The Austrian Liptauer Recipe is a flavorful cheese spread or dip enriched with Paprika and other spices and ingredients.
If you like cream cheese spread over your bread, you might also enjoy my spicy cream cheese spread.
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What is Liptauer?
Liptauer is a well seasoned and spiced cottage cheese spread.
This particular spicy spread is traditionally made with sheep's milk cheese, also known as bryndza.
Liptauer originated in the region of Liptov in Slovakia, which used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the fall in 1918.
The spread was popular at that time among the royal circle and was served with a caviar topping at court and in noble restaurants in Vienna.
Nowadays, the cheese spread is served as a snack in most homes in Austria, Slovakia, and surrounding countries.
In Hungary, the Liptauer is served as an appetizer known as Körözött.
Ingredients
- Fresh Cottage Cheese — In Austria we use Topfen and in Germany, Quark (the same thing, just different names). It's basically cottage cheese with a high fat percentage. In Hungary and Slovakia they use cheep milk Bryndza. You can use just any cottage cheese to make Liptauer cheese.
- Butter — Unsalted or salted (adjust salt quantity as per taste). Soft so that you can mix it into the cottage cheese.
- Onion — Finely chopped
- Garlic Clove — Finely chopped. If it's a large one, use half, or else it will overpower everything else.
- Dijon Mustard — little secret ingredient. 🙂
- Paprika Powder — sweet variety is preferred, but you can also use smoked paprika.
- Caraway Seeds Whole — not cumin seeds, these are two different spices! Caraway seeds are an essential flavoring ingredient in the Liptauer.
- Salt
- Black Pepper Ground
📖 Recipe
Austrian Liptauer Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
Liptauer Cheese
- ½ cup Fresh Cottage Cheese *See Notes
- 2 Tablespoons Butter soft
- 1 Tablespoon Onion chopped
- 1 Garlic Clove chopped
- 1 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard secret ingredient
- 1 ½ Teaspoon Paprika Powder sweet variety or smoked
- ¼ Teaspoon Caraway Seeds Whole it's a main ingredient!
- ¼ Teaspoon Salt
- Black Pepper Ground pinch
Garnish Ideas
- Bell Pepper sliced or diced small
- Pickles chopped
- Capers
- Pink Radish slices
Instructions
- Grab a bowl and add the soft butter together with the quark and mix well. See that no bits are left, and the mixture is smooth. I like to use a fork for that.½ cup Fresh Cottage Cheese, 2 Tablespoons Butter
- Chop garlic and onion fine, add them to the quark/butter mix.1 Tablespoon Onion, 1 Garlic Clove
- Toss in the Dijon mustard, paprika powder, caraway seeds, salt, and ground pepper.1 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard, 1 ½ Teaspoon Paprika Powder, ¼ Teaspoon Caraway Seeds Whole, ¼ Teaspoon Salt, Black Pepper Ground
- Garnish with chopped bell pepper or pickled cucumbers or capers or pink radish slices.Bell Pepper, Pickles, Pink Radish, Capers
Notes
- ½ cup cottage cheese is about 4 ounces or 110 grams.
- Use a cottage cheese rich in fats for the best results, avoid low-fat cottage cheese! If you can get cottage cheese from a farmer's market, that would be the best option. If you can get 20% fat fresh cottage cheese, such as the Slovakian bryndza sheep cheese, that would be the most suitable choice. Of course, these are hard to get by, so 4% to 6% cottage cheese will have to do. If your cottage contains liquids, strain it with a cheese cloth. In Austria, we use Topfen or, in Germany, Quark.
- You can also use Mascarpone or other flavorless plain cream cheese.
- In Eastern Europe, sheep cream cheese is still very common, and it lends the Liptauer a certain special flavor.
Equipment
- Small Mixing Bowl
- 8" Chef Knife
Nutrition
Serving
The Liptauer is a staple in most traditional inns in Eastern Austria. These inns are called Buschenschanken or Heuriger, and they serve the spread as part of a charcuterie-like plate.
Buschenschanken offer their home own wine and locally sourced food products such as cheese, cold cuts, and bread.
The best way to taste the cheese spread is on a freshly baked wholewheat bread. I like it with my spelt flour bread.
Therefore, I can only highly recommend this spread as part of a holiday charcuterie board.
In Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia, people spread it over their bread for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Spread some of it into your sandwich bread with other cold cuts or turn it into a Liptauer cheese dip by serving up salted sticks or a pretzel with it, inspired by the Bavarian Obatzda cheese dip.
Fresh pink radish, shredded or ground horseradish, and pickles make for a great addition and small side dish salad go well along as in a white radish salad, kohlrabi salad or turnip salad.
You can garnish the cheese spread with caraway seeds, paprika powder or chopped garden cress.
They do sell ready-made Liptauer in stores in these regions, but to be honest, homemade always trumps it all!
Tip: If you are planning to travel the wonderful Austrian plains, then you might need this food English/German/Austrian German translation, and you might appreciate a general Austrian German translation to common travel terms.
Storing
When we prepare Liptauer cheese at home, we make a batch for the coming days.
Pack your freshly made Liptauer into a rectangular glass container and close well with a lid. I like those small IKEA glass containers for dips and sauces.
For the shelf life, check the best before label on the cottage cheese packaging.
Refrigerate your Liptauer cheese at all times!
If you take it with you to work, keep it in the fridge as soon as you gt to your workplace or carry it around in an insulated lunch bag.
Great recipe! How long can it be stored for/ what is its life expectancy? Not sure with the fresh onion how long it will keep. How many grams of liptauer is made per serve? And is it just a clove of garlic?
This looks good. I'll bet you could put some on a regular sandwich too and turn it into something more special...
It's first time hearing this spread but now I know. 🙂 I'm really interested in Austrian dishes as I'm not familiar. I wish we can be more exposed to them in the US. Looks and sounds delicious though! Thanks for educating us! 🙂
Liptauer spread is not something unknown to me, but I have never eaten it. I bet it tastes wonderful! We eat a lot of quark in Switzerland.
Cheers,
Rosa
You really have such an enjoyable blog, Helene. I just never know what I will find when I arrive and your stories are always so personal.
I have experienced Liptauer and I immediately grew quite fond of it. Black bread has never been one of my fortes either. I love what you have done with this spread and the fact that there was no paprika available didn't harm it one tiny bit:)
Thank you so much for sharing...
I'd definitely try this creamy spread on brown bread....new to me, too, but it sounds delightful!
Hi Helene! It's unfortunate that I've never heard of this spread. I learn so many new ingredients and recipes/food from blog hopping. I'd never know if I wasn't visiting food blogs! I would love to try this spread - according to your recommendation it sounds amazing. 🙂
Actually bryndza is produced for centuries in both Slovakia and Poland. Both countries have registered the name as a regional product in the European Union. Frankly, I even didn't know about the Slovakian one, but knew only the Polish bryndza.
This spread looks delicious and reminds me of a Hungarian cheese spread with paprika 🙂 Hungarians also add caraway seeds often. I must try making it one day.
Hungarian cheese spread what you mean is the same as in this post, the liptauer. Austria and hungary, slovakia etc used to be one empire and this spread used to be served to the royal court back then.
Bryndza is originally branza, a Wallachian cheese that was brought by the Romanian Vlach shepherds across the Carpathian mountain ranges of Eastern and Central Europe. Branza is made either with cows or sheeps milk, despite bryndza only being known to be a sheeps cheese <3 It was described for the first time in the port of Dubrovnik 1370 as Vlach or Wallachian cheese.