Chapter 722 Dinner
Franz was a little speechless and didn't want to continue such meaningless things. Mrs. Sophie also found it boring.
"Mother, I heard that something unpleasant happened to you in Stuttgart (the capital of the Kingdom of Württemberg)?"
Mrs. Sophie's face turned cold.
"They're just a bunch of cowards who like to dig up old accounts."
Historically, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Kingdom of Württemberg, as an outpost in western Germany, did not receive support from the Austrian Empire when the French fought. The Kingdom of Württemberg later turned to Napoleon to attack the Austrian Empire, so the two sides had deep resentments.
Now Mrs. Sophie wants to ruin the good things of the Kingdom of Württemberg again, but even so, the latter still has no way to refuse, because at this time, the Austrian Empire has an absolute advantage in both the German Confederation and the German Customs Union. .
Thinking of those old sesame seeds and rotten millet, Mrs. Sophie's expression immediately changed.
"It's not because of you! Queen Alexandra will come to Vienna with Grand Duchess Olga Nikolayevna next month. You behave well! Don't make any mistakes!"
"Um."
Franz's attitude was quite sincere. After all, theoretically speaking, marriage with Russia was the best choice at this time, and it was also Mrs. Sophie's painstaking efforts.
But the latter felt that the former's attitude was not positive enough, and he couldn't help but have veins popping out on his forehead. However, she couldn't talk and couldn't fight, so she could only leave angrily.
The family dinner in the evening was extremely sumptuous, but the large amount of spices made the dishes lose their original taste.
In fact, professional chefs know this better than Franz, but it is a tradition. In the past, the use of spices was the privilege of the nobles, and the royal family naturally used more in order to show off their financial resources.
Especially now that Franz has opened up the spice route between Zanzibar and India, as well as Southeast Asia. The palace chefs used spices as if they were free.
The Austrian palace dinner is not the same as the French one. It has a strong Italian color and Czech style.
Most of the palace chefs in the Austrian Empire were Czechs. While striving for excellence, they also liked to make some inventions, which usually brought some surprises.
Of course, sometimes it can be frightening, such as the [Golden Smile] (a dish in the Chinese Little Master's house) that Franz accidentally mentioned before.
The palace chef reproduced it, and the things he made did not make people laugh, but made them laugh.
When Franz cut open the crust with a knife, a stream of syrup shot out. Fortunately, he was quick to avoid the sudden blow, but the waiter behind him was unlucky.
With a scream, a large number of palace guards rushed into the banquet hall, disrupting the entire banquet in a chaos that no one could explain.
With the lessons learned from last time, the palace chefs have also restrained themselves a little, at least they will not make any mistakes at the family dinner at this time.
A portion of white rice was placed in front of Franz. Because he had the habit of eating white rice since he was a child, people in the palace had long been accustomed to it.
However, this treatment is only given at family dinners. If there are guests present, Franz cannot hold the white rice and chew it.
In fact, rice is considered a dish in Western food, not rice. As for bread, it is usually used to wipe the mouth and pad the plate.
However, this custom gradually disappeared after the French Revolution, but this did not include the Austrian court.
Although it is white rice that is very common in modern times, it is expensive, because rice is rarely grown in Europe, and Franz likes to eat a kind of rice produced in the Iberian Peninsula. The transportation fee alone is already sky-high.
Of course, Franz couldn't know this, and he still felt that he was very frugal.
Franz was protected by the old emperor when he was young. When he grew up, he could make money on his own, so Mrs. Sophie did not interfere.
But this was completely partial in Maximilian's eyes, so he had to eat rice every meal.
Mrs. Sophie didn't care about her second son's unreasonable troubles. Anyway, the money was deducted from Maximilian's property.
The rest of the family doesn't have any preference for rice and prefers sweets.
In addition to a lot of sugar, cheese is also added to the beef soup, and Maria is holding a small pot of chocolate fondue and showing off.
Franz once tried to promote hot pot in Austria. This was mainly based on the experience of later generations. He felt that Europeans were relatively interested in hot pot.
However, the reality is that it is difficult for nobles to accept this kind of thing due to traditional concepts, and it is also very difficult to eat Asian hot pot with a knife and fork.
However, mere difficulties could not stop foodies, and soon small hotpots for single consumption were developed, which cleverly avoided hygiene problems.
Then to solve the problem of knives and forks not suitable for hot pot, they took out tweezers directly from the laboratory.
Then came the localization development. Austrians like to use cheese, chocolate, or even cream directly as the bottom of the pot.
In Franz's opinion, this was completely dark cuisine, but they were quite happy eating it, and Franz couldn't say anything.
All kinds of weird hot pots were placed in front of him, but Franz felt that his clear soup pot was a little out of place.
However, this was considered a specialty dish in the Austrian court at this time.
Then there is the fried pork chop, which is a specialty of the Austrian Empire. Other countries prefer to eat steak.
This is not because pork is cheap, in fact there is a reason for this, sheep and pigs are a specialty of the Austrian Empire.
This is a kind of pig with soft and long hair all over its body. From a distance, this guy looks like a very big sheep.
What’s even more bizarre is that the hair of sheep and pigs can really be woven into sweaters. At the same time, the body fat rate of this kind of pig can reach an astonishing 70%, making it the Wagyu among pigs (the highest grade Wagyu has a body fat rate of 56%).
In addition, generally speaking, the more fat there is, the better it is for steak, and the opposite is better for stewing soup.
In Austria in the 19th century, some people even kept sheep and pigs as pets, mainly because of their docile and stable character and high IQ.
But Franz is not a fighting nation, and he cannot accept a pet weighing nearly 500 pounds.
Sheep and pigs are good, but they require a lot of food and have too much fat. Franz doesn't like them. Although the pork ribs are delicious, the price is too high.
There is no problem if it is food or luxury goods for nobles, but it is too difficult to promote it.
Landrace pig is also known as Landrace pig in later generations. The Landrace pig here is not a pig from Changbai Mountain, but describes this kind of pig as long and white. At the same time, it is also used to distinguish Yorkshire from large white pigs.
Landrace pigs were the best lean pigs in the world before 1950. They eat a variety of foods, grow meat quickly and have a lot of lean meat.
So Franz first started promoting Landrace pigs, but he soon encountered problems. That is a pig house that ordinary people cannot afford to raise, and are weak and need to be improved.
This was almost impossible for ordinary farmers at that time, because they still lived in houses with drafts everywhere.
Moreover, Landrace pigs are not as adaptable to the environment as the native Austrian sheep pigs, and they cannot face predators such as European gray wolves and coyotes.