{"id":8366,"date":"2026-10-19T23:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/?post_type=sweetlore&p=8366"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:50:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T09:50:03","slug":"salzburger-nockerl","status":"publish","type":"sweetlore","link":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/en\/sweetlore\/salzburger-nockerl\/","title":{"rendered":"Salzburger Nockerln"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three peaks, their tops dusted with white powdered sugar, are carried to the table while still puffed up. Salzburger Nockerln is a Salzburg sweet in which egg foam is baked in its serving dish. When the thin, golden surface is broken, a soft, airy interior appears. Today\u2019s shape resembles snowy mountains. Before it took this form, other Nockerl with the same place name were boiled or cooked in butter and turned.<\/p>\n

\"Salzburger<\/p>\n

Nockerln served at the Hotel Elefant in Salzburg, 2017. Photo: Jeuwre<\/a>\uff0fCC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Three peaks made from egg foam and a little flour<\/h2>\n

The main ingredients are eggs, sugar and a small amount of wheat flour. The yolks and whites are separated. The whites are whipped with sugar, the yolks are added, and the flour is sifted in. It is important to bring everything together into a smooth, creamy batter without deflating the foam. Unlike sweets made by steaming a milk-rich liquid until it sets, Nockerln rise high because the air held in the eggs is not lost during baking.<\/p>\n

In Salzburg, one method combines 3 eggs with 10 grams of flour. Other methods use more whites than yolks and add rum or vanilla. All of them keep the flour to a small amount and bake the egg foam without deflating it, so the center stays light.<\/p>\n

\n\"Nockerln\n
Nockerln served at the Goldener Hirsch in Salzburg (January 17, 2007). The three peaks are arranged in an ovenproof dish and brought to the table with cups and a fruit accompaniment. Photo: Tourismus Salzburg\uff0fWikimedia Commons<\/a>\uff0fCC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. We made no content alterations and did not crop the image.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Baked in a warmed dish and served at once<\/h2>\n

The dish is buttered and warmed in advance. Once the batter is ready, large portions are scooped up with a scraper or spoon and arranged as three large mounds with pointed tips. They are not baked one at a time and stacked afterward. Because they become neighboring peaks in the same dish, the quick placement of the soft batter determines the final shape.<\/p>\n

When the batter is baked briefly in the oven, the gas inside the foam expands and the surface browns. As soon as it is baked, it is dusted with powdered sugar and served immediately. As it cools, the volume of gas decreases and the batter sinks, so unlike a cake made in advance, this sweet cannot be kept waiting for long. Diners enjoy its light texture while it is still risen high in the dish.<\/p>\n

In addition to powdered sugar, jam or vanilla sauce is sometimes served alongside. When fruit tartness is paired with the fluffy egg batter, the tartness brings out the mild sweetness. A large dish is often shared among several people after a meal, so everyone can enjoy the warmth and fluffy texture of the freshly baked sweet. When the thin baked surface is broken, a gentle egg aroma rises from inside the three peaks.<\/p>\n

Some versions add dairy fat to the bottom of the dish. In the method taught by Naomi Nakahama on a 2022 cooking program, fresh cream and butter are melted in a gratin dish before the foam batter is placed on top. During baking, the dairy fat soaks into the lower part, giving it a different texture from the light upper part. The cranberries served alongside are cooked with sugar so that their skins keep their texture.<\/p>\n

\n\"Nockerln\n
An example served at Dicker Mann in Regensburg (September 7, 2014). Plums and vanilla sauce are served in separate dishes alongside the baked egg batter. Photo: Dr. Bernd Gross\uff0fWikimedia Commons<\/a>\uff0fCC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. We made no content alterations and did not crop the image.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n
\n\"Mirabell\n
Mirabell Palace and Gardens, which appear in the origin legend (Salzburg, July 3, 2013). The photo shows the palace and gardens as they are today. Photo: Japleenpasricha\uff0fWikimedia Commons<\/a>\uff0fCC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. We made no content alterations and did not crop the image.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The legend that Salome Alt made it for her family<\/h2>\n

The city also has a story that links the origin to Archbishop Wolf Dietrich and his partner Salome Alt. According to this story, Salome made the sweet in the kitchen of the Mirabell residence for the two of them and their children. Austria\u2019s inventory of traditional foods also mentions this legend, but it is not known when this sweet actually came into being.<\/p>\n

The name Nockerl is used not only for sweet desserts but also for foods such as dumplings added to soup. Some Salzburg Nockerl recorded in old cookbooks differ from today\u2019s sweet, made by baking peaks of egg white in the oven, in both ingredients and cooking method.<\/p>\n

A history of boiled choux pastry and baked foam batter<\/h2>\n

Austria\u2019s inventory of traditional foods cites Hagger\u2019s 1718 \u201cSalzburg Cookbook\u201d as the first appearance. This is disputed by research from food-culture historian Lothar Kolmer and others, who did not find the name in that book. The same research found \u201cSalzburger Nocken\u201d in the third edition (1816) of Maria Anna Neudecker\u2019s \u201cThe Bavarian Cook in Bohemia.\u201d However, this is a dish in which small scoops of choux pastry are simmered in hot cream. It differs from today\u2019s method of baking peaks of egg white in the oven in both the handling of ingredients and the use of heat.<\/p>\n

