{"id":3147,"date":"2016-04-09T07:01:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T06:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/?p=3147"},"modified":"2025-02-04T11:04:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T10:04:15","slug":"kasekrainer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/eatingdrinking\/food\/kasekrainer\/","title":{"rendered":"The K\u00e4sekrainer sausage"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/kaesekrainer.jpg\" alt=\"The K\u00e4sekrainer sausage\" class=\"wp-image-3148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/kaesekrainer.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/kaesekrainer-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>You may associate Vienna with delicate cakes and Imperial dining. But the old stalwart of Viennese cuisine and a reliable solution to late-evening pangs of hunger is the humble and tasty fat bomb known as the K\u00e4sekrainer&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Cheese-filled parboiled sausage<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Take care when slicing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/eatingdrinking\/food\/sausages\/\">Vienna sausage guide<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/traditional-food-drink\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"1654\">Viennese food<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-is-a-kasekrainer\">What is a K\u00e4sekrainer?<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/stadiumfootballbeer.jpg\" alt=\"Photos of beer and sausages\" class=\"wp-image-62751\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/stadiumfootballbeer.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/stadiumfootballbeer-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Beer and K\u00e4sekrainer before the football game)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To answer the question in the headline: a large, thick parboiled sausage filled with small chunks of cheese (German: <em>K\u00e4se<\/em>) to which the K\u00e4sekrainer owes its name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You typically fry or grill it, which melts the cheese to create the distinctive texture and taste. Escaping cheese often forms a crust across the outside during this process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sausage stands usually serve the K\u00e4sekrainer with a white bread roll or a slice of dark bread, plus mustard and\/or ketchup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s something strangely captivating about cutting into one of these delights and seeing hot, melted cheese ooze or squirt out.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/kaesekrainer.jpg\" alt=\"K\u00e4sekrainer in a frying pan\" class=\"wp-image-41462\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/kaesekrainer.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/kaesekrainer-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Not likely to be confused with nouvelle cuisine)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, if you&#8217;re not careful, a sufficiently-distressed K\u00e4sekrainer can propel hot fat huge distances, necessitating the wearing of protective goggles and clothes normally seen in radiation labs. Which is why some places chop it up for you before serving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You may find locals describing this traditional sausage variety as an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/eatingdrinking\/food\/sausage-terms\/\">Eitrige<\/a>, from the German word &#8220;eitrig&#8221; which means ulcerous or pus-filled. A rather unpleasant description, but understandable when you see cheese seeping out of a sliced K\u00e4sekrainer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Debate rages as to whether this term is a real Viennese one or simply a devious invention to impress\/scare tourists.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The K\u00e4sekrainer enjoys particular popularity around football stadiums on matchdays, where it often appears inserted into a small baguette-like roll as a kind of hot dog.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/slicedkaesekrainer.jpg\" alt=\"Sliced K\u00e4sekrainer\" class=\"wp-image-42745\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/slicedkaesekrainer.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/slicedkaesekrainer-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Sliced K\u00e4sekrainer revealing the melted cheese texture within: usually served with bread, mustard and ketchup, rather than peas!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This sausage also holds a special place in my heart (presumably now blocked by cholesterol), as it was the first one I ate in Vienna. It continued to maintain a deep hold on my affections until I went vegetarian and will be my first meal should I ever reverse that decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, on my arrival in Austria, I misread the signs and called the K\u00e4sekrainer a Kaiserkrainer, which sounded entirely plausible given Vienna&#8217;s Imperial history (Kaiser is the German word for emperor). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/culture\/franz-joseph\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"26307\">Franz Joseph<\/a>, for example, was known for his love of plain Viennese food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the next fifteen years I kept ordering a Kaiserkrainer, to be met with the inquiry, &#8220;a K\u00e4sekrainer?&#8221; I always assumed this was local dialect for Kaiserkrainer and they were just checking whether they&#8217;d heard me properly. Fifteen. Years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"a-little-bit-of-history\">A little bit of history<\/h3>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ljubljana.jpg\" alt=\"Houses along a riverside\" class=\"wp-image-79974\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ljubljana.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ljubljana-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Ljubljana: the main town in the Krain region that originally gave us the forerunner of the K\u00e4sekrainer)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The K\u00e4sekrainer once almost caused a diplomatic incident between Slovenia and Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Slovenians persuaded the EU to give the Kranjska klobasa (German: Krainer Wurst; English: Carniolan sausage) the status of a &#8220;protected geographical indication&#8221;, reflecting its origins in the Krain region: an area that is now modern Slovenia and which includes the capital, Ljubljana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This would normally make it illegal to sell any Krainer Wurst under that name, unless sourced from the area in question. Which would have spelled (literally) the end of the K\u00e4sekrainer, which is technically  a variant of the Krainer Wurst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Naturally, this didn&#8217;t sit well with the Viennese authorities, presumably concerned about the loss of such a culturally-significant icon (and the renaming costs). Fortunately, the Slovenians were kind enough to accept a compromise and the K\u00e4sekrainer can still be called as such.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may associate Vienna with delicate cakes and Imperial dining. But the old stalwart of Viennese cuisine and a reliable solution to late-evening pangs of hunger is the humble and tasty fat bomb known as the K\u00e4sekrainer&#8230; What is a K\u00e4sekrainer? (Beer and K\u00e4sekrainer before the football game) To answer the question in the headline: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-food","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3147"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79975,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147\/revisions\/79975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}