I’ve never seen a recipe for a Brettljause, but if I had to write one, it would go something like this: take a piece of wood, put on it a few slices of different types of meat (if you have no imagination, stick to Speck (bacon), Kümmelbraten (errr… ham), cold Schweinsbraten (pork roast) and Blunzen (blood sausage)). Add some cheese, horseradish, mustard, a salted cucumber and a Pfefferoni. Some spread would be great, but Schmalz (pig fat) would do nicely, too.
It is as if Husar has read that unwritten recipe. Everything listed above is there apart from the horseradish and mustard, which are greatly missed. The quality – apart from the very basic and industrial Emmentaler cheese – is OK, but the portions are rather small, and only the salad, containing, strangely enough, some apples, added a bit of volume and diversity. The Schmalz was easily the best part – creamy and super-fat and containing the biggest and crunchiest balls of roasted pork fat I’ve ever tasted.
This is the first Heuriger I have visited in the recently discovered wine village of Sooss close to Baden. It’s absolutely OK, if a bit basic, and the fact that they counted a 1/8 glass of wine as a 1/4 is totally forgivable. There must be better places on the same street (there seem to be a couple of dozens of them), but there are also much worse Brettljausen to experience elsewhere.
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