For another Chocolate cake recipe and the history of Birthday cake check out this video: ua-cam.com/video/ENJbVgjFwF0/v-deo.htmlsi=qzjY4cYtGCD2GAqI Don't forget to Like and Subscribe, and see some of you at the next Book Tour stop! LINKS TO THE TOUR (Reservations required at some events) Oct 19, 7pm ET -- Atlanta/Decatur, GA Eagle Eye Bookshop eagleeyebooks.com/event/2023-10-19 Oct 23, 6:30pm CT -- Chicago/Evanston, IL Bookends and Beginnings www.bookendsandbeginnings.com/event/tasting-history-max-miller
Hi Max! Saw you at the BBF (I am the former army aviator who loves your military history videos). I meant to say "Thank you" but got all flustered. So thank you, and I can't wait for your upcoming series!
Захер конечно классный торт, но мне всегда больше нравилась его советско-российский вариант Прага (торт). Было бы классно увидеть видео о таком переосмыслении классического десерта)
Gotta love Max visiting Vienna and putting on his best social graces, only to return home and casually mention he cooked a better Sacher cake than the two cafes that claim the original recipe, thus unwittingly declaring war on the Republic of Austria
@@matthewcox7985 "Sir! The pants seems can't take much more until the buttons start snapping!" "Tighten the belt!" "But sir, there's still so much more cake to eat! Tightening the belt will just make it harder to eat mo-" "Have faith in your fellow cake connoisseurs and their appetites! They will endure, and so shall their belts!"
And it’s not only translating from German to English. The book is written in Fraktur, a font that that isn’t used or taught since 1940. So hardly anyone here in Austria can read it.
Fracktur type face isn't that hard once you get the hang of it. The cursive version is illegible. My college German instructur said it would take her hours to read letters from older family back in Germany. @@mneumayr
I made a Sachertorte once for my ex husband's grandfather, who was originally from Vienna and came over during the war. It was one of my greatest compliments as a cook to hear him say, "Mr. Sacher himself couldn't have made such a delicious cake!" I always think of him when I see this scrumptious treat.
I absolutely love the idea that max collects viewers all over the world and can go on exploration tours all over the world always having translators...
@@TastingHistory The only difference is that if I remember correctly she used to mix the chocolate with coffee and not water. Still I will be making her cake very soon. Many thanks
Yolks for me is "YOwks." The "l" blends in, but it's slightly there in the back of my throat. Instead of the L coming from tongue tip on palette, it's made with the back of my tongue on soft palette. Helpful, I know. 😁
@@jackoftrades80homeCoffee is often added to chocolate desserts to deepen the richness of the chocolate so I’ll bet that it’s the best sachertorte ever!
I wanted to make the recipe and transcribed it in a google doc so I decided to add it to comments to make it a bit easier if anybody else wanted to try it out too. :) Cake: 150g (10 ½ tbsp, about 5.3oz) bittersweet chocolate (at least 60% cacao) 2 tsp vanilla 150g (10 ½ tbsp) unsalted butter ½ tsp salt 150g (¾ cup) sugar 6 egg yolks 6 egg whites 150g (1 ¼ cups) sifted flour Glaze: 80g (about 3 oz) chocolate* 150g (¾ cup) sugar 115g water (½ cup) Other: About 1 cup (roughly 340g) apricot jam Directions for the cake: 1) Melt chocolate over double boiler 2) Cool slightly, beat in butter until smooth 3) Add egg yolks and beat until combined 4) Add the sugar in thirds and beat for 4-5 minutes once fully added until smooth and light 5) In a separate bowl whip egg whites to stiff peaks 6) Gently and gradually fold in the whipped egg whites until almost no streaks remain 7) Gently fold in the flour about a third at a time until just fully combined 8) Pour batter in a 9” springform pan that has been lined with parchment paper and smooth the top 9) Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit (175 degrees celsius) for 30 minutes 10) Let cake cool for 10 minutes in pan before inverting on a rack to finish cooling completely Directions for glaze: 1) Melt chocolate the same as before 2) In a separate pot dissolve 150g sugar in ½ cup or about 115 grams of water and bring it to a simmer 3) Add the chocolate to the pot of simmering sugar water and mix until smooth (about 5 minutes). It will separate at first but will eventually come together with enough stirring Directions for Assembly: 1) Warm the apricot jam and pass it through a sieve to ensure it is smooth and spreadable 2) Slice the cake in half and spread half the jam on one of the halves before stacking the other half on top 3) Spread the remaining jam on the top layer of the cake 4) Pour over and carefully spread the chocolate glaze on top of the layered cake after it comes together Serve with unsweetened whipped cream and enjoy :) * I couldn't find an equivalent for tablespoons of chocolate that made sense, so instead I opted to add ounces as many baking chocolate bars are sold in amounts listed in ounces
My best friend, who is a professional pastry chef, made me a Sacher cake on my birthday some years ago, she knows I'm an absolute fan of chocolate and she made it all from scratch for me, it still to this day THE BEST CAKE I'VE EVER HAD, Thank you so much for remind me of it!
I had this as a wedding cake decorated with fresh flowers. The wedding was at an exclusive boutique hotel with a ridiculously luxurious restaurant, and they provided all of the catering. I asked if they could do the cake too. The pastry chef was right on the edge of an “absolutely not” until he heard what we wanted. Turns out his grandmother in Austria sent them an authentic Sacher Torte every Christmas when he lived in Germany. He was so touched and happy. The guy absolutely went to town on that cake and it was so beautiful.
As a viennese person I don’t like Sachertorte that much, because like you said it’s often just too dry. However my grandma makes the best Sacherschnitten! So basically Sachertorte in the shape of brownies. I believe she adds some ground hazelnuts to the dough and a lot of selfmade jam under the chocolate glaze, which makes it juicer. I love her variation, she must use a similar recipe to yours because it’s not dry at all. And for Easter she makes Sachertorte in the shape of a lamb :)
Did you notice that in that book Austrian cuisine was considered part of south German cuisine? That's because Austria is German. Starting from its birth, which occurred through the Bavarian colonization of previously Slavic lands, Austria was always part of the Kingdom of Germany until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. And even after that it continued to be part of the German Confederation. Any objection based on the weakness of these state entities is invalid, since it is only evidence of the political weakness of Germany, certainly not of its non-existence. Continuing, even after the foundation of the German Empire, the Austrian emperor himself continued undaunted to consider himself a German prince, given that Austria's failure to enter the unitary German state was certainly not due to a non-Germanness of Austria itself, but rather to the presence also of vast non-German areas within the empire, areas which, remember, all separated from Austria. And in fact, once the war was over, everyone thought that, since these regions had gone their own way, there was no longer any reason to remain separated from the rest of the Germans. It was the victorious allies, that is, Austria's enemies themselves, who prevented it. Therefore the very idea of Austria as an independent nation is a ridiculous invention of Austria's enemies, which has no historical or ethnic justification, but which was only useful to them to maintain their domination. The only reason why Austrians developed a separate identity is to distance themselves from what they perceived as Nazi ideals. But: 1) the problematic aspects of Nazism don’t include pan-Germanism, which was supported even by many interwar socialists; 2) it’s an irrational reaction not based on actual facts.
Would she be willing to share her recipe? I am an American living in Graz, and I love everything about Sachertorte except how dry it usually is (I do think it ironic that the version by that major chain cake shop in Vienna is far superior to Cafe Sacher's).
@@AlexanderLittlebears What kingdom of Germany? The HRE was lead by Austria. I dont think you understand any of this. the german nation state and its identity is new not anything else.
First time I'm commenting here, with a tale about my mother's experience with this delicious cake. My mum and dad were in Austria in 1971, years before I was born. My dad was from Austria so he wanted to show his Swedish girlfriend to his parents. Among the things she got to eat was this cake from the hotel where it was baked. My mum wanted a slice to bring home to her parents so they made a little packet for her. All went well as they made their way back to Sweden, until they came to the Swedish border customs. You see, the Swedish board for agriculture at the time wanted to know ALL ingredients in the cake, and Hotel Sacher has a recipe which is top secret. They went back and forth on this matter for four weeks, with the poor cake frozen at the customs. When they got to bring it home it was stale and old, but still rather tasty.
The best Sachertorte, I have eaten is handmade by my mother. And the cake is never dry, but deliciously soft. The combination of chocolate, apricote jam and cake is pure heaven. Advise from an Austrian, make yourself a Sachertorte, you won’t regret it. Greetings from Vienna 🇦🇹😊
Amen I lived in Wien for 2 years. Ate Sachertorte at the hotel. Came home to South Africa and got married. My sister made Sachertorte for my wedding and it was amazing. Nothing beats fresh, homemade cake!
My grandparents brought us a sacher torte one year for the holidays when I was maybe 8. The leftover box became 8 yo mes treasure box and still holds all my tiny treasures. Since then, my grandma made it every year (a version with toasted ground hazelnuts) she passed on Friday so this video was a nice little surprise.
I am Austrian and while I don't live in Vienna, I had many Sachertorten in my life bacause you can get it pretty much at every cafe. Your description of the Hotel Sacher Sachertorte sounded exactly how I would describe the typical "bad" Sachertorte.
@@sazji * sigh * I lived in Seattle during the days of Pacific Dessert Company, and found their Chocolate Decadence cake to be the ultimate choc dessert. We moved in '92, and they closed ten years later. I see, in searching for the recipe, that Chef John has what looks like the closest approximation. If I bake again, I may try it.
I also heard rumours, that they kept the typical dryness until today - which could be easily be overcome with modern ingredients - was because of the worldwide shipping. Since they mostly ship der cakes, they had to make sure, they arrive well and in a similar condition as in the Cafe. By keeping it dry, it took much longer to get rotten and arrived in a more "fresh" condition. And after living in vienna for about five years, I can say: the best Sacher cakes are the ones, that don´t claim to be the original. Also for another austrian themed dessert-video: Salzburger Nockerl.
I think the og version is tasty I take a slice home and let it sit in the fridge overnight, makes it less dry and more saturated (idk if that’s the right word, non native English speaker) and ofc whipped cream with it
As a poor student in uni, a colleague, who had rich parents, would come to mine once a week and bring two slices of sachertorte and I'd make some strong coffee. It was one of my rare treats which I am reminded of every time I see this in a cafe.
I graduated as a pastry chef in Budapest in 2021, and Sachertorte was one of the things we had to bake during the final exams. We only applied one layer of jam and the chocolate glaze had a slightly different composition, but otherwise it was the same recipe. Fascinating to see how history carries on. Great video as always!
NOW... Max needs to go to Budapest, and learn the history of (and sample!) Dobos Torte... (the one with the hard caramel float on top!) József Dobos was the first to use chocolate buttercream in a dessert.
@@oldfrend It was dense for sure, but nowhere near dry, so I'd say it was closer to Max's results. Far be it from me to think I have the right to say how to bake Sachertorte, but in my (admittedly limited) experience it should never be dry, because of the fat we introduce to the batter (in the form of butter). So considering the way I have learned it, it should be more like his version, and not how he got it in Vienna, crazy as it sounds.
I'm no chef and I don't have pastry hands, but my yeast dough turns out pretty well. And now I have to visit Budapest to get the real authentic hungarian pastry. Or the cuisine in general.
Honestly - Austria deserves its own series of videos. There are so many delicious cakes and cookies, not to mention the soups and boiled dishes with meat. Amazing video, thanks for the info!
That smile and little finger he puts up when he declares his cake the best absolutely warms my heart. Like he's whispering a secret, but to all the viewers.
