Chapter 722 Dinner

Franz was a little speechless and didn't want to continue this meaningless thing. Mrs. Sophie also found it boring.

"Mother, I heard that you had some unpleasant things in Stuttgart (the capital of the Kingdom of Württemberg)?"

Mrs. Sophie's face turned cold.

"It's just a group of cowards who are petty and like to dig up old scores."

Historically, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Kingdom of Württemberg, as an outpost in western Germany, did not receive support from the Austrian Empire when fighting the French. The Kingdom of Württemberg later turned to Napoleon to attack the Austrian Empire, so the two sides had deep resentment.

Now Mrs. Sophie is going 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, whether in the German Confederation or in the German Customs Union, the Austrian Empire has an absolute advantage.

Thinking of the old sesame seeds and rotten grains before, Mrs. Sophie's face changed immediately.

"It's all because of you! Empress Alexandra will bring Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna to Vienna next month, so you should behave yourself! Don't make any trouble!"

"Yes."

Franz's attitude was quite sincere. After all, theoretically speaking, marriage with Russia was the best choice at this time, and this was also Madame Sophie's painstaking effort.

But the latter felt that the former's attitude was not positive enough, and veins on her forehead bulged. However, she could not talk or beat him, so she could only leave angrily.

The family dinner in the evening was extremely rich, but the large amount of spices made the dishes lose their original taste.

In fact, professional chefs understand this better than Franz, but this is a tradition. It used to be the privilege of the nobles to use spices, and the royal family naturally used more to show their financial strength.

Especially now that Franz has opened up the spice channels in Zanzibar, India, and Southeast Asia. The court chefs use spices as if they don't cost money.

Austrian court banquets are different from those of the French, with a strong Italian color and Czech style.

Most of the court chefs in the Austrian Empire were Czechs. They were striving for perfection and liked to invent and create, which usually brought some surprises.

Of course, sometimes there would be shocks, such as the [Golden Smile] (a dish in the Chinese Cooking Master Boy) that Franz had mentioned before.

The court chefs reproduced it, and the food they made did not smile, but sprayed.

When Franz cut the skin with a knife, a stream of syrup spurted out. Fortunately, he was agile and avoided the sudden attack, but the waiter behind him was unlucky.

With a scream, a large number of court guards rushed into the banquet hall, and in a chaos that no one could explain, the whole banquet was ruined.

With the previous lesson, the court chefs also restrained themselves a little, at least they would not do anything 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, so people in the court had long been accustomed to it.

However, this treatment was only available at family dinners. If there were guests present, Franz could not eat white rice.

In fact, in Western cuisine, rice is considered a dish, not a meal. 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 a very common white rice 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, and the transportation fee alone is already sky-high.

Of course, Franz could not know these, and he still thought he was very frugal.

When Franz was young, he was protected by the old emperor, and when he grew up, he could make money by himself, so Madame Sophie did not interfere.

But this was completely partiality in Maximilian's eyes, so he also had to eat rice with his arms at every meal.

Madame Sophie did not care about the unreasonable behavior of her second son, anyway, the money was deducted from Maximilian's property.

The rest of the family had no preference for rice, they preferred sweets.

In addition to a lot of sugar, cheese was also added to the beef soup, and Maria was showing off a small pot of chocolate hot pot.

Franz once tried to promote hot pot in Austria, mainly from the experience of later generations, he felt that Europeans were relatively interested in hot pot.

However, the reality is that the nobles find it difficult 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.

But the difficulties can't stop the foodies, and soon a small hot pot for single consumption was developed. This small hot pot cleverly avoids hygiene problems.

Then in response to the problem that knives and forks are not suitable for hot pot, they took out tweezers directly from the laboratory.

Then it was localized development. Austrians like to use cheese or chocolate, or even cream as the bottom of the pot.

This is completely dark cuisine in Franz's view, but they are quite happy to eat it, and Franz can't say anything.

There are all kinds of weird hot pots in front of him, but Franz feels that his clear soup pot is a bit out of place.

However, this is also a special dish of the Austrian court at this time.

Then there is fried pork chops, which is a specialty of the Austrian Empire. Other countries prefer steak.

This is not because pork is cheap, in fact, there is a reason for this, sheep and pigs are the specialty of the Austrian Empire.

This is a kind of pig with soft and long hair all over its body. This guy looks like a big sheep from a distance.

What's even more bizarre is that the hair of sheep pigs can really be woven into sweaters. At the same time, the body fat rate of this pig can reach an astonishing 70%, which can be called the middle Wagyu of pigs (the highest grade Wagyu body fat rate can reach 56%).

In addition, generally speaking, the more fat, the more suitable it is for making steak, and the opposite is suitable for stewing soup.

In Austria in the 19th century, some people even kept sheep pigs as pets, mainly because this kind of pig has a gentle and stable personality and a very high IQ.

But Franz is not a fighting nation, he can't accept a pet weighing nearly 500 kilograms.

Sheep pigs are good, but this thing has high requirements for food and too much fat, Franz doesn't like it. Although pork ribs are delicious, the price is too high.

If it is used as food for the nobility or luxury goods, there is no problem, but it is too difficult to promote it.

Landrace pigs, also known as Landrace pigs in later generations, are not pigs from Changbai Mountain, but are used to describe this type of pig as being long and white. It is also used to distinguish it from Yorkshire white pigs.

Landrace pigs were the best lean meat 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 to promote Landrace pigs, but soon encountered problems. That is, ordinary people simply cannot afford to raise them, and they are weak and need a complete pig house.

This was almost impossible for ordinary farmers at the time, because they themselves lived in leaky houses.

Moreover, Landrace pigs are not as adaptable to the environment as Austrian sheep pigs, and they cannot face predators such as European gray wolves and coyotes.