Liptauer Cheese Recipe (2024)

Been making this exact recipe from a Time-Life Viennese cookbook for decades. Mixer unnecessary. Sieve the cottage cheese. Cream the butter with a wooden spoon. Combine. Add other ingredients. Best on small squares of pumpernickel or rye.

My Hungarian mother made Liptauer spread using anchovy fillets instead of capers, and putting the ingredients through a meat grinder instead of a sieve. We ate it spread on slices of homemade, very dark whole wheat bread. Sixty-plus years later I still remember it well.

Just revisited this recipe which is great. Want to make it easier? Drain the cottage cheese and then put it along with the rest of the ingredients into a food processor and process to your desired consisitency.

To be truer to the recipe from Austro-Hungary, use feta instead of cottage cheese, it is closer to the "ewe" cheese used in the original recipe and provides a sharper, more authentic taste.

My Austrian mother used to stuff the finished cheese mix into red peppers then slice them into decorative discs dusted with paprika. Let them chill well before you slice.

I have made this for yeas, taught by my mother-in-law, a refugee from Vienna. She never used cottage cheese but rather cream cheese mixed with blue cheese, an American adaptation of the Hungarian sheep's milk cheese from the area of Lipto (now in Slovakia, Liptau in the German she spoke and source of the spread's name.) Paprika of course, often caraway, sometimes mustard and onion.

Sieving cottage cheese is arduous. These days, you can whip up whatever ingredients don't need to remain whole in the food processor.

My Hungarian father never put any capers or anchovies into Liptauer, neither did my Viennese mother. We added a bit of crumbled feta to the mix, grated onion, caraway, salt, pepper, and of course, Hungarian paprika (hot if you could stomach it, mild if not). It was hard to let it sit for a day to meld the flavors without sampling it to make sure that it was ready to eat. Mm, the memories of fresh bread from the bakery with Liptauer melting into it.

Liptauer actually comes from Liptov area of present day Slovakia (I am Slovak, born and raised), made traditionally with a spring sheep’s milk cheese called bryndza. Closest approximation would probably be a mixture of farmers cheese and feta. There were no capers in the recipe, no anchovies either. But it is a personal taste what one puts in the cheese, and I don’t see why purity of the original should dictate what one prefers.

I tried Liptauer cheese once before and found it disgusting. But this is addictively delicious! I used half feta and half cottage cheese, thanks to the comments below, and whipped everything up in the food processor. Served with ciabatta toasts and a beautiful beet salad: kohlrabi greens, toasted pine nuts, pickled onions, capers, radishes, beets, dressed with buttermilk-thinned mascarpone/pomegranate molasses. What a meal!

I, too, got this recipe from the original Time-Life series and have made it often. I ave used well minced spring onions in place of the chives and onion. I also have made it with Hungarian hot paprika. I also serve it on the thin pumpernickel bread cut into squares.

Love this recipe. I've been making it for years. I use a variation with anchovies sometimes, but I never use caraway, because it is the one spice I hate. Sometimes I use toasted cumin seeds instead (same family). It's delicious!

My family is 100% Austrian and I grew up eating liptauer, but have never heard of it made with cottage cheese. In our family it has always been made with cream cheese, butter, anchovy paste, lots of paprika and chopped green pepper. I am sure different regions had different versions so I look forward to trying this one.

My Hungarian grandmother made this with cream cheese instead of cottage cheese and butter. It was a staple in our fridge.

Not sure how after so much work this ended up flavorless and boring. Fresh ingredients and precisely measured. Any suggestions would be appreciated. It looked like a good idea to begin with and so many comments recall it fondly...

I lived near Vienna for several years, married to an Austrian. The Liptauer we made, and that was served in dozens of wine taverns used Quark as the base cheese ingredient. It's not always easy to find, but it lends an incredible extra tang to the mix. If you can find it, it's definitely worth a try!

Warning to other lazy cooks: start with very soft butter. I was impatient and used semi-soft butter and it just stuck to the sides of the mixer bowl. Even after I left it at room temp for hours and scraped it off the slides, the butter would not incorporate with the other ingredients so I have butter lumps. Don't be me.

I tried Liptauer cheese once before and found it disgusting. But this is addictively delicious! I used half feta and half cottage cheese, thanks to the comments below, and whipped everything up in the food processor. Served with ciabatta toasts and a beautiful beet salad: kohlrabi greens, toasted pine nuts, pickled onions, capers, radishes, beets, dressed with buttermilk-thinned mascarpone/pomegranate molasses. What a meal!

Liptauer actually comes from Liptov area of present day Slovakia (I am Slovak, born and raised), made traditionally with a spring sheep’s milk cheese called bryndza. Closest approximation would probably be a mixture of farmers cheese and feta. There were no capers in the recipe, no anchovies either. But it is a personal taste what one puts in the cheese, and I don’t see why purity of the original should dictate what one prefers.

Sorry, my previous comment was not meant for this dish but rather Martha Rose Schulman's Lentil and Tomato Stew.

This was disgusting. This is the first thing that I have ever cooked that went straight into the garbage can. The only good thing I can say about this is that it contained no meat so it could be composted.

The recipe sounds very good but to be more authentic use sheep's milk cheese. Brindza is a cheese I've used but it is very hard to find. Feta could be substituted, but you may want to adjust the salt you add. I agree with the comments on using a food processor.

I was introduced to this in the late 1950's by family friends who had escaped from Hungary in 1956. Imagine my delight when I rediscovered this recipe in the Time Life series as a young adult.

My Hungarian father never put any capers or anchovies into Liptauer, neither did my Viennese mother. We added a bit of crumbled feta to the mix, grated onion, caraway, salt, pepper, and of course, Hungarian paprika (hot if you could stomach it, mild if not). It was hard to let it sit for a day to meld the flavors without sampling it to make sure that it was ready to eat. Mm, the memories of fresh bread from the bakery with Liptauer melting into it.

My family is 100% Austrian and I grew up eating liptauer, but have never heard of it made with cottage cheese. In our family it has always been made with cream cheese, butter, anchovy paste, lots of paprika and chopped green pepper. I am sure different regions had different versions so I look forward to trying this one.

Love this recipe. I've been making it for years. I use a variation with anchovies sometimes, but I never use caraway, because it is the one spice I hate. Sometimes I use toasted cumin seeds instead (same family). It's delicious!

I have made this for yeas, taught by my mother-in-law, a refugee from Vienna. She never used cottage cheese but rather cream cheese mixed with blue cheese, an American adaptation of the Hungarian sheep's milk cheese from the area of Lipto (now in Slovakia, Liptau in the German she spoke and source of the spread's name.) Paprika of course, often caraway, sometimes mustard and onion.

The original Viennese recipe could not have called for cottage cheese. What was it? Quark? Or some kind of Frischkäse or cream cheese?

Been making this exact recipe from a Time-Life Viennese cookbook for decades. Mixer unnecessary. Sieve the cottage cheese. Cream the butter with a wooden spoon. Combine. Add other ingredients. Best on small squares of pumpernickel or rye.