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ShareTafelspitz is a first quality cut of boiled beef -- it is a Viennese specialty.Incidentally, the Viennese get agitated if you refer to the Weinerschniztler, the breaded cutlet, as their national dish; they claim this is from Milan and owes nothing to Vienna.
No, various kinds of boiled meats and sausages constitute the national cuisine of Vienna and the Tafelspitz is considered high gastronomy as it is acut from the narrowest and most tender part of the brisket. In the US the brisket is one cut, whilst the Viennese further dissect the brisket into even finer pieces, such as the Schwarzes, Scherzl, Hieferschwanzl and the finest, the Tafelspitz. The craft of the butcher is showcased in the way he cuts the meat.
I ordered it in the traditional way, served in a broth or consomme; with marrow bones and vegetables. You first drink the broth as a soup (a kind of shorba), but when you have had your fill, the waiter will fish out the cuts of beef and put it on your plate with Apfelkren, which is apple, horse radish sauce and spatzle.
Boiled beef does not sound very appetizing. But a Tafelspitz prepared properly is a treat, succulent beyond belief. Everything depends on the cut. Traditionally, in the days of Hapsburgs, the restaurant famous for its Tafelspitz was Meissl and Schadn.
The restaurant had a farm where it reared its own cattle, spoilt on sugar beet mash, giving the beef an amazing marble texture and juice. For some years after the war the Viennese butchers forgot how to cut the beef in the traditional way, but there is now a revival and desire to resurrect some of the old culinary traditions.
This brings me to a concern which relates to traditional cuisine -- the fact that one of the most fast disappearing culinary arts is butchery. This is strange at a time when there is a movement to rear animals in traditional ways rather than factory breeding. You notice this particularly in the West where the supermarket revolution has displaced the butcher shop of old, rendering many old recipes redundant as there are few master butchers left to prepare the cuts.
This has particularly affected offal delicacies like veal cheek, oxtail, sweetbreads and tripe, which are not easy to get as they were a quarter of a century back.Now people are content to buy supermarket ready packed meat cuts, which are not as varied or delicate as those cut by a master butcher.
In our cuisine there is much less call for such expertise, as we tend to buy meat for the purpose of currying, where cuts such as the leg or neck of the goat are the best chopped into pieces, or minced for kheema. Occasionally, one would go to town and order a raan (a full leg), a relatively easy cut.
Unfortunately, there are few butchers left who can prepare a pasanda, the nearest equivalent to an escalope, a boneless slice of meat.
Even lamb shanks or nihari involves understanding of cutting the joint at a particular juncture which is beyond many butchers. Trotters or paya can be utterly delicious, but finding butchers who properly prepare the trotters for cooking is becoming difficult. In some cases an inexperienced butcher would remove the skin, just leaving the bone, somewhat defeating the purpose of the trotter.
