Kaiser roll
🌱 VeganThe Kaiser roll is a typically round, crusty bread roll originally from Austria, made from white flour and marked on top with five symmetrical segments. Its German name means 'imperial roll', and it is one of the most recognisable breads of Central European baking.
History
Its exact origin is not documented with certainty. It is often said that the name honours Emperor Franz Joseph I, but the term appears in writing at least as early as 1825, before his reign began in 1848. What is better attested is that the type of roll already existed by the mid-18th century: a painting by Martin van Meytens from the 1760s shows rolls very like the modern ones beside each plate at a court dinner in the Hofburg palace.
Under the Habsburg monarchy, the roll spread to other parts of the former empire, including Galicia, Hungary, the Czech lands, Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia, where it received local names. From there it reached Germany, the United States and Canada, and Italian bakers in Austrian Lombardy made a hollow version.
Culture
In Austria it is a regular part of breakfast, usually served with butter and jam, and it is officially recognised as a traditional food. Regional variants exist: the Swiss and southern German version has a five-armed spiral pattern pressed in with a special stamp, while handmade rolls have an irregular design. Rolls may be topped with poppy, sesame, pumpkin or sunflower seeds, and they serve as buns for hamburgers or as a base for a slice of Leberkäse. In western New York, the kummelweck, topped with coarse salt and caraway, is the basis of the beef on weck sandwich of the Buffalo area.
Legend and fact
Several doubtful attributions circulate. The name is said to honour Franz Joseph I, yet the word appears before his reign. Another theory links it to a baking family called Kayzer in Opatów, and a third to a Viennese baker named Kayser around 1730, or to an 18th-century law on bread prices. None of these accounts is confirmed by conclusive documents.