For the yolk pronunciation-I think either is fine, it just depends on your region/accent. Imo one of the hardest aspects of English is not just how inconsistent our pronunciation rules are, but how much they can vary from place to place. I imagine it’s especially tricky for a German speaker, since it’s one of those languages where every single letter gets pronounced
I doubt German is a language that pronounces every letter, but english's varying accents do make it hard to understand sometimes. Might be easier to speak english in bavaria and german, french or something else in scotland...
@@MrDorn123having learned German, no seriously, every letter is always pronounced. If there's a dialect with a different pronunciation, it also spells it differently.
@@TheShicksinator What about the "h" in Thron? Or after a vowel like in Sarah or Rahm? Or the "e" in the village "Laer" (which is pronounced like "Lar")?
Arent the r's at the end of words not pronounces like the British do? Not that I would know, I just know some of their words like papier (paper) or schnauzer its not pronounced.
@@MrDorn123 Sarah is Hebrew loanword, Laer is a diphtong, Thron is probably related to the archaiac letter Thorn. Not very modern German. But your point remains valid.
I am from Vienna, and while I certainly prefer getting this cake from other cafes in the city than from the house Sacher, it is important to keep in mind that their claimed "original" recipe is created for preservation I am sure. The super thick chocolate crust rather than a traditional smooth coating gives stability, and the cake itself is rather dry so it doesn't become soggy. I am not sure if this is for accommodating the tourists taking the Sacher OG cakes as a souvenir to their homecountry, but I remember that they preserve for quite long. I don't think this has been confirmed by Sacher itself, but my social circle agrees that there must be a reason that their cake version is so different from other Austrian establishments. So, I am sure your home-baked version is very enjoyable! :) Love your videos
House Sacher has an Option for Delivery - i think its even World Wide, so they have to be self preserveable. I doubt that they have the Recipe for the Original, maybe its lost for ever, maybe it's still in the Family of Franz Sacher, who knows. Sadly the Sachertorte isn't a Trademark, so everyone can use it, as they see fit.
I agree. I found the original Sacher rather like a cheesecake in texture and it left a "sticky" palate, to be honest, rather than a moist tender chocolate batter type.
@@Atztec1 Hey, as a Czech I'm glad it's not a trademark because it means I can have a pretty good version in a café right here. And it means anyone can have a good version if they choose to instead of going "they changed the recipe and now it sucks and we'll never experience a good Sachertorte ever again!" As only too often happens with trademarked food products.
@@beth12svist Trademarked Sacher Torte would be better, so they Family could adverdise with it for beeing the original one and you and everbody else can still make the recipe and sell it under a different name, like the viennese Schnitzel can only be called like that if its the right meat, every other schnitzel needs to be called different. (Dont know how its spelled in english, in german its "Schnitzel wiener art"
I have been living in Vienna for well over a decade now, and I learned quite a lot! Also, your German pronunciation of all the terms is pretty much spot on, with one exception: we actually do pronounce the final e in Sachertorte.
@@BoodlumsIt's a schwa, which is also the most common sound in the English language. The schwa is what you get if you stress and pronounce a vowel so little that it nearly, but not completely (the "o" in completely usually goes schwa), disappears. Sadly, it has no written form, but instead, people write the vowel they'd use if they were comically overpronouncing the word. Also, it is "tor-te". No "rt" sound in there.
@@corvid... yea it is wild the growth he had, seems like yesterday he had 50k in his old kitchen talking about butterbeer from the tudor age. And not just the subs every video has like 500k to a million viewers, some very wel over a million.
Man, I almost want to shed a tear at how good at cooking you've become. I remember in the early days you seemed a little lost around the kitchen. Now you're hitting perfect 10s on pastries? Well done Max, you've done me proud.
Max, thank you for your selfless sacrifices in the pursuit of knowledge. Ordering four desserts per meal in Austria must have been a terrible fate to endure. I am glad you survived the ordeal! I appreciated the history lesson as well. The Austrian Supreme Court Sacher case was the first attempt at true torte reform.
@@kathleenhensley5951 The trick is to go to the toilet directly after eating and regurgitate. This way, you can even taste every pastry twice and without bad conscience!
If you leave Vienna without having tried every single pastry there is, you've probably angered the pastry gods and given yourself a good excuse to come back for amends!
This is hands down the best channel about the history of food I've ever seen, I'm glad to live in a timeline where this exists. Your work is simply impecable, Max! Love it with all my heart!!
Living in Vienna, the best Sacher Torte you can get is in the small bakeries, where they use their own (usually great-grandma's) recipe. As you noticed yourself by making your own 🙂At the Cafe Sacher the Torte is seldom fresh these days - they freeze it - and that makes it dry and the coverture hard.
If you're ever in Poland for a food history investigation reason (or just visiting), go to restaurant called Epoka. The owner/main chef is a food history buff and the restaurant is themed around old Polish recipes (though with a modern twist).
as a Dutch person my dad used to make this every single birthday, with layers of whip cream (and very Dutch chocolate sprinkles) and also apricot brandy and apricot spread. It was by far my favourite cake ever and never knew it was from Vienna till a year or so ago, no idea why my dad or his mom started making it so often but its a lovely cake for sure
Same here in Czech with "šlehačka" - although technically the liquid version is sold as "smetana na šlehání". Rather obviously, we were part of one country once upon a time. 😅
As a lifelong Viennese, for me this video is by far the most personal of yours yet! I'm glad you seem to have enjoyed your trip, and all things considered you did great on your pronunciation! I was especially impressed with Schlagobers and Metternich's name! Just a small tip for the future, since you seem to be trying to get things as correct as possible: A more accurate pronunciation of Torte would be "tor-teh" in Hochdeutsch, with the Ts morphing more into Ds the more Viennese you get. They're two distinct syllables. I hope this helps in case you cover any more Torten in the future! Regardless of my nitpicking, I loved the video and I agree with your assessment that Original Sachertorte doesn't hold a candle to a great homemade one, or ones made by smaller bakeries/confectioneries!
I used to work here in the UK for a Viennese woman. She’s a direct descendant of Viennese aristocracy and she taught me quite a few recipes ( half the street pops in for a coffee when I make cake!!!) from her homeland, and told me it would almost be an insult to her birthright for her not to be able to bake a Viennese chocolate torte. She’s a wonderful cook, with a tiny but beautiful and immaculate little kitchen in her little home crammed full of antiquities and family history. Every time I would visit there was always chocolate cake and several other pastries/desserts to tempt one’s tastebuds. She’d always insist that if I was in need of food sustenance and hydration I should just help myself. So delightful for a domestic help to be treated to ‘elevenses’ at precisely 11am to a mouthwatering pastry/dessert and an alcoholic beverage like a gin and tonic, Pimm’s or a warming hot toddy (always welcome on a cold winter’s day!) of some kind. I’ve learnt from her that the Viennese not only eat for sustenance but food is to be enjoyed, shared and savoured among friends and loved ones. Every mouthful is made with love and to share such sublimity is a truly wonderful gesture and experience.💞🇬🇧
Yeah it stuck out to me too as his pronunciation is otherwise (as in all his videos) pretty good. I actually live in a German city ending with -e and my own parents (who aren't German) just can't get their heads around the fact that you need to pronounce the -e in German.
Thanks for clarifying the pronunciation. I come from an Austro-Hungarian family, but never actually learned German. I do remember my dad and grandma pronouncing the "e" though.
If anyone is interested in the recipe in writing form (like I did): Venetian chocolate cake Cake: 10 ½ Tbsp (150g) bittersweet chocolate (> 60%) 2 Tsp vanilla 10 ½ Tbsp unsalted butter ½ Tsp salt ¾ cup (150g) sugar 6 egg yolks 6 egg whites 1 ¼ cup (150g) sifted flour 1 cup apricot jam Chocolate glaze: 80g chocolate ¾ cup (150g) sugar To do: 1. Melt chocolate over double boiler 2. Once melted, take off and whisk in the butter 3. Whisk in egg yolks until combined 4. Whisk in the salt & vanilla 5. Whisk in the sugar, in about ⅓ at a time. Mix for 4~5 minutes 6. Separately, whisk egg whites until fairly stiff peaks are formed 7. Add egg whites, about ⅓ at a time, and fold in using a spatula. Keep doing until no white streaks remain, but gently, preserving the air in the mixture 8. Add in flour, about ⅓ at a time, and fold until no flour clumps are seen 9. Line a 9" spring form pan at the base with parchment paper. Pour in the batter, smooth the top 10. Place into a 350F oven for 30 minutes 11. Once done, allow to cool inside the pan for 10 minutes 12. Remove the ring, flip the cake, remove the base pan and allow the cake to cool completely. Jam: 1. Smoothen the jam by warming it up on the stove, pass it through a sieve, and allow to cool Glaze: 1. Melt chocolate over double boiler 2. Mix 150g of sugar with ½ cup of water and bring to a simmer 3. Add the chocolate, and keep stirring over a medium-low heat until fully combined (about 5 minutes) and smooth Assembly 1. Cut the cake into 2 pieces 2. Apply ½ the jam on each layer 3. Apply the glaze, allowing it to drip down the side
I've had the privilege of eating one of these actually in Austria, albeit nowhere near Vienna, and I can say Max, definitely nailed it. From side project for covids sake for a Disney employee, to two mil subs. What an amazing journey you are on man. Proud of you 😎
fun fact: Schlagobers is just the normal Austrian word for whipped cream, it's not unique to the Sachertorte but rather the general term for whipped cream
My family always called it Schlagsahne. Wonder if that's a German vs. Austrian thing. Or maybe a "your family emigrated 100 years ago" vs. German/Austrian thing.
@@Raptorworld22 I dunno...is it really just a US thing or more of a "modern prepackaged thing"? You can make your own whipped cream however you like...but most commonly available brands of ready to go whipped cream is sweetened. Do you have cans of whipped cream that can just spray out instant whipped cream?
I am Viennese and I absolutely love Sachertorte! (which is more pronounced tor-tay rather than tort btw). But the sort-of-too-hard glacing has a charme of its own - it's a nice counter texture to the soft (and ideally not too dry) inside of the cake - it's like having a cake and a piece of chocolate at the same time. and the Marillenmarmelade (apricot jam) is the extra beauty, like the third corner in the the triangle of cake-glacing-jam. slightly less sweet / more acidic apricot jam works best! edit: this is more a general view on how and why I like Sachertorte and not to defend the Sacher-Sachertorte (which doesn't really suck, but there are much better - but also worse - ones to be found).
Yeah, from a brief glimpse in the video, the Demel cake (which at least was 4 out of 5 mustaches) was 41 Euro (about 43 USD now) per cake. Which is a lot of money for a short, dry, hard chocolate cake.
This episode brings back such sweet memories for me. When I was a child in the late 60’s - early ‘70’s my parents took us (5 kids) on a few trips to Europe. We traveled around in a VW van they purchased and stopped in Vienna for hot chocolate at Demels. Thank you for the reminder. Lovely episode.
We as a family ordered a slice of alot of the gorgeous cakes, accompanied by all the different types of hot chocolate and coffee drinks. The waiter was absolutely enchanted with us and we with him and all of the bakers who prepare this delicious fare. Going to Vienna was well worth it.
The cream you always get with it is rather important. The classic way of eating the cake is having some cream on every bite you eat. That compensates for the dryness and is basically the intended experience. At least I've never seen anybody eat Sacher Torte in Vienna without doing that, including myself.
You know what, I am a HUGE, lifelong Beatles nerd, It is a rare moment when I actually learn something new… and I was not expecting to have a new piece of trivia under my belt, from a UA-cam cooking channel of all places, but here we are! So THIS was the chocolate cake in a bag! Now I have to try it.
