Liptauer (Paprika-Spiced Cheese Spread)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Large mixing bowl
• •Wooden spoon or sturdy spatula
• •Small dry pan for toasting caraway
• •Mortar and pestle or spice grinder

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the Topfen base

   Press the Topfen through a fine sieve into a large bowl. This takes two minutes and most people skip it. Don't. Sieving breaks up any lumps and gives the finished spread that smooth, creamy consistency you get at a good Heuriger. If your quark is very wet, set it in the sieve over a bowl for ten minutes to drain off excess liquid first. A watery Liptauer tastes thin and won't hold together on bread.

   Full-fat Topfen is essential. Low-fat quark makes a chalky, sad spread. If you can't find Topfen, use full-fat quark or a mixture of cream cheese and ricotta, pressed through a sieve. It's not identical, but it gets you close.
2. 2

   Cream the butter

   Add the softened butter to the sieved Topfen and beat them together with a wooden spoon or spatula until completely smooth and homogeneous. The butter must be genuinely soft, not cold, not melted. If you can press your thumb into it easily, it's ready. The butter is what gives Liptauer its richness and its ability to spread like silk across dark bread. Without enough butter, you just have seasoned cheese.

3. 3

   Toast and grind the caraway

   Warm the caraway seeds in a small dry pan over medium heat, shaking occasionally, until they smell fragrant and start to pop. About two minutes. Grind them in a mortar or spice grinder. Freshly toasted caraway is a completely different ingredient from the dusty powder in the back of your cupboard. The heat wakes up the oils, and those oils are what give Liptauer its warm, earthy backbone.

   If you think you don't like caraway, you probably haven't had it freshly toasted. Try it once this way before you leave it out. It's the note that makes Liptauer taste like Austria.
4. 4

   Season the spread

   Add the paprika, mustard, chopped capers, minced onion, ground caraway, mashed anchovies if using, and chives to the Topfen mixture. Stir everything together thoroughly. The spread should turn a warm, sunset orange from the paprika. Taste it. Add salt carefully, especially if you've included the anchovies and capers, which bring their own salt. A few grinds of black pepper. The flavors need to be distinct but balanced: the paprika should lead, the mustard should hum underneath, the capers should give you little bursts of brine, and the caraway should linger at the finish.

5. 5

   Rest and develop

   Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least one hour, preferably two. This is not optional. The flavors need time to get to know each other. Fresh Liptauer tastes like a list of ingredients. Rested Liptauer tastes like one thing, and that one thing is exactly what you want with a glass of Grüner Veltliner on a warm evening.

   Gretel always said the best Liptauer is made the day before you need it. She was right. Overnight rest lets the paprika bloom and the onion mellows into the cheese. The spread you taste the next morning is noticeably better than what you put in the fridge.
6. 6

   Serve on a Brettl

   Mound the Liptauer into an earthenware crock or shape it into a generous dome on a wooden board. Dust the top with a little extra paprika and scatter fresh chives over it. Surround it with sliced dark rye bread, radishes, sliced cornichons, and whatever else belongs on a good Brettljause. Bring the whole board to the table and let people help themselves. This is not a dish you plate individually. It's a dish you share. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •Buy your paprika from a source that turns it over quickly. Paprika loses its color and flavor within months of opening. If yours is brown instead of vivid red, it's too old. Hungarian edelsüß (noble sweet) is what you want. It should smell warm and almost fruity when you open the tin.
• •The onion must be minced so fine it nearly dissolves into the spread. Big chunks of raw onion will ruin the texture and make the whole thing taste sharp instead of rounded. If your knife skills aren't there yet, grate the onion on a box grater and squeeze out the excess juice.
• •Liptauer keeps well in the fridge for four to five days, and it actually improves over the first two. Make it on Thursday, eat it all weekend. Cover it tightly or the surface will dry out and darken.
• •Don't skip the anchovies if you can manage them. They don't make it taste fishy. They add a salty depth that you can't quite identify but you'd miss if it weren't there. Gretel used them always. If you truly can't, add a small pinch of extra salt and know you're losing a dimension.

Advance Preparation

• •Liptauer should be made at least one hour ahead, and is best made the day before serving. The flavors develop and merge significantly with rest.
• •Store tightly covered in the fridge for up to five days. Remove from the fridge twenty minutes before serving so it softens enough to spread easily.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 75g)