The history of recipes (the proportions of ingredients and the method) that use foam batter leads back to an 1858 formula from Munich by Johann Rottenh\u00f6fer, a cook at the Bavarian court. It was a light batter made with eggs, but more butter was used at the time than today. Neudecker\u2019s dish of boiled choux pastry and Rottenh\u00f6fer\u2019s sweet of baked egg foam were both handed down under the same place name. Mid-19th-century cookbooks list Nocken<\/em> and Nockerl<\/em> together, and later the latter, which denotes a small lump, became the dominant name. While the name stayed the same, two different methods coexisted: a dish of small scoops of dough simmered in liquid, and a sweet made by baking whipped batter.<\/p>\n

The three peaks are compared to the mountains surrounding the city, but accounts differ on which three mountains they represent. Marie von Rokitansky\u2019s 1897 cookbook includes a method in which pyramid-shaped portions of batter are cooked in clarified butter and turned during cooking.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the simpler method of baking in the oven spread. The sweet was even mentioned in a song in the 1938 operetta \u201cSaison in Salzburg,\u201d and it became known as a soft, sweet specialty. It is a sweet that has kept its old name while its tools and use of heat have changed.<\/p>\n

Glossary<\/h2>\n

Nockerl<\/strong>: An Austrian term for lumps or dumplings made by scooping batter or dough. In Salzburger Nockerln, large peaks of foam batter are formed.<\/p>

Scraper (card)<\/strong>: A flat pastry tool used to divide or transfer soft batter or dough.<\/p>

Marie von Rokitansky<\/strong>: A writer of books on Austrian cooking in the late 19th century.<\/p>

Clarified butter<\/strong>: Butter from which water and milk solids have been removed, leaving mainly fat.<\/p>

Wolf Dietrich, Salome Alt<\/strong>: An archbishop and his partner who appear in an origin story set at the Salzburg court.<\/p>

Hagger<\/strong>: Author of the 1718 \u201cSalzburg Cookbook.\u201d The theory that this book contains the sweet\u2019s first appearance is disputed.<\/p>

Maria Anna Neudecker<\/strong>: A cook whose cookbook included a boiled \u201cSalzburger Nocken\u201d in its 1816 edition.<\/p>

Johann Rottenh\u00f6fer<\/strong>: A cook at the Bavarian court. His 1858 foam-batter recipe is cited as a predecessor of today\u2019s method.<\/p>

Choux pastry<\/strong>: A dough made by heating flour with liquid and then incorporating eggs.<\/p>

Naomi Nakahama<\/strong>: The person who demonstrated how to make Salzburger Nockerln on \u201cGretel no Kamado,\u201d broadcast in 2022.<\/p>

References<\/h2>\n
  1. Austrian Inventory of Traditional Foods, \u201cSalzburger Nockerln\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The legend and the unresolved origin, older dishes with the same name and 1897, disagreement over the mountain names, and the 1938 song and serving.<\/li>
  2. Salzburg Agrar Marketing, \u201cSalzburger Nockerl\u201d<\/a> \u2014 3 eggs and 10 g of flour, three mounds, immediate serving and accompaniments.<\/li>
  3. Lothar Kolmer et al., \u201cSalzburger Nockerl \u2013 ein bayerisches Nationalgericht?\u201d<\/a> \u2014 pp. 1, 6\u20139 and 12\u201314. Topics: the court legend; the counter-evidence that the name does not appear in Hagger\u2019s 1718 cookbook; research finding that it does not appear in Neudecker\u2019s first edition (1805) or second edition (1810), while the boiled type appears in the third edition (1816); the 1858 foam type; and changes in the name. A name from the 1840s or a single explanation from around 1910 is not used to determine the year of first invention. This does not mean that every edition was independently read in full for this article.<\/li>
  4. Tsuji Group, \u201cBrahms\u2019s Salzburger Nockerln\u201d (November 15, 2022)<\/a> \u2014 Main text, portion 175\u2013202, was actually read. Topics: Nakahama\u2019s fresh cream and butter in the dish, absorption into the lower part, and cranberry skins.<\/li>

  5. Editorial notes<\/h2><\/li>

  6. The Salome Alt legend is not treated as evidence that today\u2019s oven-baked foam-batter sweet existed in the 17th century. Specialist research disputes the official inventory\u2019s statement that Hagger\u2019s 1718 book contains the first appearance, so the main text does not use that year as the date of first appearance.<\/p><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Salzburger Nockerl is a Salzburg sweet in which egg foam is shaped into three large peaks and baked in its serving dish. The top bakes to a golden color, and the white powdered sugar resembles snow on mountain peaks. Beneath the thin baked surface is a soft, airy batter. Once baked, it is brought to the table without delay, while it is still puffed up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7314,"menu_order":137,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_parade_sweetlore_meta":{"en":"Salzburger Nockerl","subtitle":"Three egg peaks rising from a freshly baked dish","topics":"Whipped egg whites support a batter with little flour\uff0fThree scoops placed in a warmed dish\uff0fThe snowy-mountain specialty was once cooked differently\uff0fThe pleasure of sharing one dish","country":"Salzburg, Austria","show_toc":true,"ingredients":["cream","egg"],"texture":["fluffy"],"occasion":[],"method":["baked"],"season":[]},"footnotes":""},"sweetlore_category":[164],"class_list":["post-8366","sweetlore","type-sweetlore","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"sweetlore_related_products":null,"sweetlore_related_faqs":null,"sweetlore_related_voices":null,"sweetlore_related_mode":"auto","sweetlore_related_articles":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t