Great video as always. Besides being a lover of historical recipes, I happen to also be a linguist, and regarding your comments at 5:00- the English word "yolk" is (in the General American dialect) traditionally pronounced /joʊk/ (and is therefore homophonous with the unrelated word "yoke"). With that being said, a pronunciation of the word as /joʊlk/ or /jɔlk/ (i.e. saying the 'l' sound) is possible in some dialects/sociolects. It tends to be common only among younger speakers (and by "younger" I mean people under 40 years old or so). This is actually an example of a gradual trend that can be observed in the evolution of our language- orthographic/etymological pronunciation slowly becoming common (that is, saying a word the way it is written, even though the spelling may only indicate the way the word was pronounced in a previous historical stage of the language). The same phenomenon can be observed/heard with the similar word "folk" which is traditionally pronounced /foʊk/ (as if it were spelled "foke"), and should therefore rhyme with "yolk." Indeed, with "folk," the trend has already spread further than with "yolk"- more and more speakers (even older people) now say it as /foʊlk/ or /fɔlk/, even though this pronunciation was only common several centuries ago- in the Old English and Middle English eras- when English pronunciation was closer to its Germanic roots. (compare to modern German "Volk," with a similar pronunciation and meaning). Another example (which, being a food is also particularly relevant to you, Max) is "almond," which is traditionally pronounced /'ɑ.mənd/ (without the 'l' sound), but is often now pronounced as /'ɑl.mənd/ (with the 'l' sound) by a great many speakers (and not at all considered strange). Another which I believe is still in the initial stages of change is "salmon," traditionally pronounced /'sæ.mən/, but now just beginning to be pronounced as /'sæl.mən/ by some speakers (mostly young people), but this one is sometimes considered "odd" when heard by others who are not accustomed to the orthographic pronunciation. The list can go on and on, but it is a natural part of language- all languages evolve and change over time- so who knows? Maybe some day in the near or distant future people will start saying the word "walk" as /wɑlk/ and "talk" as /tɑlk/.
When I was in Vienna, I made a point to try as many different kinds of Sachertorte possible. Some had more layers of cake, some had fewer. Others used a slightly tartar jam. It was a lot of fun :-) The book “The Discovery of Chocolate“ gives an imagined story for how it was invented: The protagonist uses apricot jam to cover up a less-than-desirable chocolate cake, but it’s a hit, and Herr Sacher runs with the idea.
@@1685Violin almost certainly. I have had Sacher torte from Vienna before, and while I was too young to appreciate it fully, I remember well enough to say with confidence that, fig in particular would probably be lovely. A tart raspberry or cherry jam would also kick ass. Apricot jam was just very common, as most apricots back then were turned into jam, and were very common in at least french baking as a light sweetener and binder
@@malcolmthorne9779 I mean, it's hard, but you _can_ do it. Now, from the awful end of the taste spectrum, there's a reason mämmi is usually served with pure cream as the sauce.
19:00 the reason the one you have is softer is because it is fresh. In my experience all of these places that have a reputation for some iconic dish can't handle the scale of the popularity of the dish. So they make in very large batches and store in freezers. They then thaw this out to serve. This means they always have a large ready supply that is resilient to seasonal demand. What it also means is that you always get an old, dry, hard cake, I've seen this all over the world. So yeah, its good to know that its a good cake made fresh, and that may be the most fresh it will ever be eaten.
Sacherica is my father's favourite cake, and my mother always makes it for his birthday. It's NOT dry. And based on this old recipe (kudos for all the work done!) it is not meant to be (I knew it!). The balancing of layers and apricot jam is perfect and nothing extra is needed. Now, I admit I have never tried it in Vienna, but I heard three or four accounts of people who did, and they were all very unimpressed.
I just followed this exact recipe and it turned out AMAZING. I did get some complaints about the cake being too dense, but I guess it's because I was clumsy with the egg whites and ended up beating all the air out. The chocolate glaze method works surprisingly well, I was skeptical about mixing water with chocolate at first, but it turned out better than any chocolate glaze that I've ever made😂 will be using this glaze for my other cakes
Sachertorte needs to be dense, some people prefer it fluffier, but in reality I like the dense version more because it comes closer to the original and gives you more texture to chew on (I actually like the original a lot, it just is somehow different to many tastes now modern given that it stems from the early 19th century no wonder)! I have grown up with it (born and living in Austria) so I have eaten may variants of that cake, and the original one definitely needs to be eaten with whipped cream, in fact it is supposed to be eaten with whipped cream, and no sugar in to the whipped cream, the sugar is in the cake anyway. Btw. the term Schlagobers is an Austrian term for Schlagsahne or Sahne, which is simply whipped cream, it either can be sugary or without, in case of the Sachertorte it definitely needs no additional sugar! But being too dry, thats relative, you probably never have eaten anything sweet coming out of Italy not being tiramisu or Zuppa Inglese, compared to that stuff what normally is eaten in northern Italy as dessert a Sachertorte is a soup! Or in other words it is what it is, and everyone makes it slightly different but every single one tastes good!
While you are at it, you can also try the chocolate 'Chantilly', a chocolate "whipped cream" made of only chocolate and water. The key is to keep whipping until the chocolate recombined, just like Max did here, although for chocolate 'Chantilly' you would whip the bowl of chocolate-water mixture in an ice bath until it looks like whipped cream. It is invented by a French chemist called Hervé This, and featured in the TV show "Kitchen Chemistry with Heston Blumenthal" 🙂
I grew up eating Sachertorte from Bavarian World in Reno (my mom is German), and the cake there was so moist and dense, and delicious, that I've been deeply disappointed with the "official" recipes, which I have tried to make twice now. I will have to try this variation! Thank you for having done this video!
I am 81years old. My grandmother was born in Vienna in 1882 and died at the age of 96. She bequeathed me her recipe for sachertorte. Ground almonds and breadcrumbs. NO FLOUR!! I tried the Sachertorte at Sacher 's in 2008. My Granny's was infinitely better!!
Oh, I’ll have to try this version! We make it similar to hotel sacher, but using the brand “manner” for chocolate (Austrian brand) It’s my non negotiable for baking, other chocolate doesn’t do it for me
I used to work at a cafe baking cakes from scratch and there was this book that was gifted to me "cakes from scratch" and I haven't been able to find the book again but I remember my favorite cake recipe because it was a huge hit at the cafe it's the exact same as this recipe except it has ten egg whites and six yolks and 1/4 cup of espresso and one teaspoon of cayenne pepper and one teaspoon of cinnamon. The name of the cake was Aztec chocolate cake . I used chocolate gnoche for the topping sometimes or just powdered sugar with cinnamon in it. The cake always came out creamy and decadent with the espresso.
This brought back memories! I am not a cake person, but when I was younger, I would make cakes if pressed hard. And my grandmother loved Sachertorte. Her first husband was Austrian, and she had feelings for a lot of traditional Austrian food. Not for that guy at all. So I made her the Sachertorte. Back then, I preferred to just coat it with pure dark chocolate, but I feel it has become harder to find the quality of chocolate needed for that, so it may make sense with the approach you used here. It's as if the current trend is for very bitter and texturally softer chocolates has eliminated the light, crispy type of dark chocolate I could find 30 years ago. Demel used to have some of the best. Maybe I should make a Sachertorte. Recently, I've made mousse au chocolat a couple of times, to my childrens' huge surprise, I stopped doing sweets when no. 1 was born. They would love a cake!
Love the dedication to research, Max! Buying an antique book in a language you don't even speak just to make a cake is real dedication. Also I never heard about using stiff egg whites as a rising agent so that's cool to know.
There are several cakes made that way! Angel food cake is an example that might be more familiar to some. My father's family had a white fruitcake recipe that was leavened with egg whites. That's a much heavier cake, but very tasty when fresh (it dried out easily - I think angel cake does, too). We used to make boiled custard with the yolks, and pour that over the fruitcake. Way too much trouble for me these days, but I remember it fondly.
biscuite/sponge cake is all about that. and I used to make pancakes like that. you can watch them rise in the pan when the air expands from the heat. it's a neat trick to make a cake fluffy. combine all ingrediants exept the egg whites. beat them really stiff. if you cut into the "egg snow" with a sharp knife the cuts should be clean and stay visible. and then fold that under the preexisting mixture of all the other ingrediants. or use a wire wisk. I find that a lot easier than folding it in with a spatular.
The neat thing about beaten egg whites is that they trap air within their own structure, rather than just producing gas like other rising agents. Non-cake examples that come to mind are soufflés, "Kaiserschmarren", and various dessert cremes. Egg snow also makes thick doughs/batters wetter; a lot of the cakes I know start with a heavy, sticky mixture based on butter, yolks, flour, and starch, that gets really creamy when the eggs snow is folded in. For baking, the snow should be just stiff enough so it holds when you flip the bowl upside down (traditionally above your head 😁).
@karowolkenschaufler7659 Kitchen teachings say the whisk will knock too much of the air out of the egg whites. I have never done a comparison test of folding versus whisking, though.
Not whisking with the wire whisk, but stirring in gently and carefully with a kind of folding action, that should work. The wires would act as a series of small blades and get the folding done faster. (🤔must try it..)
Max, I absolutely love that you found a 19th century cookbook and then had a group of people translate it for you, over dinner. I would be so happy to find such a book and then be a part of such an activity- such a nerd! Also, having a few cakes with every meal, perfect! Will definitely take note. And finally, I am going to make this cake, using your recipe, because I am not a fan of dry cakes, nor with chocolate that is hard to cut.
And that actually is the sad thing about Sacher torte, that the one you make at home often times is better than the more "official" ones you get at some bakery... or in your case even compared to the really really official ones from Vienna!
Ok. I ordered a sachertorte for my family to be served for my mom’s birthday (one can schedule the shipping date online), but I’m now tempted to make this recipe to serve alongside the “original Sachertorte” to see which everyone likes better. Considering you noted how dry the hotel’s cake is, and how tough the chocolate glaze, I’m guessing your recipe would be the better of the two.
Most of us actually get "fake" versions from local confectioners because we like it better that way. That said, the two original versions are great too. Making it is fairly easy and fast in comparison to many other cakes, so you definitely should give it a shot!
My mother made this (I helped!) for my birthday in the 70-s. It was an old recipe (she used the old and tried recipes as well as modern ones. She even made Indian dishes back then), and if I remember correctly it was about the same as the one you used! Yes, it turned out lovely!
When I visited Germany and Austria last year we visited my great-aunt about an hour away from Vienna who told us not to go to Cafe Sacher because her homemade cake is better. I can confirm she's right, and this recipe is definitely worth making. It's surprisingly simple and really is a treat
One of my favourite cakes! Seeing you do a video about the cake which dominated the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Dobos torte, would be super interesting!
I remember learning about this dessert a few years ago and thoroughly obsessed with it since. It’s so decadent. And it’s chocolate. And now I’m astral projecting through the idea of dessert.
My grandparents retired to Vienna and I grew up eating sacher torte there... or my mom would make it at home. Like you, my grandmother also swore that both Demel's and the Hotel Sacher weren't that good. She preferred the recipe my mom used (which I still have in a cookbook called "The Cooking of Vienna's Empire" by Joseph Wechsberg-a Time-Life book, lol).
Thank you so much, Max!!! This recipe became the most favourite for me and my mom! Now I'm baking Sachertorte regularly. It's a heavenly taste for chocolate lovers. (And it comes from someone, who didn't like dark chocolate before, only the milk one. You've made me change my mind on this matter.) Your channel is truly a treasure!!!💐
My mom always put apricot jam in the middle of her chocolate cake. She also made her frosting with less butter and some water. I wonder if she ever knew about this cake or how this habit got into our family. 🤫
At 0:01 you can see one of my all-time favourite cakes (middle row, second from the left), the one with the caramelised triangles decorating it. That cake is called dobos (pronounced dough-bosh). To be fair, that one doesn't look like the best example I've ever seen, there was a baker in Adelaide, called Kazy, whose dobos was to die for. The triangles were made of wafer thin hard toffee and supported on a little mound of crème pâtissière. From memory, it's been a long time, the sides of the cake were covered in more crème pâtissière and then coated in chocolate. The cake itself was a multi-layer egg-rich vanilla sponge. Heaven can wait.
