Šmorn
Šmorn (or Kaiserschmarren in Austria) is a shredded fluffy pancake often made with raisins and sprinkled with powdered sugar, served with jams or with sweetened wild blueberries. It can be a sweet main course or a dessert. We usually have it for breakfast.
The Slovenian name of the dish, šmorn, is derived from the German word Schmarren, which has been in use in Bavaria and Austria since the 16th century and describes a pastry baked in fat or lard (the old German word for lard is ‘Schmer’). The word Schmarren can also be used in a figurative sense as an expression of contempt in the sense of nonsense or rubbish.
The country dwellers of the past did not lack milk, eggs, flour and lard. Among the multitude of dishes created from these ingredients, Schmarren was particularly popular, especially among the lumberjacks high up in the mountains who were dependent on preparing calorie-rich food quickly and easily over an open fire. So that everyone could have some, the baked mass was shredded into small bits. In addition to flour, semolina flour and bread rolls were also used.
In the 18th century the peasant Schmarren dishes reached the middle-class. It took another hundred years before they made it to the Viennese court, where they were made with ingredients that were only accessible to the wealthiest, such as sugar and white flour, symbols of prosperity at the time. When the dishes were made with such distinguished ingredients, they were appended the name ‘Kaiser.’ This gave birth to the now world famous Kaiserschmarren, which we call šmorn in my dialect (the formal Slovenian name is Carski praženec).
There are several legends about the origin of Kaiserschmarren that can be traced back to Emperor Franz Joseph I (1830 to 1916). According to one, the Kaiser is said to have been served Schmarren by lumberjacks on one of his hunting trips in the Salzkammergut. This was refined in his honor with ingredients such as milk, raisins and eggs. This is how an ordinary lumberjack pancake became Kaiserschmarren. According to another legend the court chef's pancake dough once got too thick and tore. The dessert still got served to the emperor, but he supposedly sent it back with the words: ‘Such rubbish (Schmarren) is not worthy of the emperor!’ There is also a legend that Kaiserschmarren was originally actually a ‘Kaiserinschmarren’ because it was created in 1854 by Viennese chefs for Empress Elisabeth. However, Empress Elisabeth (‘Sisi’), who always paid attention to her figure, liked it less than her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph I, and so it became ‘Kaiserschmarren.’
Recipe
Ingredients for 2 people:
2 eggs
30 g + 1 tbsp sugar
120 g flour
a pinch of salt
250 ml milk
25 g butter + 10 g butter
raisins soaked in rum (optional)
powdered sugar, various jams or sweetened wild blueberries
Instructions:
Soak raisins in rum overnight if you decide to make šmorn with raisins.
Separate the egg whites and beat them to stiff peaks, but be careful not to overbeat them. Mix the rest of the ingredients.
Fold the beaten egg whites into the flour-milk mixture.
Melt the butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Pour the batter into the skillet and sprinkle the drained raisins over the batter after about three minutes.
When the bottom is golden brown, cut the thick pancake into quarters and flip each part separately even if the top is still a little runny.
When the quarters are golden brown underneath, tear them with a fork into smaller bite-size pieces.
Add 10 g butter and then sprinkle the pancake pieces with 1 tbsp sugar. Gently toss the pieces for a few minutes until the sugar has caramelized.
Sprinkle with sugar and serve with jams or blueberries.