Beef

Hi, I'm Nino Shaye Weiss, an unbridled foodnik kibbitzing (aka blogging) from Vienna, the city of dreams, the home Sigmund Freud loved and hated, the uncanny home of many world-famous Jews like Theodor Herzl, Gustav Mahler, Viktor Frankl, Martin Buber, Stefan Zweig, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Arnold Schoenberg, etc. In memory's kitchen, I'm cooking up an armchair therapy for a fictitious restaurant made of recipes and stories from Jewish Viennese cuisine and its eclectic influences — Italian…

Farfelach (farfel are Jewish egg barley or tarhonya in Hungarian) served with goulash.

First off, you may be wondering why I am talking about steak tartare on a Jewish-Viennese cultural food blog: Is it some rite of passage, an infamous entry gate to cannibalism? Will I speak about two raw-meat-eating Jews, Freud and Lanzmann, to address some anti-Semitic medieval stereotypes of Jews

First off, you may be wondering why I am talking about steak tartare on a Jewish-Viennese cultural food blog: Is it some rite of passage, an infamous entry gate to cannibalism? Will I speak about two raw-meat-eating Jews, Freud and Lanzmann, to address some anti-Semitic medieval stereotypes of Jews

A Kaiser roll with a plate of goulash (gulyás) Wiener Saftgulasch Vienna's gravy paprika beef stew

In his youth, Sigmund Freud enjoyed many traditional Jewish foods, including challah, gefilte fish, and above all, cholent (tshoolnt in Southeastern Yiddish), the bean stew traditionally served on the Sabbath. Cholent is the Jews’ version of baked beans, a Jewish kind of French cassoulet.Th

First off, you may be wondering why I am talking about steak tartare on a Jewish-Viennese cultural food blog: Is it some rite of passage, an infamous entry gate to cannibalism? Will I speak about two raw-meat-eating Jews, Freud and Lanzmann, to address some anti-Semitic medieval stereotypes of Jews

Goulash competition - Chef Wolfgang Puck versus Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner - goulash (gulyás) Wiener Saftgulasch Vienna's gravy paprika beef stew

Viennese cuts of Beef (Wiener Teilung des Rindfleisches) from an old cookbook

Root vegetables are added to the poaching meat towards the end of the cooking time, so as to get perfectly cooked while still keeping their specific flavors

Here I served a finger-thick slice of simmered tafelspitz meat with just-cooked root vegetables and my favorite cold apple-horseradish sauce. Sprinkle the slice of meat with coarse sea salt. A high-quality finishing salt would be most appropriate here!

To sauce with a piece of fresh Kaiser roll is a must while sampling Goulash from Chef Wolfgang Puck and Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner - goulash (gulyás) Wiener Saftgulasch Vienna's gravy paprika beef stew

Eating like the emperor, only with my fork, this extra tender, juicy and lean Viennese poached beef cut called "Mageres Meisel (or Mäuserl), a typical cut served as boiled beef. I serve it with a bit of soup, topped with chives, coarse sea salt, a potato rösti (a latke) on the side and, of course, horseradish, apple-horseradish or, like here, beet-horseradish are my favorites.

Adding bones and even meaty bones to the poaching liquid before the meat will enhance the soup a lot.

Stiring the stew pot with the onions, the spices, the garlic, the tomato paste and the meat for goulash (gulyás) Wiener Saftgulasch Vienna's gravy paprika beef stew

The choice of meat is of the utmost importance: It should not have too much grain but have connective tissues, to produce a great sauce, reminds us Gerd Wolfgang Sievers in the introduction to his Viennese gravy goulash recipe in the well informed "Wiener Beisel Kochbuch". Best use boneless shank or shin, "wadschinken" as both are called in Vienna.