While Parisian bread is as good as bread can be, it cannot be said that
French bread, the country through, is so uniformly excellent as is
German bread, throughout the two Empires. Not only in Vienna, Berlin,
Munich, Dresden, Hamburg, Stuttgart, and the other large cities is it
almost invariably crisp and tasty, but it is so in the smaller towns
and even the villages.
Ellwanger does not exaggerate when he says in regard to Germany that
"from her inviting _Bäckereis_ and _Conditoreis_ floats an ambrosial
fragrance that may not be equaled by the pâtisseries of Paris,
the variety of her products being as great as their cheapness and
wholesomeness. One is born a poet, saith the adage; it is equally true
that the German is a born baker who has no superior in his sphere."
The Parisians, indeed, learned the secret of making perfect bread from
the Austrians.
Bread was baked by Egyptians and Hebrews two thousand years before
Christ; also by the Greeks, from whom the Italians learned the art of
making it. There are records of Roman bakers who became so wealthy and
famous that they were invested with the dignity of Senators, but there
are reasons for believing that if any bakers of our time endeavored to
sell the sour stuff these Romans made, they would be mobbed.
Eugen Baron Vaerst relates that a jury of French, English, and
Italian epicures decided that the best pastry was made in Switzerland
(Schweizerbäckerei has been famous for more than a century) and the
best bread in Vienna. The Austrians may have got some hints from the
Venetians, who made good bread and excellent _biscotti_. In consequence
of that jury's decision, an enterprising baker set up a shop on the
Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, and "the Parisians, proud to have all that
was best in different countries taken to them for their verdict and
approval, decided that this was the best _bonne nouvelle_ that had ever
been brought to them."
This baker soon became wealthy and so did others who followed his
example. To this day _pain viennois_ is in the best repute in Paris,
and so is Viennese pastry.
Most juries of epicures would agree to-day that not only is Viennese
bread perfect but that, next to Paris, the Austrian capital has the
best restaurants, and the most savory domestic cooking in the world.
Many of the foods served have local Flavors, not the least agreeable of
which are those betraying the neighborhood of Hungary--the _Gulyas_,
the _Paprikahuhn_, and other dishes reddened and made piquant with
paprika, which must not be confounded with the much sharper variety of
red pepper, cayenne, so dear to Spanish peoples of the old world and
the new.
A specialty of the Austrian and South-German cuisine, the neglect of
which elsewhere is incomprehensible, is the _Mehlspeise_, which ought
to be adopted in England and America as an occasional substitute for
puddings and pies. There is an endless variety of these _Mehlspeisen_,
under the species _Nudeln_, _Spatzen_, _Kipferl_, _Kuchen_,
_Strudel_, _Nockerl_, _Flockerl_, _Knödel_, _Schmarren_. Really,
the _Kaiserschmarren_ and the _Apfelstrudel_ ought to be adopted as
national American dishes by special act of Congress.
Flavorsome Hungarian flour (_Mehl_) is used in making these dishes
(_Speisen_) and that is one of the reasons why they are so good. The
Hungarian brand of flour is the best in the world, especially the
highest grade, known as _Auszugmehl_. It has an amber tint known among
bakers as the _gelbliche Stich_. On account of its agreeable Flavor,
Hungarian flour is sent in large quantities to Germany, and some goes
as far as Paris. Because of the freight expenses it is not usually sent
north of Berlin. In that city the best bread is made of it, including
the favorite _Knüppel_ and the _Milchbrode_. Farther north, a mixture
of German and American flour is used.
A few American grocers import Hungarian flour. The test of the best
European product is that when the hand is laid on it, it flies up
between the fingers. American flour packs. Mrs. Arpad Gerster (whose
husband is a brother of the famous Hungarian prima donna, Etelka
Gerster) gives me the very important information that our flour can be
made almost equal to the foreign by drying it on a platter on top of
the stove. Bread, cakes, noodles, etc., made with flour thus dried have
the much-coveted European lightness.
The Germans know as well as the French that the crust is the sweetest
and most digestible part of bread and that its Flavor depends on there
being a maximum of crust with a minimum of crumb, quite as much as it
does on the grade of flour used, and the method of making the dough and
baking it. To ensure a maximum of crust, white bread is usually baked
in the size of rolls, as _Semmel_, and in a great variety of other
shapes, every region having its specialty.
While it is true that, as a German writer remarks, the eating of white
bread is a mark of prosperity in his country, it must not be inferred
that it is only the poorer classes who buy the cheaper _Schwarzbrod_,
made of rye. On account of its agreeable flavor this "black-bread"
appeals particularly to epicures, and the darkest variety of it,
Pumpernickel, is called for by gourmets the world over as the best
thing to eat with cheeses of the Limburger type. It is also used as an
ingredient in various _Mehlspeisen_ and _crêmes_. It is made of flour
from which the bran has not been bolted.
Cereal perfumery is not a thing you can buy at an apothecary's. You
get it by munching a piece of rye bread with fresh butter on it and
consciously breathing out through the nose.
In France rye bread is almost unknown. In England attempts were made
a few years ago to popularize it. _Nature_ and other periodicals took
up the matter, which had been brought to the fore during a political
campaign where some of the speakers deplored the lot of the German
laboring man for being obliged to eat rye bread. By way of reply,
attention was called to the fact that the Kaiser himself always has
rye bread on his table, and that in American cities, as in those of
Germany, there is much demand for such bread in the wealthy quarters.
Apparently the attempt to enrich the British menu with a cheap new
delicacy failed, for trade reports of 1912 intimated that while there
is at all times a demand for corn and oats on the Liverpool market, rye
does not find sale there.
There are many other German bread and cake specialties that deserve
to be introduced in other countries. Two of them are already known to
epicures of many countries: the _Lebkuchen_, or honeycake, which made
Nuremburg famous, and the lye-soaked, twisted, crisp _Pretzel_. This
has a little salt strewn on the crust and the same is true of other
kinds of small breads. Particularly good is the _Mohnbrot_, which is
peppered with poppy seeds. Try it. Poppy seed is as good to eat as any
nut that grows.
In these things the Germans show a good deal of imagination; but as for
the anise-seeds so often mingled with the rye bread, I wish they would
leave them to the imagination. The general use of them has probably
done more than anything else to prevent the acceptance of German rye
bread in foreign countries.