and find a good source.This isn't completely what I am looking for.

Recipes are too basic, not enough purchasing and prep hints.No photos whatsoever to entice.

Did find some interesting stuff, though: Wuerstelbraten, Galantine of Chicken, Souffle Rothschild.

For baking, see "Kaffehaus" by Rick Rodgers; for Austrian cooking, see W. Pauk. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

I was disappointed
I bought this book as a gift for friends of mine who love Austrian cuisine. I am from Austria and was disappointed with this book. Aside from many spelling errors in the German titels of the foods, there is a picture of Innsbruck (ever heard of the Golden Roof that it is famous for?) and it says ... Austrians and tourists alike enjoy... Salzburg! Could have maybe overlooked that fact but the Sachertorte in this cookbook looks nothing like a Sachertorte I have ever seen anywhere in Austria. Save your money and have somebody bring you a cookbook from Austria that has been translated into English.

Not just a cookbook for kids!
This is a wonderful book for anyone, of any age, to learn some traditional Austrian recipes.It gives you the "basics" that you need to know.In other words....Classic, easy, (and quite tasty) recipes that can be easily made in the American kitchen.

"Cooking The AustrianWay" is not packed with hundreds of recipes. However, it does containa few classic recipes.It is a great start to Austrian cooking.

Thisbook is said to be for "Ages 9 to 12".... I am 26 years old andhighly recommend this informative and fun book to anyone of any age.Ifyou want to try your hand at cooking "The Austrian Way",definitely get your hands on this book! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not the Most Engaging of Cookbooks
This is update of a 1954 cookbook, with ingredients brought up to date with supply and some techniques also caught up with modern equipment.The cake war, as author calls it, is also updated.

I agree with another reviewer who thought photos would have enhanced this, as they do all cookbooks.It certainly inspires one trying it after seeing it prepared and presented.

Gretel Beer's Austrian Cooking g
This book is a classic in its area.There are not (in my experience) a lot of books about Austrian cooking.Often, indiginous Austrian dishes like the well-known Wiener Schnitzel get lumped into books about German orHungarian cooking.Not that there isn't any resemblance, but the Austrianaspect gets ignored.Beer's book goes a long way at remedying this.Thebook has the classic, well-known recipies, plus others that are less wellknown.For example, a tasty lentil soup makes a good vegetarian entree. And there are others as well.The biggest problem I found with using thebook is that there are too few pictures to show what you are making issupposed to look like.If you follow the directions as written, chancesare what you make will look at least marginally like you'll find in thepictures included, but the shots are too few and all sandwiched in themiddle.That being said, I can vouch for the authenticity of the recipies. My mom was from Austria, and learned to cook from her grandmother, who hadbeen a cook for a family of the Austrian nobility in the Habsburg days. Well, mom keeps my copy of this book at her house and uses it quite often. Many of the dishes she knows by heart, but it says a lot for the recipe'sauthenticity when my mom trusts it enough to use for her own cooking! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Too brief instructions, best to refresh Austrian cooks
The "Best Austrian Cuisine" is not the best text for newcomers to Austrian cuisine to cook with.

Ithas the briefest instructions on most recipes that I've seen in a good while. While this is fine for one accustomed to cooking Austrian cooking, it is not helpful to others new to the cuisine.

Oneproblem is that it doesn't tell the reader when one cooking step is completed, as it's easy to greatly undercook or overcook with these brief instructions.

For example, there are 6 sauerkraut recipes, however each starts with "put the sauerkraut in water" or anothersays "melt the butter and brown the sugar in it. Add the sauerkraut.." Yikes, nowhere does it tell how to make the sauerkraut.."Obviously" any (Austrian) cook should know that!

For cheese soup, it says to "fry the flour lightly in the fat."Most writers would give an endpoint, such as "till light yellow", or golden brown or till some distinct change, and perhaps tell what may happen when it's been fried too long...not ging to find such assistance in this book.

For making dumplings, "roast white bread or rolls in about one ounce of fat. Mix the eggs with the milk and and pour over dumplingsand leave for half an hour"Roast how long? Roast until what desired change happens?How exactly does one "roast" in this cuisine, anyhow?

This is a "reminder" type of a cookbook aimed at experienced Austrian cooks, and of little use to a newcomer to Austrian cuisine. A shame. It also lacks photographs, so best of luck trying to make an authentic presentation, if you are a newcomer to the cuisine.

Thus, it is clear, as the jacket says, thatthis was "originally published in Austria", for Austrians, and is ill suited to those not well acquainted with the techniques of proper Austrian cooking.

But it's pretty good
Some photos would have been nice, but then I'm sure the book would have cost much much more, and the price is one nice thing about it. I also didn't have any of the problems of the first reviewer- it was all clear in my edition. I found some Austrian wines to go with the dishes at www.winemonger.com and had a great party!

Could be the best book of its kind
Hmmm... My copy of this book doesn't have the problems mentioned below, but then it's a 2001 reprinting and is perhaps corrected.

In the late 1990s I rented a room in Vienna from an 80-year woman who cooked for me every Saturday.Since then, I've longed to replicate the delicious, savory, and often quite filling meals that we ate together.I've read dozens of Austrian cookbooks, and this is the best by far.Most others are either hopelessly out of date, written for non-American audiences (like Gretel Beer's famous but useless volume), or concentrate on what I'd call "restaurant food"--special, elaborate, time-consuming dishes that don't exemplify what a typical home-cooked Austrian meal is like.This book takes Austrian "Hausmannskost"--everyday food, the sort of thing you'd eat for Tuesday dinner--and translates it to the American kitchen.The recipes are perhaps a little vague here and there and assume previous experience in the kitchen, but the author's point usually is clear.And is it ever authentic; the kohlrabi recipe on pg. 79 is *exactly* my landlady's, and it's delicious.

The book includes chapters on meat dishes, 'Mehlspeisen,' organ meats (beloved in Austria if not in the US), fish, poultry, sauces, starches, vegetables (more varied than one might expect), and then of course the full range of desserts and "Süßigkeiten."The range is encyclopedic and varied.Special sections include menu planning, a description of Austrian wines, and a chapter on munchies for that afternoon 'Jause.'

A gourmet book this is not; if you want splash and glam, it will disappoint.But if, like me, you long to recover how your old Austrian host made cabbage taste so yummy, this book is the answer.Through it, you can recreate an Austrian kitchen in your home, which is a very nice thought!

Poorly edited
Although the list of recipes is varied, the actual recipes are poorly written, inaccurate in measurements, and confusing. Many sentences are cut-off and end abruptly.The book badly needs an editor who actuallyreads the contents of the work. ... Read more