Indeed, dobostorta was one of the delights of my childhood in the otherwise rather drab communist 1970es Budapest, Hungary. The inventor's (József Dobos) last name means "drummer" in Hungarian, so, by folk etymology, we referred to the caramel layer at the top as the drum (dob).
Thank you for sharing the original recipe! We have a favourite family cake that we make for every birthday and other such occasions. It looks like a bit of a twist on the Sachertorte. The sugar, egg yolks, beaten egg whites are the same, but instead of the chocolate there is cocoa, instead of flour there is semolina, and to make it less dry there are apples (very finely grated). We use red currant jam instead of apricot, the chocolate icing is made by melting dark chocolate and butter, sometimes also with heavy cream, that depends on the mood. We put the "Schlagobers" directly on the cake, a lot of it. It's so good and light that it instantly disappears as soon as it appears on the table :D
This episode had me smiling…LOVED the german cookbook translation crowdsourcing with fans over dinner! My wife brought me home a torte from the hotel …I too found it unexpectedly dry. Glad your version was great! Eating your way through Vienna sounds like my kind of trip!
My godfather that lived in Austria actually sent me one of these cakes as a wedding present. I was neet to remember him today when watching this episode! Thank you!
I love that you had to be in Vienna to find the antique bookstore, to find the recipe, to tell us the history. That is dedication beyond compare! And much more interesting too!
As someone who also visited Austria recently (including Vienna), I can say that eating as much pastries and ice creams as possible is a must. It's part of the cultural experience.
I like to think of English as the “close enough” language when it comes to pronunciation because there are just so many different places where it’s spoken.
Indeed! I used to play video games with a Swedish friend who already knew English but was trying to get better at it. And I'd say for 75% of the words he'd wonder which way was the way to pronounce them, I'd just have to say "either way is right". No one would bat an eye if you did or did not pronounce the L in "yolks" and it's like that for sooo many words. A ton of native English speakers (at least in the US) don't even realize how they're pronouncing something unless someone specifically asks and then you have to sit and think about it, lol.
I think I do at least attempt to pronounce the L, though it's a back of the tongue, American style L, and mostly flattens the vowel. Certainly the vowel in yoke is distinctly different. However, I lost a good deal of my hearing at about the age of four, with no hearing aids until ten years later, and also learned quite a lot of vocabulary from reading, so my pronunciations are somewhat suspect.
As a Viennese person, I actually found this super interesting. I can't really eat jam because of texture but Sachertorte is one of the times where it doesn't bother me. I prefer to eat it with whipped cream, if possible unsweetened - it really balances out the density and sugary glaze. Did you try any Punschkrapfen while you were there? They're kind of a seasonal staple in Austria and shops will often change the iconic pink icing to other colours to match the season - orange for Halloween, white for Christmas, pastels for easter - and pipe little decoration on top.
Going from one eatery to the next in Vienna ordering sacher torte slices is one fantastic empirical study sounds like an excellent way to spend your time!
Thank you very much for the recipe, it was very interesting. On the second try, I discovered that using 3 egg yolks instead of 6 made the cake softer. Another change for those who don't like apricot jem, I suggest replacing it with another ingredient of your choice. I tried changing it to Brigadeiro and it was very good and more moist due to the brigadeiro (to make: 1 can of condensed milk, 4 tablespoons of chocolate powder or chocolate powder, 1 tablespoon of margarine, stir in medium heat until soft jam point).
This is why I love Tasting History. Some videos you’ll get the history of a very specific food that I’ve never even heard of and others you’ll get the history of the Olympics it’s awesome!
he's 40, so his metabolism has definitely shifted already, at least a bit. I think it's just a controlled diet; in another video, the one on the Georgian diet fad (milk soup), he mentioned his struggles to keep his weight under control as it always went up and down @@Erewhon2024
My mum (born 1926) cooked in the KuK tradition (she was from Bohemia) and this is just like she baked her Sachertorte :) though she replaced the cholocate glazing (with the sugar water) for simplicity later with ready bought couverture.
@@adedow1333 Now we are coming to a language barrier. Couverture (Kuvertüre) in German is usually semi bitter chocolate with a higher cocoa butter content (at least 31%) than usual chocolate (around 18%). There is couverture with a cocoa butter content as high as 50%. And a rather high cocoa content as well. Fondant in German is a kind of sugar icing. I really don't know what they are in English. But fonfant would never be used for Sachertorte. As far as I know, it was not very common in German baking until a few years ago. Due to its difficult use it was usually restricted to pastry shops (which is a whole different profession to baker). My mum used a semi bitter couverture for Sachertorte.
What a lovely episode, and a YES to the "great Prato" every time! As an Austrian: I hardly know people who really like the "original" Demel or Sacher Sacher Torte, usually the recipe is tweaked to get a less sweet, less dry version. Yours looks perfect, I definitely have to make it with the Prato recipe soon. PS: Congratulations on your pronunciation, the hints of Austrian German put a smile on my face. PPS: By definition, a Viennese waiter is annoyed, no matter what or how much you order.
Fun fact: I'm a descendant of Demel family which I learned a few years ago, visited Vienna and went to cafe Demel where staff was very nice and let me see their museum part, also I ate some amazing pastries there 😋
Schlagobers the ballet is known as Whipped Cream stateside and has an excellent production by ABT in New York. It has amazing set and costume design inspired by the pop surrealist painter Mark Ryden. Highly recommend!!!
Hey it is a video about the city I work in and live a few km from. But the Sachertorte may be the mainstay there are other deserts in Austria that you can't overlook. The Esterhazy-Schnitte, Apfelkuchen, Apfelstrudel, Annatorte, Ribiselschaumschnitte, Schomlauer Nockerl, Cremeschnitten, Schoko-Moussetorte von Oberlaa, Zitronentarte and many many more. Also there are some fun sweet main dishes in Austria like Kletzennudel, Kaiserschmarren and other fun stuff.
@@jeffreyharris3440 Both exist: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schomlauer_Nockerl and www.mehlspeiskultur.at/c/ribiselschaumschnitten-1 the first one is even more famous in hungary and the second one has many variants of it.
I'm a 29 year old Austrian guy. Sachertorte is my absolute favorite, and I have it on my birthday every year! It looks like you've done a great job. Apricot jam directly under the chocolate glaze is not the way that I know it, but i suppose it could help with keeping the glaze from setting too much. I think that might be the reason for the dryness complaints that many seem to share, so maybe your Sachertorte also tastes the best to you because it is the freshest. Personally, I agree that it's a very dense Torte, but I've never found it particularly dry. Great video :)
I changed apricot for cherry jam (I just love chocolate cakes with cherries) with rum and moisturized the cake a little bit with tea combined with rum. It was super tasty.
Ii loved the history of John and Yoko clearing up the song lyrics! Some of the storiies in the comments are pretty incredible too! Food is so much more than just what we eat!🥰
Fun fact! There is an area in Austria called the Wachau where, in summer, apricots grow in huge quantities and are used for wonderful dumplings, liqueurs, schnapps and more.
For another Chocolate cake recipe and the history of Birthday cake check out this video: ua-cam.com/video/ENJbVgjFwF0/v-deo.htmlsi=qzjY4cYtGCD2GAqI
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Great video, but the e at the end of words in German isnt silent. So it's SachertortE, just a tip to instantly improve your pronounciation tenfold.
Hi Max! Saw you at the BBF (I am the former army aviator who loves your military history videos). I meant to say "Thank you" but got all flustered. So thank you, and I can't wait for your upcoming series!
144p 👍
Захер конечно классный торт, но мне всегда больше нравилась его советско-российский вариант Прага (торт). Было бы классно увидеть видео о таком переосмыслении классического десерта)
Please, try cake "Prague", which is like Sacher, but more moist & therefore melting in the mouth.
Gotta love Max visiting Vienna and putting on his best social graces, only to return home and casually mention he cooked a better Sacher cake than the two cafes that claim the original recipe, thus unwittingly declaring war on the Republic of Austria
😂😂😂It's awesome, right?!!!
The only casualties are the waistlines of those involved. 🤣
@@Scattaminkey Our knees shall buckle, and our belts won't!
@@matthewcox7985 That, sir, is BRILLIANT!
@@matthewcox7985
"Sir! The pants seems can't take much more until the buttons start snapping!"
"Tighten the belt!"
"But sir, there's still so much more cake to eat! Tightening the belt will just make it harder to eat mo-"
"Have faith in your fellow cake connoisseurs and their appetites! They will endure, and so shall their belts!"
Man, the photo of all the people gathered around the book and translating it is so wholesome.
it could be a modern renaissance painting
@@OlEgSaS32
"The Book Translation of Chef Max Miller" by Rembrandt
And it’s not only translating from German to English. The book is written in Fraktur, a font that that isn’t used or taught since 1940. So hardly anyone here in Austria can read it.
and so Austrian
Fracktur type face isn't that hard once you get the hang of it. The cursive version is illegible. My college German instructur said it would take her hours to read letters from older family back in Germany. @@mneumayr
I made a Sachertorte once for my ex husband's grandfather, who was originally from Vienna and came over during the war. It was one of my greatest compliments as a cook to hear him say, "Mr. Sacher himself couldn't have made such a delicious cake!" I always think of him when I see this scrumptious treat.
Pls share the recepie ma'am!
@@falconeshield It was pre-internet, so it must have been in one of my cookbooks. I'll see if I can find it...
did u find it?@@patriciasalem3606
@@patriciasalem3606Any luck as of late? 😄
@@patriciasalem3606did you find the recipe? 😅
I absolutely love the idea that max collects viewers all over the world and can go on exploration tours all over the world always having translators...
OMG This is my grandmother lost recipe down to the jam. I have been looking for it for years. Thank you Max.
Huzzah! Win
@@TastingHistory The only difference is that if I remember correctly she used to mix the chocolate with coffee and not water. Still I will be making her cake very soon.
Many thanks
@@jackoftrades80home a mocha glaze would be so good!
Yolks for me is "YOwks." The "l" blends in, but it's slightly there in the back of my throat. Instead of the L coming from tongue tip on palette, it's made with the back of my tongue on soft palette. Helpful, I know. 😁
@@jackoftrades80homeCoffee is often added to chocolate desserts to deepen the richness of the chocolate so I’ll bet that it’s the best sachertorte ever!
I wanted to make the recipe and transcribed it in a google doc so I decided to add it to comments to make it a bit easier if anybody else wanted to try it out too. :)
Cake:
150g (10 ½ tbsp, about 5.3oz) bittersweet chocolate (at least 60% cacao)
2 tsp vanilla
150g (10 ½ tbsp) unsalted butter
½ tsp salt
150g (¾ cup) sugar
6 egg yolks
6 egg whites
150g (1 ¼ cups) sifted flour
Glaze:
80g (about 3 oz) chocolate*
150g (¾ cup) sugar
115g water (½ cup)
Other:
About 1 cup (roughly 340g) apricot jam
Directions for the cake:
1) Melt chocolate over double boiler
2) Cool slightly, beat in butter until smooth
3) Add egg yolks and beat until combined
4) Add the sugar in thirds and beat for 4-5 minutes once fully added until smooth and light
5) In a separate bowl whip egg whites to stiff peaks
6) Gently and gradually fold in the whipped egg whites until almost no streaks remain
7) Gently fold in the flour about a third at a time until just fully combined
8) Pour batter in a 9” springform pan that has been lined with parchment paper and smooth the top
9) Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit (175 degrees celsius) for 30 minutes
10) Let cake cool for 10 minutes in pan before inverting on a rack to finish cooling completely
Directions for glaze:
1) Melt chocolate the same as before
2) In a separate pot dissolve 150g sugar in ½ cup or about 115 grams of water and bring it to a simmer
3) Add the chocolate to the pot of simmering sugar water and mix until smooth (about 5 minutes). It will separate at first but will eventually come together with enough stirring
Directions for Assembly:
1) Warm the apricot jam and pass it through a sieve to ensure it is smooth and spreadable
2) Slice the cake in half and spread half the jam on one of the halves before stacking the other half on top
3) Spread the remaining jam on the top layer of the cake
4) Pour over and carefully spread the chocolate glaze on top of the layered cake after it comes together
Serve with unsweetened whipped cream and enjoy :)
* I couldn't find an equivalent for tablespoons of chocolate that made sense, so instead I opted to add ounces as many baking chocolate bars are sold in amounts listed in ounces
Thank you so much!!!
amazing, truly, thank you!!
