Gebackener Emmentaler im Bierteig

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Deep heavy-bottomed pot or pan for frying
• •Kitchen thermometer
• •Wire cooling rack
• •Tongs or slotted spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Chill the cheese

   Cut the Emmentaler into four even slices, each about one and a half centimeters thick. You want substantial pieces, not thin slabs. The thickness matters because the cheese needs enough mass to stay intact inside the hot batter while the crust sets around it. Place the slices on a plate and put them in the fridge for at least fifteen minutes while you make the batter. Cold cheese is your insurance policy against a melted disaster in the pan.

   Buy a whole piece of Emmentaler and cut it yourself. Pre-sliced supermarket cheese is too thin for this. You want to see the characteristic holes in the cross-section, and you need that full centimeter and a half of thickness.
2. 2

   Make the beer batter

   Whisk together the flour, egg, salt, white pepper, and paprika in a wide bowl. Pour in the cold lager slowly, whisking as you go. The batter should be smooth, about the consistency of thick cream, and it should coat the back of a spoon without sliding off immediately. A few small lumps are fine. Don't overwork it. Overworking develops the gluten, and gluten makes the coating tough and chewy instead of crisp and shattering. Let the batter rest for ten minutes. The carbonation is doing its work during this rest, building tiny air pockets throughout the batter that will puff up in the hot oil.

   The beer must be cold. Warm beer has lost most of its carbonation, and it's the bubbles that make this batter light. Open the bottle right before you pour it. Use any pale Austrian lager you'd drink on its own. Stiegl Goldbraü, Ottakringer Helles, Zipfer, whatever's in your fridge.
3. 3

   Heat the oil

   Pour enough oil into a deep, heavy pan or pot to reach a depth of at least five centimeters. Heat it to 170°C. Use a thermometer if you have one. If you don't, drop a small cube of bread into the oil. It should sizzle immediately and turn golden in about forty seconds. If it browns in ten seconds, the oil is too hot and the batter will burn before the cheese softens. If it just sits there looking pale, give it another minute.

4. 4

   Dredge and batter

   Take the cheese slices from the fridge. Pat them completely dry with kitchen paper. This is important: moisture on the cheese surface will make the batter slide off instead of clinging. Dredge each slice lightly in plain flour, shake off the excess, then dip it into the beer batter, turning to coat all sides evenly. Let the excess drip off for a second or two before it goes into the oil. The flour layer acts as glue between the smooth cheese surface and the wet batter. Skip it and your coating will peel away in the oil like a bad sunburn.

5. 5

   Fry until golden

   Lower the battered cheese slices gently into the hot oil, two at a time at most. Don't crowd the pan. Each piece needs space to float freely, and too many cold pieces at once will drop your oil temperature below what it needs to crisp properly. Fry for about three to four minutes, turning once halfway through, until the crust is an even deep gold on all sides and feels firm when you tap it with your tongs. The batter should look dry and crisp, not oily or pale. Lift each piece out and let it drain on a wire rack, not kitchen paper. Paper traps the oil underneath and steams the bottom crust soggy. A rack lets air circulate and keeps everything crisp.

   If cheese starts leaking through a small crack in the batter, don't panic. Pull the piece out immediately, let it cool for thirty seconds, then return it to the oil. The escaped cheese will seal itself and the crust will recover. This happens sometimes. It's not a failure.
6. 6

   Plate and serve

   Scatter the fresh cress across a wooden Brettl board or a wide plate to make a peppery bed. Set the fried Emmentaler slices on top while they're still hot. Sprinkle with a pinch of coarse salt. Tuck the lemon wedges alongside. Squeeze the lemon over the crust right before you eat, while it's hot enough for the juice to hiss against the surface. The acidity cuts through the richness of the cheese and the fried batter, and the cress adds a sharp, green bite that keeps every mouthful honest. Serve immediately. This is not a dish that improves with waiting. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •Austrian Emmentaler is milder and creamier than Swiss Emmentaler, and it melts more gracefully without turning oily. If you can find Austrian-made Emmentaler, use it. If not, look for a young, mild Swiss Emmentaler rather than an aged one. Aged Emmentaler splits and releases fat when heated.
• •Don't substitute dark beer, wheat beer, or anything hoppy for the lager. Dark beers add a bitter edge to the batter that fights the cheese instead of supporting it. You want clean malt sweetness and good carbonation, nothing more.
• •If you're serving this at a dinner party, fry the cheese last, after everything else is ready. You can hold fried Emmentaler on a wire rack in a 100°C oven for five minutes at most, but it's best straight from the oil to the table. The window between perfect and rubbery is about ten minutes.
• •Cress is the traditional garnish and it's there for a reason. Its sharp, peppery bite is the counterpoint to all that rich, melted cheese. Rocket works in a pinch, but cress is what you'd get at a proper Gasthaus.

Advance Preparation

• •The cheese can be sliced and refrigerated up to a day ahead, kept well wrapped so it doesn't dry out.
• •The batter should be made no more than thirty minutes before frying. After that, the carbonation dies and you lose the lightness.
• •This dish cannot be reheated. Fried cheese that has cooled turns rubbery and sad. Make it, serve it, eat it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 190g)