Beethoven was a music composer, and as such, we rather focus on his music than his eating habits! Nevertheless, it is good to know what he preferred when it came to eating, as it gives us a more complete picture of the man. We do not have many direct evidences about his preference in food, we only have recollections of others.
Supposedly he said that “Only the pure in heart can make a good soup!” Other sources are pointing to soup with twelve drowned eggs, as his favorite soup.
According to Schindler, he liked macaroni with Parmesan cheese, something that was probably not a cheap meal at the time in Vienna. The Parmesan was likely imported to Vienna from Italy, making this dish expensive.
It is believed that he preferred fish over meat. In this regard, pollock with potatoes is said to have been his choice.
A specialty both Beethoven and his father liked was the Krammetsvögel, made from thrush, fattened on juniper berries.
As for the drinks. Viennese at the time preferred wine over beer, and we know Beethoven liked wine… probably a bit too much! He also liked coffee, and urban legend has it that he made his with exactly 60 coffee beans.
The woods surrounding Vienna were full with inns and as Beethoven had a walk or hike every day, we can assume he was well known in these small restaurants usually offering simple food and cheap wine.
About the Austrian Cuisine in general we can say that it emerged as a mixture of many ethnic groups living in the Habsburg Empire. Once it stretched from Imperial Russia to the Adriatic with more than a dozen nationalities. French cuisine was influential, just as their ideas of the Revolution, and Italy had many things to offer even before the Pizza. Both coffee and Apfelstrudel are introduced by the Turks as a side effect of their invasion. Palatschinken (crêpes) and the Gulasch came from the Hungarians, roasts and sausages mainly German taste, sweets and pastries from Bohemia.