Thanks 🙏
Much appreciated 💜
Whoa. I have those ingredients right now.
My best friend, who is a professional pastry chef, made me a Sacher cake on my birthday some years ago, she knows I'm an absolute fan of chocolate and she made it all from scratch for me, it still to this day THE BEST CAKE I'VE EVER HAD, Thank you so much for remind me of it!
That's love!
“Always have more chocolate than you think you need” -Max Miller
This is the most important life advice in history
Sage advice
100%
That's also applicable for garlic.
worth embroidering on a tea towel
There can NEVER be too much chocolate!
I had this as a wedding cake decorated with fresh flowers. The wedding was at an exclusive boutique hotel with a ridiculously luxurious restaurant, and they provided all of the catering. I asked if they could do the cake too. The pastry chef was right on the edge of an “absolutely not” until he heard what we wanted. Turns out his grandmother in Austria sent them an authentic Sacher Torte every Christmas when he lived in Germany. He was so touched and happy. The guy absolutely went to town on that cake and it was so beautiful.
As a viennese person I don’t like Sachertorte that much, because like you said it’s often just too dry. However my grandma makes the best Sacherschnitten! So basically Sachertorte in the shape of brownies. I believe she adds some ground hazelnuts to the dough and a lot of selfmade jam under the chocolate glaze, which makes it juicer. I love her variation, she must use a similar recipe to yours because it’s not dry at all. And for Easter she makes Sachertorte in the shape of a lamb :)
Yes, I, too, prefer your version, but since I can no longer eat nuts, I add a little Fra Angelico sometimes.
Yeah…he slice I had in Vienna left me longing for a good dessert!
Did you notice that in that book Austrian cuisine was considered part of south German cuisine?
That's because Austria is German.
Starting from its birth, which occurred through the Bavarian colonization of previously Slavic lands, Austria was always part of the Kingdom of Germany until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. And even after that it continued to be part of the German Confederation. Any objection based on the weakness of these state entities is invalid, since it is only evidence of the political weakness of Germany, certainly not of its non-existence. Continuing, even after the foundation of the German Empire, the Austrian emperor himself continued undaunted to consider himself a German prince, given that Austria's failure to enter the unitary German state was certainly not due to a non-Germanness of Austria itself, but rather to the presence also of vast non-German areas within the empire, areas which, remember, all separated from Austria. And in fact, once the war was over, everyone thought that, since these regions had gone their own way, there was no longer any reason to remain separated from the rest of the Germans. It was the victorious allies, that is, Austria's enemies themselves, who prevented it. Therefore the very idea of Austria as an independent nation is a ridiculous invention of Austria's enemies, which has no historical or ethnic justification, but which was only useful to them to maintain their domination.
The only reason why Austrians developed a separate identity is to distance themselves from what they perceived as Nazi ideals. But:
1) the problematic aspects of Nazism don’t include pan-Germanism, which was supported even by many interwar socialists;
2) it’s an irrational reaction not based on actual facts.
Would she be willing to share her recipe? I am an American living in Graz, and I love everything about Sachertorte except how dry it usually is (I do think it ironic that the version by that major chain cake shop in Vienna is far superior to Cafe Sacher's).
@@AlexanderLittlebears What kingdom of Germany? The HRE was lead by Austria. I dont think you understand any of this. the german nation state and its identity is new not anything else.
First time I'm commenting here, with a tale about my mother's experience with this delicious cake.
My mum and dad were in Austria in 1971, years before I was born. My dad was from Austria so he wanted to show his Swedish girlfriend to his parents. Among the things she got to eat was this cake from the hotel where it was baked. My mum wanted a slice to bring home to her parents so they made a little packet for her. All went well as they made their way back to Sweden, until they came to the Swedish border customs. You see, the Swedish board for agriculture at the time wanted to know ALL ingredients in the cake, and Hotel Sacher has a recipe which is top secret. They went back and forth on this matter for four weeks, with the poor cake frozen at the customs. When they got to bring it home it was stale and old, but still rather tasty.
The best Sachertorte, I have eaten is handmade by my mother. And the cake is never dry, but deliciously soft. The combination of chocolate, apricote jam and cake is pure heaven.
Advise from an Austrian, make yourself a Sachertorte, you won’t regret it. Greetings from Vienna 🇦🇹😊
Amen
I lived in Wien for 2 years. Ate Sachertorte at the hotel. Came home to South Africa and got married.
My sister made Sachertorte for my wedding and it was amazing.
Nothing beats fresh, homemade cake!
Yeah I was gonna say, Sachertorte isn't supposed to be dry! I'd rather describe it as dense, if that makes sense?
Und nur mit manner Schokolade! ❤
yess!! haha
My grandparents brought us a sacher torte one year for the holidays when I was maybe 8. The leftover box became 8 yo mes treasure box and still holds all my tiny treasures. Since then, my grandma made it every year (a version with toasted ground hazelnuts) she passed on Friday so this video was a nice little surprise.
Thank you for sharing such beautiful memories ❤ how lovely
Also sorry for your loss💗
My grandma gave me a sacher torte. I did the same as you. It's full of keepsakes.
A lovely memory. I'm sorry for your loss.
Toasted ground hazelnuts and chocolate = Nutella!
R.I.P. Grandma
I am Austrian and while I don't live in Vienna, I had many Sachertorten in my life bacause you can get it pretty much at every cafe.
Your description of the Hotel Sacher Sachertorte sounded exactly how I would describe the typical "bad" Sachertorte.
🤭😂
how would you describe a 'good' one?
I had that hotel one and found it kind of dry, a little too sweet and definitely not decadent. I was underwhelmed.
So the "originals" are really just for the Tourists and everyone else makes their own (or has something else I assume)?
@@sazji * sigh * I lived in Seattle during the days of Pacific Dessert Company, and found their Chocolate Decadence cake to be the ultimate choc dessert. We moved in '92, and they closed ten years later. I see, in searching for the recipe, that Chef John has what looks like the closest approximation. If I bake again, I may try it.
I also heard rumours, that they kept the typical dryness until today - which could be easily be overcome with modern ingredients - was because of the worldwide shipping. Since they mostly ship der cakes, they had to make sure, they arrive well and in a similar condition as in the Cafe. By keeping it dry, it took much longer to get rotten and arrived in a more "fresh" condition.
And after living in vienna for about five years, I can say: the best Sacher cakes are the ones, that don´t claim to be the original.
Also for another austrian themed dessert-video: Salzburger Nockerl.
I think the og version is tasty
I take a slice home and let it sit in the fridge overnight, makes it less dry and more saturated (idk if that’s the right word, non native English speaker) and ofc whipped cream with it
As a poor student in uni, a colleague, who had rich parents, would come to mine once a week and bring two slices of sachertorte and I'd make some strong coffee. It was one of my rare treats which I am reminded of every time I see this in a cafe.
That’s lovely 😊
Such kindness during tight times are extra delicious. 😍
I graduated as a pastry chef in Budapest in 2021, and Sachertorte was one of the things we had to bake during the final exams. We only applied one layer of jam and the chocolate glaze had a slightly different composition, but otherwise it was the same recipe. Fascinating to see how history carries on. Great video as always!
did yours turn out like the famous cakes or more like max's?
NOW... Max needs to go to Budapest, and learn the history of (and sample!) Dobos Torte... (the one with the hard caramel float on top!) József Dobos was the first to use chocolate buttercream in a dessert.
@@richardbrennan8910 I'd trade the Dobos torta with an Eszterhazi any day, but Budapest is definitely a great city for desserts!
@@oldfrend It was dense for sure, but nowhere near dry, so I'd say it was closer to Max's results. Far be it from me to think I have the right to say how to bake Sachertorte, but in my (admittedly limited) experience it should never be dry, because of the fat we introduce to the batter (in the form of butter). So considering the way I have learned it, it should be more like his version, and not how he got it in Vienna, crazy as it sounds.
I'm no chef and I don't have pastry hands, but my yeast dough turns out pretty well. And now I have to visit Budapest to get the real authentic hungarian pastry. Or the cuisine in general.
Honestly - Austria deserves its own series of videos. There are so many delicious cakes and cookies, not to mention the soups and boiled dishes with meat. Amazing video, thanks for the info!
I would go for Apfelstrudel and Buchteln mit Vanillesauce ;-)
@@racussa444 💯💯
Kaiserschmarrn would be a cool one, and it also comes with an origin story.
Austrian goulash is extraordinarily delicious. I as in vienna for a week and ate it every day…. Yum
Yes!
Thank you Max for having the valentry to put yourself in the line of duty and trying all those cakes for us in Vienna.
Such a sacrifice!
@@karenneill9109 😥
Four+ Franz Sacher mustaches for Max! 🥮
Nice portmanteau word there! Valiance + gallantry.. 🙂
That smile and little finger he puts up when he declares his cake the best absolutely warms my heart. Like he's whispering a secret, but to all the viewers.
For the yolk pronunciation-I think either is fine, it just depends on your region/accent. Imo one of the hardest aspects of English is not just how inconsistent our pronunciation rules are, but how much they can vary from place to place. I imagine it’s especially tricky for a German speaker, since it’s one of those languages where every single letter gets pronounced
I doubt German is a language that pronounces every letter, but english's varying accents do make it hard to understand sometimes. Might be easier to speak english in bavaria and german, french or something else in scotland...
@@MrDorn123having learned German, no seriously, every letter is always pronounced. If there's a dialect with a different pronunciation, it also spells it differently.
@@TheShicksinator What about the "h" in Thron? Or after a vowel like in Sarah or Rahm? Or the "e" in the village "Laer" (which is pronounced like "Lar")?
Arent the r's at the end of words not pronounces like the British do? Not that I would know, I just know some of their words like papier (paper) or schnauzer its not pronounced.
@@MrDorn123 Sarah is Hebrew loanword, Laer is a diphtong, Thron is probably related to the archaiac letter Thorn. Not very modern German. But your point remains valid.
I am from Vienna, and while I certainly prefer getting this cake from other cafes in the city than from the house Sacher, it is important to keep in mind that their claimed "original" recipe is created for preservation I am sure. The super thick chocolate crust rather than a traditional smooth coating gives stability, and the cake itself is rather dry so it doesn't become soggy. I am not sure if this is for accommodating the tourists taking the Sacher OG cakes as a souvenir to their homecountry, but I remember that they preserve for quite long. I don't think this has been confirmed by Sacher itself, but my social circle agrees that there must be a reason that their cake version is so different from other Austrian establishments. So, I am sure your home-baked version is very enjoyable! :) Love your videos
House Sacher has an Option for Delivery - i think its even World Wide, so they have to be self preserveable.
I doubt that they have the Recipe for the Original, maybe its lost for ever, maybe it's still in the Family of Franz Sacher, who knows.
