Every Austrian ski hut, every Heuriger wine tavern, every Gasthaus with a handwritten Speisekarte has this on the menu somewhere. Gebackener Camembert. A whole wheel of cheese, coated in flour, egg, and fine breadcrumbs, then fried in Butterschmalz until the outside is shatteringly crisp and the inside is just starting to go soft and warm. You cut into it at the table and the cheese sighs.

I first had this as a child on one of our trips to Austria with Gretel and my grandmother Eva. We were somewhere in the Salzkammergut, sitting at a wooden table outside a Gasthaus, and my plate arrived with this golden disc on it, a little heap of dark Preiselbeeren on the side, and two thick slices of Bauernbrot. I didn't know what it was. I cut into it and the cheese inside was warm and yielding, not quite melted, just on the edge of giving way. The tartness of the Preiselbeeren cut right through the richness. I was maybe eight years old and I remember thinking: this is the best thing I've ever eaten.

The technique is the same three-step breading you use for Wiener Schnitzel: flour, egg, breadcrumbs. The difference is speed. You're frying cheese, not meat, so you need your Butterschmalz properly hot and your timing tight. Too long in the pan and the cheese melts through the crust and you've lost it. Too short and the coating is pale and sad. Two minutes a side. That's all you get. Have everything ready before you start, because once the cheese hits the fat, you're committed.