To Set before the King: Katharina Schratt's Festive Recipes (Iowa Szathmary Culinary Arts) (Hardcover)

~ Gertrud G. Champe (Author), Paula von Haimberger Arno (Translator), David E. Schoonover (Foreword), Louis I. Szathmary II (Contributor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Some fancy footwork is done here to link this 1905 collection of Austrian recipes, part of the Iowa Szathmary Culinary Arts Series, to Emperor Franz Joseph I and his longtime friend, the actress Katharina Schratt. Although the notebook containing these recipes has "property of Kath. Schratt" written inside, the recipe writer's identity is unknown, and a leap is made in assuming that these are recipes she would have served to her royal friend. The relationship between Schratt and the emperor is a fascinating one, however. Apparently, his wife hand-picked Schratt to keep him company during her absence, and the actress became his window into the life of his subjects. As for the well-annotated recipes, they are interesting as historical artifacts (particularly the names, many of which, like Cookies a la Sarah Bernhardt and Fillet a la Walter Scott, were given in homage to popular figures of the time). But few readers will rush to whip up Brain Croquettes. However, any fin de siecle Viennese theme party (where guests come dressed as Wittgenstein, Freud and Alma Mahler) would benefit from the cheerful section titled "Bring Vienna to Your Table!" Written by chef Louis Szathmary, it offers suggested menus and a list of mail-order sources.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

For 32 years actress Katharina Schratt was friend, companion, and confidante to Franz Joseph I, emperor of Austria and king of Hungary. Written in 1905, Katharina's kitchen notebook contains over 200 recipes for soups, appetizers, main dishes, and a wealth of desserts, ices, and punches. It is a concrete remnant from the paradoxical world of turn-of-the-century Vienna. 15 photos.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 236 pages
• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press; First Edition, First Printing edition (April 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087745535X
• ISBN-13: 978-0877455356
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,497,839 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful culinary guide to Old Vienna, October 2, 2000

By	F. Orion Pozo "Orion Pozo" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is fun to read on three levels. First it has a short biography of Katharina Schratt, the close friend and confidant of Emperor Franz Josef in 19th Century Vienna for over 30 years. This is a great story of a relationship that is legendary and inspirational - the original story of the Emperor and the actress. Following this are two completely different but complimentary cookbooks on 19th Century Viennese cooking. One is a translation of recipes used by Schratt and hand-copied into a notebook in 1905. These are brief and somewhat difficult for the modern reader to understand because they were never intended for publication and they are from a different time and place. To help the modern reader 13 pages of notes bring these recipes to life. Yet still, they will challenge all but the most experienced Austrian cooks. The second cookbook is called Bring Vienna to Your Table! and includes modern versions of many of the classic recipes of Old Vienna. In this section you will find all the famous dishes that make Viennese cooking world-renowned: strudel, Linzer torte, gugelhupf, stuffed cabbage, creamed spinach, rice sausages, goulash, tafelspitz, dumplings, spaetzle, and croustades. All the recipes are easy to follow. These are the real thing and not for those on a diet. Treat yourself to a little of Old Vienna and read this book. You may find yourself in the kitchen like I did with my mouth watering and ready to cook.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hungarian cooking, December 17, 2001

By A Customer

While lots of the cooking recepies outdated, the baking recepies still alive. I do not agree with the listings of so many gulash recepies, there are a lot bigger variety of the astro-hungarian cooking. Anyway I do love the book, there are many old treasures can be revived and used in the every day cooking. The baking is an other story. From the cresent recepie I was able to recreate my Grandmother's chesnut filled cresents, which she used to make for every Christmas. The walnut filling is missing some presoaked raisins, or without it the filling will be too dry. The linzer recepie will need more sour cream too, or the dough will be too dry. These are wonderfull old recepies, all should be treasured by all of us.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent from all perspectives, historical, biographical and cooking, June 22, 2006

By	Amalfi Coast Girl (Mid-Atlantic, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

A passionate home cook that has been honing her cooking skills for the last 25 years, concentrating on Italian cooking for the last 10 years, writes this review. My favorite cookbooks are "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute and "Culinary Artistry". With more than 500 cookbooks in my collection I am usually disappointed in my recent cookbook acquisitions. This particular book is on loan from an Austrian friend, whose two brothers are chefs in Austria.

The book is outlines as follows:
1. Introduction: Katarina Schratt
2. Cookbook, 1905
3. Notes
4. Bring Vienna to your table.

Before I review the book, I must say that if you are on a diet, this is not the book for you. I think that you could gain weight just reading this book. However, if you are a fan of good food, especially desserts, WOW what a book!

The first chapter tells about the life of actress Katarina Schratt and her 32-year relationship with the married Franz Joseph I, emperor of Austria and King of Hungary that was arranged by the king's wife. I had never heard of Katarina Schratt, but her life story is fascinating, and well worth a read.

The 1905 Cookbook belonged to Katarina Schratt for use in her own home, and was never meant to be published as a cookbook. If you are a very accomplished cook, you could follow her recipes. Otherwise, just move to the last chapter where the directions are much more detailed.

The modernized versions of the recipes from 1905 cookbook begin on page 132 of the book. These recipes are subdivided as follows:

Hors d'Oeuvres
Soups
Vegetables
Main Dishes
Egg Dishes
Desserts and Pastries

The directions in the modernized recipes are good enough to reproduce reasonable facsimiles of Austrian recipes even without a good knowledge of Austrian cooking. My exposure to Austrian cooking is based mostly on my knowledge of the cooking of Trieste in Italy (which was part of Austrian until 1920). Even with this limited knowledge of Austrian cooking I find the recipes easy to follow.

The book provides recipes for the standards: Spaetzle, Snowballs, Vanilla Crescent Cookies, Gugelhupf, Linzer Torte, Strudel,and Sacher Torte to name a few classics.

Reading this book makes me hungry. The dessert recipes, although a cardiologist's nightmare, are a gastronomic delight.

Overall, I would recommend adding this book to your cooking library if you love good food, history or biography's. The stories about Katarina's life make for a fascinating read. The recipes that she used in 1905 are a nice look into the past. Finally, if you love good food, and particularly dessert, you can't go wrong by adding this book to your cookbook library. I borrowed this book from a friend, but I will be adding a copy to my own library of cookbooks.