Sadly the Sachertorte isn't a Trademark, so everyone can use it, as they see fit.
I agree. I found the original Sacher rather like a cheesecake in texture and it left a "sticky" palate, to be honest, rather than a moist tender chocolate batter type.
I agree, no one here likes the Sachertorte from hotel Sacher. Every simple homemade Sachertorte is better 😅
@@Atztec1 Hey, as a Czech I'm glad it's not a trademark because it means I can have a pretty good version in a café right here.
And it means anyone can have a good version if they choose to instead of going "they changed the recipe and now it sucks and we'll never experience a good Sachertorte ever again!" As only too often happens with trademarked food products.
@@beth12svist Trademarked Sacher Torte would be better, so they Family could adverdise with it for beeing the original one and you and everbody else can still make the recipe and sell it under a different name, like the viennese Schnitzel can only be called like that if its the right meat, every other schnitzel needs to be called different. (Dont know how its spelled in english, in german its "Schnitzel wiener art"
unsweetened whipped cream with pastries and cakes is so underrated
It's much better by far than sweetened whipped cream with them, which just results in far too much sweetness.
I’m a fan of a cold glass of milk with them, which is a similar concept
Not by me!!
@@animula6908I always have a glass of cold milk with my dessert. 🤤
I usually have a warm glass of maple syrup with all my desserts.
I have been living in Vienna for well over a decade now, and I learned quite a lot! Also, your German pronunciation of all the terms is pretty much spot on, with one exception: we actually do pronounce the final e in Sachertorte.
@Astrophysikus how exactly is that e pronounced?
@@Boodlums Same as the other e in the word.
Like a short 'eh' sound (not like the '-ay' diphthong that is used at the end of English words like say or hey)
spot on except Sachertorte itself... he kept saying Zohchertort
@@BoodlumsIt's a schwa, which is also the most common sound in the English language. The schwa is what you get if you stress and pronounce a vowel so little that it nearly, but not completely (the "o" in completely usually goes schwa), disappears. Sadly, it has no written form, but instead, people write the vowel they'd use if they were comically overpronouncing the word.
Also, it is "tor-te". No "rt" sound in there.
Congratulations on approaching two million subscribers! It's been so great to watch your channel grow.
The cream rises to the top -- er, chocolate cake
So very well-deserved for this channel... I like to say that I am a big fan of history. I am a big fan of food. I am a HUGE fan of Max
Watched his videos for a while now, thanks for reminding me I'm not subbed! 🍻
@@corvid... yea it is wild the growth he had, seems like yesterday he had 50k in his old kitchen talking about butterbeer from the tudor age. And not just the subs every video has like 500k to a million viewers, some very wel over a million.
@@daftwulli6145I mean, he IS Prince Charming in the flesh. You can expect meteoric rise from a literal Disney prince. 💖
Man, I almost want to shed a tear at how good at cooking you've become. I remember in the early days you seemed a little lost around the kitchen. Now you're hitting perfect 10s on pastries? Well done Max, you've done me proud.
well he is not that proficient, his cover layer of chocolate was truly badly off...
Max, thank you for your selfless sacrifices in the pursuit of knowledge. Ordering four desserts per meal in Austria must have been a terrible fate to endure. I am glad you survived the ordeal!
I appreciated the history lesson as well. The Austrian Supreme Court Sacher case was the first attempt at true torte reform.
@RyllwnKriel - good one. 😆
🥰😉
If you go to Vienna and don't order 4 pastries every meal, you are doing it wrong.
I gain weight eating bread without butter or olive oil. I'd be on a diet for the rest of my life.
@@kathleenhensley5951 The trick is to go to the toilet directly after eating and regurgitate. This way, you can even taste every pastry twice and without bad conscience!
If you leave Vienna without having tried every single pastry there is, you've probably angered the pastry gods and given yourself a good excuse to come back for amends!
@@kathleenhensley5951and it would be worth it.
@@axelhopfinger533 Apart from being disgusting, this habit leads to loss of tooth enamel.
This is hands down the best channel about the history of food I've ever seen, I'm glad to live in a timeline where this exists. Your work is simply impecable, Max! Love it with all my heart!!
Thank you!
Living in Vienna, the best Sacher Torte you can get is in the small bakeries, where they use their own (usually great-grandma's) recipe. As you noticed yourself by making your own 🙂At the Cafe Sacher the Torte is seldom fresh these days - they freeze it - and that makes it dry and the coverture hard.
If you're ever in Poland for a food history investigation reason (or just visiting), go to restaurant called Epoka. The owner/main chef is a food history buff and the restaurant is themed around old Polish recipes (though with a modern twist).
@Jhud69 - Yes!
Which city?
What city is it in 😊
@@sarahrosen4985 Warsaw.
Don't leave us hanging. Where in poland is it?
as a Dutch person my dad used to make this every single birthday, with layers of whip cream (and very Dutch chocolate sprinkles) and also apricot brandy and apricot spread. It was by far my favourite cake ever and never knew it was from Vienna till a year or so ago, no idea why my dad or his mom started making it so often but its a lovely cake for sure
Can't go wrong with hagelslag
Thank you for dedicating a whole video to one of our staple desserts here in Austria
Oh ja! : )
uuuuhhh... thanks! will do!
Same here in Czech with "šlehačka" - although technically the liquid version is sold as "smetana na šlehání". Rather obviously, we were part of one country once upon a time. 😅
Haha schlagober is fun to say and it's definitely delicious.
... kinda wanna suggest adding coffee to the batter or glaze now, but that would be even farther from sachertorte
As a lifelong Viennese, for me this video is by far the most personal of yours yet! I'm glad you seem to have enjoyed your trip, and all things considered you did great on your pronunciation! I was especially impressed with Schlagobers and Metternich's name!
Just a small tip for the future, since you seem to be trying to get things as correct as possible: A more accurate pronunciation of Torte would be "tor-teh" in Hochdeutsch, with the Ts morphing more into Ds the more Viennese you get. They're two distinct syllables. I hope this helps in case you cover any more Torten in the future!
Regardless of my nitpicking, I loved the video and I agree with your assessment that Original Sachertorte doesn't hold a candle to a great homemade one, or ones made by smaller bakeries/confectioneries!
I used to work here in the UK for a Viennese woman. She’s a direct descendant of Viennese aristocracy and she taught me quite a few recipes ( half the street pops in for a coffee when I make cake!!!) from her homeland, and told me it would almost be an insult to her birthright for her not to be able to bake a Viennese chocolate torte. She’s a wonderful cook, with a tiny but beautiful and immaculate little kitchen in her little home crammed full of antiquities and family history. Every time I would visit there was always chocolate cake and several other pastries/desserts to tempt one’s tastebuds. She’d always insist that if I was in need of food sustenance and hydration I should just help myself. So delightful for a domestic help to be treated to ‘elevenses’ at precisely 11am to a mouthwatering pastry/dessert and an alcoholic beverage like a gin and tonic, Pimm’s or a warming hot toddy (always welcome on a cold winter’s day!) of some kind.
I’ve learnt from her that the Viennese not only eat for sustenance but food is to be enjoyed, shared and savoured among friends and loved ones. Every mouthful is made with love and to share such sublimity is a truly wonderful gesture and experience.💞🇬🇧
@@Jjudes9665 What a lovely story, thanks for sharing :)
Yeah it stuck out to me too as his pronunciation is otherwise (as in all his videos) pretty good. I actually live in a German city ending with -e and my own parents (who aren't German) just can't get their heads around the fact that you need to pronounce the -e in German.
Thanks for clarifying the pronunciation. I come from an Austro-Hungarian family, but never actually learned German. I do remember my dad and grandma pronouncing the "e" though.
@judithcrisp6181 What a lovely story!
If anyone is interested in the recipe in writing form (like I did):
Venetian chocolate cake
Cake:
10 ½ Tbsp (150g) bittersweet chocolate (> 60%)
2 Tsp vanilla
10 ½ Tbsp unsalted butter
½ Tsp salt
¾ cup (150g) sugar
6 egg yolks
6 egg whites
1 ¼ cup (150g) sifted flour
1 cup apricot jam
Chocolate glaze:
80g chocolate
¾ cup (150g) sugar
To do:
1. Melt chocolate over double boiler
2. Once melted, take off and whisk in the butter
3. Whisk in egg yolks until combined
4. Whisk in the salt & vanilla
5. Whisk in the sugar, in about ⅓ at a time. Mix for 4~5 minutes
6. Separately, whisk egg whites until fairly stiff peaks are formed
7. Add egg whites, about ⅓ at a time, and fold in using a spatula. Keep doing until no white streaks remain, but gently, preserving the air in the mixture
8. Add in flour, about ⅓ at a time, and fold until no flour clumps are seen
9. Line a 9" spring form pan at the base with parchment paper. Pour in the batter, smooth the top
10. Place into a 350F oven for 30 minutes
11. Once done, allow to cool inside the pan for 10 minutes
12. Remove the ring, flip the cake, remove the base pan and allow the cake to cool completely.
Jam:
1. Smoothen the jam by warming it up on the stove, pass it through a sieve, and allow to cool
Glaze:
1. Melt chocolate over double boiler
2. Mix 150g of sugar with ½ cup of water and bring to a simmer
3. Add the chocolate, and keep stirring over a medium-low heat until fully combined (about 5 minutes) and smooth
Assembly
1. Cut the cake into 2 pieces
2. Apply ½ the jam on each layer
3. Apply the glaze, allowing it to drip down the side
You think it is vanilla extract or vanilla aroma?
@@ZulstinYes
I've had the privilege of eating one of these actually in Austria, albeit nowhere near Vienna, and I can say Max, definitely nailed it. From side project for covids sake for a Disney employee, to two mil subs. What an amazing journey you are on man. Proud of you 😎
fun fact: Schlagobers is just the normal Austrian word for whipped cream, it's not unique to the Sachertorte but rather the general term for whipped cream
I was so confused hearing him mention putting sugar in whipped cream, is that really a common thing? My family just makes it normal.
@@Raptorworld22 Whipped cream is almost always sweetened in the US.
@@SputnikDeb I didn't want to assume he was American, but putting sugar in something that doesn't need sugar did sound like a U.S thing.
My family always called it Schlagsahne. Wonder if that's a German vs. Austrian thing. Or maybe a "your family emigrated 100 years ago" vs. German/Austrian thing.
@@Raptorworld22 I dunno...is it really just a US thing or more of a "modern prepackaged thing"? You can make your own whipped cream however you like...but most commonly available brands of ready to go whipped cream is sweetened. Do you have cans of whipped cream that can just spray out instant whipped cream?
I am Viennese and I absolutely love Sachertorte! (which is more pronounced tor-tay rather than tort btw). But the sort-of-too-hard glacing has a charme of its own - it's a nice counter texture to the soft (and ideally not too dry) inside of the cake - it's like having a cake and a piece of chocolate at the same time. and the Marillenmarmelade (apricot jam) is the extra beauty, like the third corner in the the triangle of cake-glacing-jam. slightly less sweet / more acidic apricot jam works best! edit: this is more a general view on how and why I like Sachertorte and not to defend the Sacher-Sachertorte (which doesn't really suck, but there are much better - but also worse - ones to be found).
I get that. I like a good hard chocolate. Al dente.
Made a more modern version for my German class in college for extra credit and it is really good, especially when u mix in a peach/apricot brandy
THAT is how you properly moisten a dry cake! 😁
I genuinely gave a Ric Flair "WOOOO" when Max's cake was better than the more genuine (and probably extremely expensive) versions from Vienna. 👏👏👏
OGs, 2.5 mustache. Copycats, 4 mustache. Max, maximum mustache.
