Svíčková

Bohemia's beef sirloin in a sieved root-vegetable cream sauce, served with bread dumplings, a spoonful of cranberry and a curl of cream

Origin: Prague & Bohemia

From the journey of Carrot.

Svíčková na smetaně is beef in a sauce made almost entirely of root vegetables. Carrot, celeriac, and parsley root are cooked down with onion and bacon under the meat, the whole lot is then pushed through a sieve, and cream goes in at the end; there is no flour in the traditional version and no stock beyond what the vegetables and the beef produce. The sauce is thick, pale orange, faintly sweet, and slightly sour, and it is the entire point of the dish. The carrot is what carries it. It goes in by weight rather than as an aromatic, and the sweetness the sauce is known for comes from carrot cooked long and then puréed rather than from any added sugar. The celeriac and parsley root supply the earthiness underneath, and the balance between the three is what Czech cooks argue about. The garnish is fixed and looks eccentric to a newcomer: a spoonful of brusinky, cranberry or lingonberry preserve, a spiral of whipped or thick cream piped over the sauce, and a slice of lemon. All three are functional. The sauce is rich and slightly sweet, the cranberry sharpens it, the lemon cuts it, and the cream is there for the contrast of temperature and texture. Leaving them off is not a simplification but a different dish. Knedlíky, the sliced bread dumplings, are not optional either, and they are engineered for this exact purpose: a leavened dough steamed or boiled as a cylinder and then cut with a thread rather than a knife, giving a spongy slice whose only job is to carry sauce. A Czech table treats the ratio of dumpling to sauce as a serious matter and errs towards more sauce.

Ingredients

Beef

1.2 kg beef sirloin or topside, in one piece
100 g smoked streaky bacon, in strips for larding

Sauce base

400 g carrots, roughly chopped
200 g celeriac, roughly chopped
100 g parsley root, roughly chopped, or extra celeriac
2 onions, roughly chopped

To cook

80 g butter
400 ml water

Seasoning

2 bay leaves
8 allspice berries
8 black peppercorns
4 cloves
1 tsp dried thyme
2.5 tsp salt

To finish

3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar
250 ml double cream

To serve

6 tbsp cranberry or lingonberry preserve
150 ml whipping cream, whipped
1 lemon, sliced
12 slices bread dumplings (knedlíky), to serve

Method

Lard the beef by pushing strips of bacon through it with a larding needle or the handle of a wooden spoon. This keeps a lean joint from drying over two and a half hours.
Rub the beef with salt and half the spices, cover, and refrigerate overnight with the chopped vegetables piled around it.
Next day, lift the beef out and brown it hard on all sides in the butter in a heavy casserole, then set it aside.
Add all the root vegetables and the onion to the same pot and cook them over a medium heat for fifteen to twenty minutes until softened and beginning to caramelise at the edges.
Take the vegetables well past softness. Their browning is where the colour and most of the sweetness of the finished sauce comes from.
Return the beef, add the remaining spices, the thyme, and the water, cover, and braise at 160°C for two hours until the meat is tender.
Lift the beef out and keep it warm, loosely covered.
Fish out the bay leaves and whole spices, then push everything else through a fine sieve, working the vegetables hard with a ladle. This is laborious and is what makes the sauce.
Do not use a blender instead. A blended sauce keeps the fibrous threads of celeriac and parsley root and is noticeably coarser; the sieve is the traditional method for a reason.
Return the sieved purée to the pot, add the vinegar and sugar, and simmer for five minutes, tasting as you go. It should land sweet first and sour immediately after.
Stir in the double cream and warm through without boiling. If it is too thick, loosen with a little water; it should coat a spoon thickly.
Carve the beef across the grain, lay the slices in a shallow pool of sauce, and finish each plate with dumplings, a spoonful of cranberry, a curl of whipped cream, and a slice of lemon.

Notes

Sieve the sauce rather than blending it; this is the step that decides the texture and there is no shortcut. Use plenty of carrot, since the sweetness is meant to come from the vegetable rather than from the spoonful of sugar, which is there only to balance the vinegar. The sweet-sour adjustment at the end is done by taste and takes a few passes. Lard the beef if you can, or wrap it in bacon, because sirloin dries over a long braise. The cranberry, the cream, and the lemon are part of the dish rather than decoration. It is better made a day ahead.

The Gastrographer

Name: Svíčková
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 2 h 30 min
Total time: 3 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Prague & Bohemia
Ingredients: 1.2 kg beef sirloin or topside, in one piece; 100 g smoked streaky bacon, in strips for larding; 400 g carrots, roughly chopped; 200 g celeriac, roughly chopped; 100 g parsley root, roughly chopped, or extra celeriac; 2 onions, roughly chopped; 80 g butter; 2 bay leaves; 8 allspice berries; 8 black peppercorns; 4 cloves; 1 tsp dried thyme; 2.5 tsp salt; 400 ml water; 3 tbsp white wine vinegar; 1 tbsp caster sugar; 250 ml double cream; 6 tbsp cranberry or lingonberry preserve; 150 ml whipping cream, whipped; 1 lemon, sliced; 12 slices bread dumplings (knedlíky), to serve

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control