Kasnocken
The most typical mountain food that accompanies you at the mountain huts and alms, while skiing or hiking in the Alps is Kasnocken. Kasnocken are a local variant of the more famous meal with many names, depending on the area where we eat them we call them Käsespätzle, Chäschnöpfli (Switzerland), Käsknöpfle (Vorarlberg) or Kässpätzle / Kässpatzâ / Kässpatzn (Swabia). It is a meal from the regions of Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Slazburg, Upper Styria, Liechtenstein, Swabia, Allgäu and Switzerland and its precise geographic origin is not known. I will stick to the name Kasnocken, because this local variant is the most common in Austrian Alps. Kasnocken variation originates in Salzburg, precisely area Pinzgau and the upper Styria. The meal consists of the hot dumplings mixed with the grated hard cheese, which are alternately stacked and garnished with fried onions. Unlike typical Kässpätzle which are baked in oven, Kasnocken are prepared in a pan. They are mostly served with a salad and sometimes even with an apple mouse.You can get them almost everywhere in the Alps, in every hut, in every restaurant; the quality mostly depends on a quality of cheese. Below the text you can find a few suggestions where to eat them.
Jagatee
Kasnocken are very often accompanied by the most common and the most typical Austrian mountain hot beverage Jagatee. Jagatee or the hunter tea in English is the black tea mixed with the Inländer rum. Inländer rum is the Austrian alcoholic beverage with up to 80% alcohol content made of sugar cane. Jagatee contains from 12% to 15% alcohol and is always drunk hot. Austria is the only country that has exclusive rights to the production of Jagatee under this name. German variation of the same drink has the other name. Although its name suggests that the beverage is made for hunters, nowadays it is mainly drunk by skiers in the mountain huts and alms and it became one of the most popular après-ski drinks.
The author
Ogi Savic
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