Yeah, from a brief glimpse in the video, the Demel cake (which at least was 4 out of 5 mustaches) was 41 Euro (about 43 USD now) per cake. Which is a lot of money for a short, dry, hard chocolate cake.
This episode brings back such sweet memories for me. When I was a child in the late 60’s - early ‘70’s my parents took us (5 kids) on a few trips to Europe. We traveled around in a VW van they purchased and stopped in Vienna for hot chocolate at Demels. Thank you for the reminder. Lovely episode.
We as a family ordered a slice of alot of the gorgeous cakes, accompanied by all the different types of hot chocolate and coffee drinks. The waiter was absolutely enchanted with us and we with him and all of the bakers who prepare this delicious fare. Going to Vienna was well worth it.
The cream you always get with it is rather important. The classic way of eating the cake is having some cream on every bite you eat. That compensates for the dryness and is basically the intended experience. At least I've never seen anybody eat Sacher Torte in Vienna without doing that, including myself.
You know what, I am a HUGE, lifelong Beatles nerd, It is a rare moment when I actually learn something new… and I was not expecting to have a new piece of trivia under my belt, from a UA-cam cooking channel of all places, but here we are! So THIS was the chocolate cake in a bag! Now I have to try it.
Every time Max Miller smiles... an angel gets his wings.
lol... true
Or...loses them
Desperate to remove the taste of liver, Max chose a chocolate cake for his next piece! 😂
and he de-livered
@@dwaynezillabadumTSSS
Actually liver and chocolate sounds like a good combination
@@besanit WHAT
@@besanitew
Great video as always. Besides being a lover of historical recipes, I happen to also be a linguist, and regarding your comments at 5:00- the English word "yolk" is (in the General American dialect) traditionally pronounced /joʊk/ (and is therefore homophonous with the unrelated word "yoke"). With that being said, a pronunciation of the word as /joʊlk/ or /jɔlk/ (i.e. saying the 'l' sound) is possible in some dialects/sociolects. It tends to be common only among younger speakers (and by "younger" I mean people under 40 years old or so). This is actually an example of a gradual trend that can be observed in the evolution of our language- orthographic/etymological pronunciation slowly becoming common (that is, saying a word the way it is written, even though the spelling may only indicate the way the word was pronounced in a previous historical stage of the language). The same phenomenon can be observed/heard with the similar word "folk" which is traditionally pronounced /foʊk/ (as if it were spelled "foke"), and should therefore rhyme with "yolk." Indeed, with "folk," the trend has already spread further than with "yolk"- more and more speakers (even older people) now say it as /foʊlk/ or /fɔlk/, even though this pronunciation was only common several centuries ago- in the Old English and Middle English eras- when English pronunciation was closer to its Germanic roots. (compare to modern German "Volk," with a similar pronunciation and meaning). Another example (which, being a food is also particularly relevant to you, Max) is "almond," which is traditionally pronounced /'ɑ.mənd/ (without the 'l' sound), but is often now pronounced as /'ɑl.mənd/ (with the 'l' sound) by a great many speakers (and not at all considered strange). Another which I believe is still in the initial stages of change is "salmon," traditionally pronounced /'sæ.mən/, but now just beginning to be pronounced as
/'sæl.mən/ by some speakers (mostly young people), but this one is sometimes considered "odd" when heard by others who are not accustomed to the orthographic pronunciation. The list can go on and on, but it is a natural part of language- all languages evolve and change over time- so who knows? Maybe some day in the near or distant future people will start saying the word "walk" as /wɑlk/ and "talk" as /tɑlk/.
When I was in Vienna, I made a point to try as many different kinds of Sachertorte possible. Some had more layers of cake, some had fewer. Others used a slightly tartar jam. It was a lot of fun :-)
The book “The Discovery of Chocolate“ gives an imagined story for how it was invented: The protagonist uses apricot jam to cover up a less-than-desirable chocolate cake, but it’s a hit, and Herr Sacher runs with the idea.
I wonder if the apricot jam could be replaced with fig spread or grape or blackberry jam.
@@1685Violin almost certainly. I have had Sacher torte from Vienna before, and while I was too young to appreciate it fully, I remember well enough to say with confidence that, fig in particular would probably be lovely. A tart raspberry or cherry jam would also kick ass. Apricot jam was just very common, as most apricots back then were turned into jam, and were very common in at least french baking as a light sweetener and binder
@@1685Violin Don't know about either, but I often make it with raspberry jam (taking care to remove the pips!), and it comes out very nice.
Being from a country in Scandinavia, it is very common to have unsweetened whipped cream with Chocolate cake, it adds to the flavour makes it richer.
Man kan ju inte äta kladdkaka utan grädde =P.
Or cuts the excessively chocolate taste to bearable levels.
@@malcolmthorne9779 I mean, it's hard, but you _can_ do it. Now, from the awful end of the taste spectrum, there's a reason mämmi is usually served with pure cream as the sauce.
Getting to have dinner with a bunch of fans, and then getting their help in translating an old language in a cookbook is SO COOL
19:00 the reason the one you have is softer is because it is fresh. In my experience all of these places that have a reputation for some iconic dish can't handle the scale of the popularity of the dish. So they make in very large batches and store in freezers. They then thaw this out to serve. This means they always have a large ready supply that is resilient to seasonal demand. What it also means is that you always get an old, dry, hard cake, I've seen this all over the world. So yeah, its good to know that its a good cake made fresh, and that may be the most fresh it will ever be eaten.
Sacherica is my father's favourite cake, and my mother always makes it for his birthday.
It's NOT dry. And based on this old recipe (kudos for all the work done!) it is not meant to be (I knew it!). The balancing of layers and apricot jam is perfect and nothing extra is needed.
Now, I admit I have never tried it in Vienna, but I heard three or four accounts of people who did, and they were all very unimpressed.
I just followed this exact recipe and it turned out AMAZING. I did get some complaints about the cake being too dense, but I guess it's because I was clumsy with the egg whites and ended up beating all the air out. The chocolate glaze method works surprisingly well, I was skeptical about mixing water with chocolate at first, but it turned out better than any chocolate glaze that I've ever made😂 will be using this glaze for my other cakes
Sachertorte needs to be dense, some people prefer it fluffier, but in reality I like the dense version more because it comes closer to the original and gives you more texture to chew on (I actually like the original a lot, it just is somehow different to many tastes now modern given that it stems from the early 19th century no wonder)!
I have grown up with it (born and living in Austria) so I have eaten may variants of that cake, and the original one definitely needs to be eaten with whipped cream, in fact it is supposed to be eaten with whipped cream, and no sugar in to the whipped cream, the sugar is in the cake anyway.
Btw. the term Schlagobers is an Austrian term for Schlagsahne or Sahne, which is simply whipped cream, it either can be sugary or without, in case of the Sachertorte it definitely needs no additional sugar!
But being too dry, thats relative, you probably never have eaten anything sweet coming out of Italy not being tiramisu or Zuppa Inglese, compared to that stuff what normally is eaten in northern Italy as dessert a Sachertorte is a soup! Or in other words it is what it is, and everyone makes it slightly different but every single one tastes good!
While you are at it, you can also try the chocolate 'Chantilly', a chocolate "whipped cream" made of only chocolate and water. The key is to keep whipping until the chocolate recombined, just like Max did here, although for chocolate 'Chantilly' you would whip the bowl of chocolate-water mixture in an ice bath until it looks like whipped cream. It is invented by a French chemist called Hervé This, and featured in the TV show "Kitchen Chemistry with Heston Blumenthal" 🙂
I grew up eating Sachertorte from Bavarian World in Reno (my mom is German), and the cake there was so moist and dense, and delicious, that I've been deeply disappointed with the "official" recipes, which I have tried to make twice now. I will have to try this variation! Thank you for having done this video!
I am 81years old. My grandmother was born in Vienna in 1882 and died at the age of 96. She bequeathed me her recipe for sachertorte. Ground almonds and breadcrumbs. NO FLOUR!! I tried the Sachertorte at Sacher 's in 2008. My Granny's was infinitely better!!
Ground almonds and breadcrumbs sound delicious. Will try it out 😃👍🏻
Oh, I’ll have to try this version!
We make it similar to hotel sacher, but using the brand “manner” for chocolate (Austrian brand)
It’s my non negotiable for baking, other chocolate doesn’t do it for me
My grandmother also used breadcrumbs - but to be specific they should be "griabane Kaisersemmln" (grated/ground rolls) :-)
I used to work at a cafe baking cakes from scratch and there was this book that was gifted to me "cakes from scratch" and I haven't been able to find the book again but I remember my favorite cake recipe because it was a huge hit at the cafe it's the exact same as this recipe except it has ten egg whites and six yolks and 1/4 cup of espresso and one teaspoon of cayenne pepper and one teaspoon of cinnamon. The name of the cake was Aztec chocolate cake . I used chocolate gnoche for the topping sometimes or just powdered sugar with cinnamon in it. The cake always came out creamy and decadent with the espresso.
This brought back memories! I am not a cake person, but when I was younger, I would make cakes if pressed hard. And my grandmother loved Sachertorte. Her first husband was Austrian, and she had feelings for a lot of traditional Austrian food. Not for that guy at all. So I made her the Sachertorte. Back then, I preferred to just coat it with pure dark chocolate, but I feel it has become harder to find the quality of chocolate needed for that, so it may make sense with the approach you used here. It's as if the current trend is for very bitter and texturally softer chocolates has eliminated the light, crispy type of dark chocolate I could find 30 years ago. Demel used to have some of the best.
Maybe I should make a Sachertorte. Recently, I've made mousse au chocolat a couple of times, to my childrens' huge surprise, I stopped doing sweets when no. 1 was born. They would love a cake!
Love the dedication to research, Max!
Buying an antique book in a language you don't even speak just to make a cake is real dedication.
Also I never heard about using stiff egg whites as a rising agent so that's cool to know.
There are several cakes made that way! Angel food cake is an example that might be more familiar to some. My father's family had a white fruitcake recipe that was leavened with egg whites. That's a much heavier cake, but very tasty when fresh (it dried out easily - I think angel cake does, too). We used to make boiled custard with the yolks, and pour that over the fruitcake. Way too much trouble for me these days, but I remember it fondly.
biscuite/sponge cake is all about that. and I used to make pancakes like that. you can watch them rise in the pan when the air expands from the heat. it's a neat trick to make a cake fluffy. combine all ingrediants exept the egg whites. beat them really stiff. if you cut into the "egg snow" with a sharp knife the cuts should be clean and stay visible. and then fold that under the preexisting mixture of all the other ingrediants. or use a wire wisk. I find that a lot easier than folding it in with a spatular.
The neat thing about beaten egg whites is that they trap air within their own structure, rather than just producing gas like other rising agents. Non-cake examples that come to mind are soufflés, "Kaiserschmarren", and various dessert cremes. Egg snow also makes thick doughs/batters wetter; a lot of the cakes I know start with a heavy, sticky mixture based on butter, yolks, flour, and starch, that gets really creamy when the eggs snow is folded in.
For baking, the snow should be just stiff enough so it holds when you flip the bowl upside down (traditionally above your head 😁).
@karowolkenschaufler7659 Kitchen teachings say the whisk will knock too much of the air out of the egg whites. I have never done a comparison test of folding versus whisking, though.
Not whisking with the wire whisk, but stirring in gently and carefully with a kind of folding action, that should work. The wires would act as a series of small blades and get the folding done faster. (🤔must try it..)
Max, I absolutely love that you found a 19th century cookbook and then had a group of people translate it for you, over dinner. I would be so happy to find such a book and then be a part of such an activity- such a nerd!
Also, having a few cakes with every meal, perfect! Will definitely take note.
