Kaiserschmarrn

Austria’s Kaiserschmarrn is a warm, flour-based dish made with eggs, milk and wheat flour. A thick, soft batter is cooked, then torn into rough pieces with uneven browning. It is dotted with rum-soaked raisins, dusted with powdered sugar and served with accompaniments such as stewed plums. The dish can be eaten as a dessert or as a sweet main dish. Origin stories connect it to an emperor, and it also has a history as a pan dish made in rural villages and in the mountains.

Cooking the batter as one thick layer

Milk and flour are combined with the egg yolks, and lemon zest or vanilla is added. The egg whites are whipped with sugar and gently folded in at the end. The batter does not rely on yeast fermentation. Instead, it uses the air beaten into the eggs. It is not spread out thin like a crêpe. Instead, it is kept thick and poured into a frying pan in which butter has been melted.

Some recipes do not whip the egg whites separately. A recipe collection from the Austrian National Tourist Office describes a method in which milk and flour are mixed, whole eggs are slowly incorporated, and the batter is then cooked in a pan. Even without the whipping step, the batter is cooked in the same way, torn, and then cooked again with butter and sugar.

In one method, the underside is browned, rum-soaked raisins are scattered over it, and the batter is turned and put in the oven. In another, the pan is covered and the dish is finished on the stovetop. Once the batter is cooked through to the center and forms a single piece that can be lifted, it is torn apart with two forks or a similar tool. Unlike frying small bits of batter from the start, the time spent cooking the batter as a single piece creates a fluffy texture.

Tearing the cooked batter and browning it again

Tearing the cooked batter into large and small pieces newly exposes the interior. Heat is then applied again, butter and sugar are added, and the sugar is lightly caramelized under strong top heat or with the heat of the pan. The aroma of butter and the toasty browning of sugar are added to the softness of the egg-based batter. The final dusting of powdered sugar is left white, so the sugar cooked until fragrant and the sugar that melts play separate roles.

Zwetschkenröster, served alongside, is a dish of stewed plums that keep their shape and tartness. Apple purée, stewed berries and compote are also used. The raisins add sweetness here and there within the batter, while the fruit served afterward adds moisture and tartness. The fruit is placed to the side or in a separate dish instead of all being mixed into the batter, so diners can vary how much fruit they take with each bite.

The Schmarren family extends beyond the imperial court

Schmarren are a group of rural dishes in which flour, milk, eggs and fat are cooked in a pan. For woodcutters and herders, they were meals that could be made quickly in the mountains and shared by everyone straight from the pan. In the 18th century they also reached the cities, where they were refined into sweet main dishes made with sugar and dried fruit. However, not all of the older methods used today’s formula, which relies on the air in whipped egg whites. Austria’s register of traditional foods lists related dishes: Mehlschmarren made with wheat flour, Grießschmarren made with semolina, Semmelschmarren made with bread rolls, and Erdäpfelschmarren made with potatoes. Today’s Kaiserschmarrn is also defined by its process. The egg whites are whipped separately, the batter is cooked thick, and sugar is caramelized onto it after tearing.

There are also other explanations for the name. The historian Roman Sandgruber discusses a possible link to the Italian a la casa, which denotes a dish made “in the style of the house.” Austria’s register of traditional foods also records a theory linking the name to Kaser, a word for herders, and to Casa. Besides the explanation that the name comes from “Kaiser,” meaning emperor, other theories connect it to home cooking and herders’ food.

Three origin legends linked to the emperor

There are several versions of the origin story connected to Emperor Franz Joseph I. In one version, the emperor came to the Salzkammergut to hunt and was served a woodcutters’ Schmarren enriched with milk, eggs and raisins.

In another version, set in 1854, a cook made a sweet for Empress Elisabeth. The empress was concerned about her figure, and her husband liked the sweet more than she did, so “the empress’s” dish became “the emperor’s” dish. There is also a story that a thick Palatschinke that went wrong at court was torn into pieces. The hunting meal, the dish for the empress and the remade failure are legends that each describe a different scene.

Sandgruber points out the gap between the image of an emperor good-naturedly taking a dish that someone else had refused and the formality of court dining. The name has been handed down through stories that turn a simple dish into “a dish that even the emperor enjoys.”

A related dish made with dairy, and how it is eaten in different places

The closely related Topfenschmarren adds Topfen, a quark-type dairy product. In the Vienna Tourist Board’s recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method), Topfen, cream and egg yolks are combined with flour and milk, and whipped egg whites are folded in. The batter is cooked in clarified butter, divided into quarters and turned, then torn into bite-sized pieces. Finally, sugar is caramelized in the pan. As with Kaiserschmarrn, the batter relies on egg foam and is torn after cooking, but Topfen and cream add richness. Stewed rhubarb and ice cream are also suggested as accompaniments.

This dish also crosses today’s national borders. It is served in Hungary, which overlaps with the former imperial territory, and in neighboring Bavaria. In a Slovenian town, a pancake that is torn after cooking is called “šmorn,” and a similar way of eating it is enjoyed there under the local name.

Meanwhile, the Hotel Sacher’s café in Salzburg serves it freshly made with stewed plums as a traditional coffeehouse dish. Warm batter torn into pieces can be a meal shared around a pan in the mountains or a sweet in a city café.

In Vienna, the portion size and texture of a dish with the same name vary from place to place. In a 2010 comparison tasting by Tanaka of the Tsuji Group, Café Central served a large portion with a mix of hard, toasty sugared parts and soft parts. Zwölfapostelkeller served a smaller portion that was easy to eat even after a meal, and Tirolerhof served one with a chewier texture; each was served with plum sauce. Each establishment differs in the browning and softness of the torn batter and in the point in the meal at which it is served.

At workplaces in Germany, it is sometimes served as a sweet lunch. The writer “Sekai no Hito ni Kiite Mita” (“I Asked People Around the World”), who lived in Germany for eight years, writes about eating it many times at Friday lunch in the staff cafeteria at work. The same writer also enjoyed the dish at mountain huts while hiking and sledding with their son, and while sledding at night with colleagues. The places where it is eaten range from workplace lunch breaks to rest stops and dinners in the mountains.

Glossary