SMBC #4: Pseudo Pancakes Part 2 - Kaiserschmarrn

A loooong time ago we promised here that there would be a second post to explain the phenomenon that random people would stop at our kitchen window to try our food creation. Well, it finally digitalised…

The dish in question is called “Kaiserschmarrn”, a simple but delicious Austrian dish made with pancake batter and combined with the subtle sweet-sour taste of home-made cranberry jam. Even though this popular dish is sweet, it is often eaten as a main course for dinner. Its name is a bizarre combination of the German word for emperor, “Kaiser”, and the word “Schmarrn”, which means nonsense or rubbish in the Viennese dialect. While it is confirmed that Schmarrn is a simple poor-mans-dish, first mentioned in a document in the 16^th century, there are many different legends on the origins of its noble sibling, the Kaiserschmarrn.

The Kaiserschmarrn was most probably invented at the court of the Austrian emperor Franz Josef I (1830–1916). According to one legend, this delicious dish was created in 1854 for the emperor's wife, duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie of Bavaria, commonly known as Sissi. Obsessed with maintaining a thin waistline, Sissi directed the royal chef to prepare only light desserts for her, much to the consternation and annoyance of her husband who loved pastry. Upon being presented with the chef’s confection, she found it too rich and refused to eat it. With a smile Franz Josef tried to safe the situation and replied, “Now let me see what "Schmarrn" our chef has cooked up”. It apparently met his approval as he finished his and even his wife's serving. Thereafter, the dessert was called Kaiserschmarrn across the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Lets now come to the preparation of the Kaiserschmarrn. On the internet one can find many complicated procedures involving baking in an oven and subsequent glazing with caramelised sugar, but this recipe is really simple. For four portions you will need:

• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 4 eggs
• 4 tablespoons of sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 120 g of flour
• about ¼ litre of milk
• raisins at pleasure
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• some good cranberry (or plum) jam
• icing sugar

Destroy it! The pancake is torn into bite-sized pieces.

And here is the preparation:

1. Separate the yolks from the egg white. Whisk the yolks with the milk, the salt, the sugar and the packet of vanilla sugar. Add the flour and give it a good mix to obtain a smooth batter. Finally add the raisins. 
2. Whip the egg white till it is nice and firm. Carefully stir it in the prepared batter. Don’t overdo it, too much stirring lets all the small air bubbles escape from the batter.
3. Melt a little butter is a non-sticky pan and pour in some batter. The Kaiserschmarrn has to be quite thick, about double the thickness of a pancake. Bake the Schmarrn on small heat till it is golden brown on the bottom, then turn and bake till the other side is ready. The finished pancake is brown and crisp on the outside and still relatively soft inside.
4. At the end comes the fun part: use your pancake turner to tear the pancake to bite-size pieces, giving the Kaiserschmarrn its characteristic shape. Finally melt a small piece of butter to the pan and toss the pieces of Kaiserschmarrn in it.  
5. Serve the Kaiserschmarrn on a large flat plate, strewn with icing sugar and a few spoon-full of cranberry jam to the side. Traditionally this dish is served with a glass of cold milk. 
   

PS: Don’t worry if the Kaiserschmarrn doesn’t turn out perfect the first time. Some say even good cooks struggle with the preparation of this seemingly simple dish, they don’t know how to make it good and fluffy. Kaiserschmarrn is a dish that is often served in alpine huts, a typical mountain food. And up in the mountains they really know how to make a good Kaiserschmarrn!