Main Course
Austrian
Sachertorte
Dense chocolate sponge, apricot jam, firm dark chocolate glaze. The recipe is not public. Hotel Sacher Salzburg holds the trademark. Served with unsweetened whipped cream on the side. The traditional instruction is to…
The dish
What Sachertorte actually is
Dense chocolate sponge, apricot jam, firm dark chocolate glaze. The recipe is not public. Hotel Sacher Salzburg holds the trademark. Served with unsweetened whipped cream on the side. The traditional instruction is to eat it without. The traditional practice is to eat it with.
The Story
In 1832, Franz Sacher was sixteen years old and working as an apprentice in a Viennese kitchen when the head chef fell ill and he was asked to produce a dessert for Prince Klemens von Metternich. The cake he made became one of the most replicated and debated objects in culinary history. Franz's son Eduard later refined the recipe at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna, and the cake was established. But the recipe was never published, the Hotel Sacher protected it, and when Demel, a competing Viennese confectionery that claimed its own connection to the family, began selling cakes under a similar name, a legal case that lasted nearly a decade had to decide who owned the Sachertorte.
Hotel Sacher won the right to use "Original Sachertorte." The composition is a dense, not-too-sweet chocolate sponge, split and filled with a thin layer of apricot jam, then enrobed in a firm, mirror-smooth dark chocolate glaze. The apricot jam does two things: it provides a slight fruitiness that breaks the density of the chocolate, and it acts as a barrier coat that gives the glaze something to adhere to. The whole structure is designed to be firm and sliceable, not mousse-like or loose.
Hotel Sacher Salzburg on the banks of the Salzach River serves the same cake under the same trademark. The setting, a grand hotel in a city of baroque architecture, gives the ritual its proper weight: a slice arrives on fine china with a pot of coffee and a small jug of Schlagobers on the side. Eat it however you choose. The tradition of arguing about the cream is part of the experience.
More to cook
Other Salzburg dishes
More dish guides and recipes from the region.
More to cook
Other Salzburg dishes
More dish guides and recipes from the region.
The dish
What Sachertorte actually is
Dense chocolate sponge, apricot jam, firm dark chocolate glaze. The recipe is not public. Hotel Sacher Salzburg holds the trademark. Served with unsweetened whipped cream on the side. The traditional instruction is to eat it without. The traditional practice is to eat it with.
The Story
In 1832, Franz Sacher was sixteen years old and working as an apprentice in a Viennese kitchen when the head chef fell ill and he was asked to produce a dessert for Prince Klemens von Metternich. The cake he made became one of the most replicated and debated objects in culinary history. Franz's son Eduard later refined the recipe at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna, and the cake was established. But the recipe was never published, the Hotel Sacher protected it, and when Demel, a competing Viennese confectionery that claimed its own connection to the family, began selling cakes under a similar name, a legal case that lasted nearly a decade had to decide who owned the Sachertorte.
Hotel Sacher won the right to use "Original Sachertorte." The composition is a dense, not-too-sweet chocolate sponge, split and filled with a thin layer of apricot jam, then enrobed in a firm, mirror-smooth dark chocolate glaze. The apricot jam does two things: it provides a slight fruitiness that breaks the density of the chocolate, and it acts as a barrier coat that gives the glaze something to adhere to. The whole structure is designed to be firm and sliceable, not mousse-like or loose.
Hotel Sacher Salzburg on the banks of the Salzach River serves the same cake under the same trademark. The setting, a grand hotel in a city of baroque architecture, gives the ritual its proper weight: a slice arrives on fine china with a pot of coffee and a small jug of Schlagobers on the side. Eat it however you choose. The tradition of arguing about the cream is part of the experience.
More to cook
Other Salzburg dishes
More dish guides and recipes from the region.
Editor's table
Where we send friends
Restaurants, cafes, and bars Gerhard returns to. Curated, not comprehensive.
Pantry
What grows in the region
One last thing
“Save one evening for Salzburger Nockerl, and order it for two.”
It is the one Salzburg dish I have not shown you a photo of, because a photo cannot do it justice and the ones online are usually someone else’s. Three baked peaks of sweet soufflé dusted with sugar, meant to look like the snow on the city’s three hills. It collapses within minutes, so it is always made fresh and always shared. Get it at a proper restaurant, not a tourist trap, and watch it arrive still trembling. That is the meal people remember.
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