And finally, I am going to make this cake, using your recipe, because I am not a fan of dry cakes, nor with chocolate that is hard to cut.
And that actually is the sad thing about Sacher torte, that the one you make at home often times is better than the more "official" ones you get at some bakery... or in your case even compared to the really really official ones from Vienna!
Ok. I ordered a sachertorte for my family to be served for my mom’s birthday (one can schedule the shipping date online), but I’m now tempted to make this recipe to serve alongside the “original Sachertorte” to see which everyone likes better. Considering you noted how dry the hotel’s cake is, and how tough the chocolate glaze, I’m guessing your recipe would be the better of the two.
Most of us actually get "fake" versions from local confectioners because we like it better that way. That said, the two original versions are great too. Making it is fairly easy and fast in comparison to many other cakes, so you definitely should give it a shot!
My grandmother made these all the time at expert level. It‘s a unique treat.
My mother made this (I helped!) for my birthday in the 70-s. It was an old recipe (she used the old and tried recipes as well as modern ones. She even made Indian dishes back then), and if I remember correctly it was about the same as the one you used!
Yes, it turned out lovely!
Was in Vienna myself a few weeks ago and OMG that cake is so good - I agree though that it needs to be eaten with some whipped cream and a coffee.
I just love Mozart’s piano concerto in d minor at the part when you are tasting your cake.
When I visited Germany and Austria last year we visited my great-aunt about an hour away from Vienna who told us not to go to Cafe Sacher because her homemade cake is better. I can confirm she's right, and this recipe is definitely worth making. It's surprisingly simple and really is a treat
One of my favourite cakes! Seeing you do a video about the cake which dominated the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Dobos torte, would be super interesting!
I love it when you giggle after you have a taste of whatever you’ve made. It makes me smile, and I think, “that must be really good”.
I remember learning about this dessert a few years ago and thoroughly obsessed with it since. It’s so decadent. And it’s chocolate. And now I’m astral projecting through the idea of dessert.
My grandparents retired to Vienna and I grew up eating sacher torte there... or my mom would make it at home. Like you, my grandmother also swore that both Demel's and the Hotel Sacher weren't that good. She preferred the recipe my mom used (which I still have in a cookbook called "The Cooking of Vienna's Empire" by Joseph Wechsberg-a Time-Life book, lol).
My mum has that whole series of Time-Life world cookbooks. They're pretty fascinating!
I believe the entirety of Austria agrees that those two aren’t the best😂-someone from Austria
Thank you so much, Max!!!
This recipe became the most favourite for me and my mom!
Now I'm baking Sachertorte regularly. It's a heavenly taste for chocolate lovers. (And it comes from someone, who didn't like dark chocolate before, only the milk one. You've made me change my mind on this matter.)
Your channel is truly a treasure!!!💐
My mom always put apricot jam in the middle of her chocolate cake. She also made her frosting with less butter and some water. I wonder if she ever knew about this cake or how this habit got into our family. 🤫
At 0:01 you can see one of my all-time favourite cakes (middle row, second from the left), the one with the caramelised triangles decorating it. That cake is called dobos (pronounced dough-bosh). To be fair, that one doesn't look like the best example I've ever seen, there was a baker in Adelaide, called Kazy, whose dobos was to die for. The triangles were made of wafer thin hard toffee and supported on a little mound of crème pâtissière. From memory, it's been a long time, the sides of the cake were covered in more crème pâtissière and then coated in chocolate. The cake itself was a multi-layer egg-rich vanilla sponge.
Heaven can wait.
thank you for this! I noticed it too but didn't know what it was
You are right Dobos is just the best! Let’s keep it a secret.
Indeed, dobostorta was one of the delights of my childhood in the otherwise rather drab communist 1970es Budapest, Hungary. The inventor's (József Dobos) last name means "drummer" in Hungarian, so, by folk etymology, we referred to the caramel layer at the top as the drum (dob).
Thank you for sharing the original recipe! We have a favourite family cake that we make for every birthday and other such occasions. It looks like a bit of a twist on the Sachertorte. The sugar, egg yolks, beaten egg whites are the same, but instead of the chocolate there is cocoa, instead of flour there is semolina, and to make it less dry there are apples (very finely grated). We use red currant jam instead of apricot, the chocolate icing is made by melting dark chocolate and butter, sometimes also with heavy cream, that depends on the mood. We put the "Schlagobers" directly on the cake, a lot of it. It's so good and light that it instantly disappears as soon as it appears on the table :D
This episode had me smiling…LOVED the german cookbook translation crowdsourcing with fans over dinner! My wife brought me home a torte from the hotel …I too found it unexpectedly dry. Glad your version was great! Eating your way through Vienna sounds like my kind of trip!
My godfather that lived in Austria actually sent me one of these cakes as a wedding present. I was neet to remember him today when watching this episode! Thank you!
I love that you had to be in Vienna to find the antique bookstore, to find the recipe, to tell us the history. That is dedication beyond compare! And much more interesting too!
As someone who also visited Austria recently (including Vienna), I can say that eating as much pastries and ice creams as possible is a must. It's part of the cultural experience.
I like to think of English as the “close enough” language when it comes to pronunciation because there are just so many different places where it’s spoken.
Indeed! I used to play video games with a Swedish friend who already knew English but was trying to get better at it. And I'd say for 75% of the words he'd wonder which way was the way to pronounce them, I'd just have to say "either way is right". No one would bat an eye if you did or did not pronounce the L in "yolks" and it's like that for sooo many words. A ton of native English speakers (at least in the US) don't even realize how they're pronouncing something unless someone specifically asks and then you have to sit and think about it, lol.
There's too many native English speakers to agree on just one prononciation.
I think I do at least attempt to pronounce the L, though it's a back of the tongue, American style L, and mostly flattens the vowel. Certainly the vowel in yoke is distinctly different. However, I lost a good deal of my hearing at about the age of four, with no hearing aids until ten years later, and also learned quite a lot of vocabulary from reading, so my pronunciations are somewhat suspect.
Nobody fouls up a language like a native speaker.
Is this where I mention the old Churchill quip about Americans and Britons being two peoples divided by a common language? 😂
As a Viennese person, I actually found this super interesting. I can't really eat jam because of texture but Sachertorte is one of the times where it doesn't bother me. I prefer to eat it with whipped cream, if possible unsweetened - it really balances out the density and sugary glaze.
Did you try any Punschkrapfen while you were there? They're kind of a seasonal staple in Austria and shops will often change the iconic pink icing to other colours to match the season - orange for Halloween, white for Christmas, pastels for easter - and pipe little decoration on top.
Going from one eatery to the next in Vienna ordering sacher torte slices is one fantastic empirical study sounds like an excellent way to spend your time!
"Always have more chocolate than you need." Words to live by.
Thank you very much for the recipe, it was very interesting. On the second try, I discovered that using 3 egg yolks instead of 6 made the cake softer. Another change for those who don't like apricot jem, I suggest replacing it with another ingredient of your choice. I tried changing it to Brigadeiro and it was very good and more moist due to the brigadeiro (to make: 1 can of condensed milk, 4 tablespoons of chocolate powder or chocolate powder, 1 tablespoon of margarine, stir in medium heat until soft jam point).
This is why I love Tasting History. Some videos you’ll get the history of a very specific food that I’ve never even heard of and others you’ll get the history of the Olympics it’s awesome!
I'm so proud of Max for being so proud of himself. 😂❤
Ya done good, kid!
Luckily he was in Austria, not Germany...
That blue Danube playing in the background to an already remarkable video is just chef's kiss. 😁
I feel like every waking moment Max isn't cooking must be spent working out, or he's got the greatest metabolism ever.
Or, he is still young. Metabolism tends to slow down as we rust.
he's 40, so his metabolism has definitely shifted already, at least a bit. I think it's just a controlled diet; in another video, the one on the Georgian diet fad (milk soup), he mentioned his struggles to keep his weight under control as it always went up and down @@Erewhon2024
@@Erewhon2024didn't he mention before that he's around his 40s? I'm not sure so correct me if I'm wrong
My mum (born 1926) cooked in the KuK tradition (she was from Bohemia) and this is just like she baked her Sachertorte :) though she replaced the cholocate glazing (with the sugar water) for simplicity later with ready bought couverture.
What kind of couverture did she use? A fondant?
@@adedow1333 Now we are coming to a language barrier. Couverture (Kuvertüre) in German is usually semi bitter chocolate with a higher cocoa butter content (at least 31%) than usual chocolate (around 18%). There is couverture with a cocoa butter content as high as 50%. And a rather high cocoa content as well.
Fondant in German is a kind of sugar icing. I really don't know what they are in English. But fonfant would never be used for Sachertorte. As far as I know, it was not very common in German baking until a few years ago. Due to its difficult use it was usually restricted to pastry shops (which is a whole different profession to baker).
My mum used a semi bitter couverture for Sachertorte.
And Max is now on Austria’s Most Wanted List!😲
What a lovely episode, and a YES to the "great Prato" every time! As an Austrian: I hardly know people who really like the "original" Demel or Sacher Sacher Torte, usually the recipe is tweaked to get a less sweet, less dry version. Yours looks perfect, I definitely have to make it with the Prato recipe soon. PS: Congratulations on your pronunciation, the hints of Austrian German put a smile on my face. PPS: By definition, a Viennese waiter is annoyed, no matter what or how much you order.
Original Sacher Torte is ne Touristenfalle
Anyone else hoping to see this recipe in Max’s next book??
Fun fact: I'm a descendant of Demel family which I learned a few years ago, visited Vienna and went to cafe Demel where staff was very nice and let me see their museum part, also I ate some amazing pastries there 😋
Schlagobers the ballet is known as Whipped Cream stateside and has an excellent production by ABT in New York. It has amazing set and costume design inspired by the pop surrealist painter Mark Ryden. Highly recommend!!!
Hey it is a video about the city I work in and live a few km from. But the Sachertorte may be the mainstay there are other deserts in Austria that you can't overlook. The Esterhazy-Schnitte, Apfelkuchen, Apfelstrudel, Annatorte, Ribiselschaumschnitte, Schomlauer Nockerl, Cremeschnitten, Schoko-Moussetorte von Oberlaa, Zitronentarte and many many more.
Also there are some fun sweet main dishes in Austria like Kletzennudel, Kaiserschmarren and other fun stuff.
"Ribiselschaumschnitte, Schomlauer Nockerl"
OK, now you're just making things up.
A good strudel is a little slice of heaven :D
@@jeffreyharris3440 Both exist: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schomlauer_Nockerl and www.mehlspeiskultur.at/c/ribiselschaumschnitten-1 the first one is even more famous in hungary and the second one has many variants of it.
I'm a 29 year old Austrian guy. Sachertorte is my absolute favorite, and I have it on my birthday every year! It looks like you've done a great job. Apricot jam directly under the chocolate glaze is not the way that I know it, but i suppose it could help with keeping the glaze from setting too much. I think that might be the reason for the dryness complaints that many seem to share, so maybe your Sachertorte also tastes the best to you because it is the freshest. Personally, I agree that it's a very dense Torte, but I've never found it particularly dry. Great video :)
I changed apricot for cherry jam (I just love chocolate cakes with cherries) with rum and moisturized the cake a little bit with tea combined with rum. It was super tasty.
Ii loved the history of John and Yoko clearing up the song lyrics! Some of the storiies in the comments are pretty incredible too! Food is so much more than just what we eat!🥰
But is it John and Yoko or John and YoLko?
@@Carty239 😆🤣I see what you did there!🍳
Fun fact! There is an area in Austria called the Wachau where, in summer, apricots grow in huge quantities and are used for wonderful dumplings, liqueurs, schnapps and more.
Love this channel! So professionally done! Entertaining and humorous while educational at the same time. Deserves to be on PBS!