Tafelspitz with Apple-Horseradish Sauce
A fine piece of beef long-poached in a root broth until tender, sliced and coated with a lively sauce of horseradish and apple. The resulting broth serves as an opening soup: one dish, two courses.
A fine piece of beef long-poached in a root broth until tender, sliced and coated with a lively sauce of horseradish and apple. The resulting broth serves as an opening soup: one dish, two courses.
Allow me to present the dish of my Viennese childhood. At home, we were eight children, and my mother knew that a tip of beef, set to simmer from morning in its water with roots, fed all of us without needing to be watched. It is, you see, a cuisine of patience: one stirs nothing, one lets time do its work, exactly as one waits for an experiment to finally yield its result. And the horseradish — never forget it — it is what awakens the meekest meat. I kept this simple taste even in my exile, where they served me far more austere things.
- •Beef tip (gîte or top round) — a fine piece (poaching meat)
- •Marrow bones — a few (richness of broth)
- •Roots (carrot, celeriac, parsnip, leek) — a bunch (broth aromatics)
- •Onion burned on the stove top — 1 (color and depth)
- •Peppercorns, juniper berries, lovage — to taste (broth spices)
- •Fresh horseradish, grated — one root (pungent condiment)
- •Reinette apple — 1 to 2 (sweetness of sauce)
Tafelspitz with Apple-Horseradish Sauce
A fine piece of beef long-poached in a root broth until tender, sliced and coated with a lively sauce of horseradish and apple. The resulting broth serves as an opening soup: one dish, two courses.
Why this dish? Tafelspitz, boiled beef tip served with horseradish, is THE emblematic dish of the Viennese bourgeois table where Meitner grew up in a family of eight children. Having become a scientist in Berlin, she remained faithful to this sober bourgeois cuisine — soups, braised or boiled meats, seasonal vegetables — described in her background. A dish that is prepared slowly, that can be forgotten on the stove while one thinks.
Allow me to present the dish of my Viennese childhood. At home, we were eight children, and my mother knew that a tip of beef, set to simmer from morning in its water with roots, fed all of us without needing to be watched. It is, you see, a cuisine of patience: one stirs nothing, one lets time do its work, exactly as one waits for an experiment to finally yield its result. And the horseradish — never forget it — it is what awakens the meekest meat. I kept this simple taste even in my exile, where they served me far more austere things.
Ingredients (period version)
- Beef tip (gîte or top round) — a fine piece (poaching meat)
- Marrow bones — a few (richness of broth)
- Roots (carrot, celeriac, parsnip, leek) — a bunch (broth aromatics)
- Onion burned on the stove top — 1 (color and depth)
- Peppercorns, juniper berries, lovage — to taste (broth spices)
- Fresh horseradish, grated — one root (pungent condiment)
- Reinette apple — 1 to 2 (sweetness of sauce)
Ingredients
- Tafelspitz (beef gîte) or chuck — 1.2 kg (poaching meat)
- Marrow bones — 2 pieces (richness of broth)
- Carrot + celeriac + leek — 1 each (aromatics)
- Onion cut in half, face browned dry — 1 (color)
- Peppercorns, 4 juniper berries, 1 bay leaf — 1 tsp total (spices)
- Fresh horseradish (or unsweetened jarred) — 60 g grated (condiment)
- Reinette apple + 1 tbsp breadcrumbs + a little broth — 1 large apple (Apfelkren sauce)
Method
- Put the beef and bones in a large pot of cold water, bring gently to a simmer and skim carefully.
- Add the browned onion, roots in large pieces, and spices; poach for 2 h 30 min to 3 h at a very low simmer, without boiling, until the meat is tender.
- For the Apfelkren sauce: grate the apple and horseradish, bind with a little breadcrumbs and hot broth, season lightly with salt.
- First serve the strained broth as soup (with semolina or fine crêpe strips), then the meat sliced against the grain, coated with apple-horseradish sauce and accompanied by parsley potatoes.
How it was made : In bourgeois homes in Vienna and Berlin, boiled beef was the quintessential practical Sunday dish: the same pot yielded both the soup AND the main course, without waste. The onion was placed directly on the hot stove plate to brown it — which colored and fortified the broth. Horseradish, grown everywhere in Central Europe, advantageously replaced expensive spices.
The contemporary twist : Serve the broth separately in a cup, like an aperitif consommé, and plate the sliced meat in a fan with a quenelle of apple-horseradish and a sprinkle of chives.
Sources : Joseph Wechsberg, The Cooking of Vienna's Empire, Time-Life Books · Plachutta & Wagner, Die gute Küche (bourgeois Austrian cuisine)
Lise Meitner · Charactorium
