Let me explain. There is a cake in Chapter 4 (Tortes Without Flour) called Chocolate Saddle of Venison, or Rehrücken. Apparently it is "a well-loved cake in Austria, with a great tradition - a favorite of connoisseurs" (p. 144).
Basically, Rehrücken is a long, thin chocolate cake baked in a small quonset hut. Seattle kitchen store Sur La Table will sell you the distinctive ribbed pan here for $27. Once baked, Rehrücken is decorated with chocolate icing and slivered almonds that stick out like porcupine quills. With a little imagination, says Reich, it looks very much like...well, a saddle of venison.
What really gets me is not the existence of this cake, but the lack of a story to go with it. Was it invented when real venison was scarce? Is it evidence of early vegetarianism? Was some cook, a very long time ago, very, very bored?
I would love to find out, but everyone seems so blasé about Rehrücken's origins! Curmudgeon's recipe on Chowhound (which dates from 1860) says only this about it: "Rehrücken: A cake named after, and made to look like a tenderloin of venison." Nope, nothing weird about that!
My guess is that Rehrücken was meant to be a tribute to real venison. Live-Like-A-German.com (which has some great German recipes!) sure makes real venison sound good: "Rehrücken means venison tenderloin and it is often served with freshly made noodles such as Spätzle and a very nice gravy based on a dry red wine."
Mmm.
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