Tafelspitz

Vienna's boiled beef in root-vegetable broth, served as two courses with grated apple and horseradish, chive sauce and creamed spinach

Origin: Vienna & Austria

From the journey of Apple.

Tafelspitz is a cut of beef and a dish named after it: the triangular tip of the rump, simmered for hours in a broth with root vegetables and served in two courses, the clear broth first and then the sliced meat with its accompaniments. It is the dish of the Viennese bourgeoisie, and the Emperor Franz Joseph is said to have eaten it nearly every day of his adult life, which is repeated everywhere and is at least consistent with what is known of a monarch famously indifferent to food and rigid in his habits. The accompaniments are what people argue about, and the essential one is Apfelkren: raw apple grated coarsely into freshly grated horseradish with a little vinegar and sugar. It is served cold, in quantity, and it is not a garnish. The sweetness of the apple takes the raw burn off the horseradish and leaves the aromatic heat, and against a slice of long-boiled beef it does the work that mustard does elsewhere. Beside it goes Schnittlauchsauce, a chive sauce thickened with soaked bread rather than flour, and a bowl of creamed spinach. Austria grows a great deal of apple, most of it in Styria, where Steirischer Apfel holds a European protected geographical indication and the orchards run along a signposted route through the hills south-east of Graz. The variety used for Apfelkren is a sharp one; a sweet eating apple gives a cloying sauce. The technical requirement is that the meat goes into simmering water rather than cold, which keeps the beef's own flavour in the beef. A broth built from bones and vegetables is prepared first, and the cut is lowered into it; putting cold beef in cold water gives a better broth and a duller piece of meat, and Viennese practice chooses the meat.

Ingredients

Beef

1.5 kg beef rump tip or top rump, in one piece

Broth

1 kg beef marrow bones
4 litres water
2 onions, halved and charred cut side down
3 carrots, in lengths
1 small celeriac, peeled and quartered
1 leek, in lengths
1 parsley root or parsnip
10 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 small bunch lovage or parsley
2 tsp salt, or to taste

Apfelkren

2 sharp apples, peeled and coarsely grated
80 g fresh horseradish, finely grated
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar

Chive sauce

3 slices stale white bread, crusts off
150 ml milk
2 hard-boiled egg yolks
150 ml sunflower oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 large bunch chives, finely snipped

To serve

600 g spinach, cooked and creamed, to serve
800 g potatoes, roasted, to serve

Method

Blanch the marrow bones in boiling water for five minutes, drain, and rinse them.
Put the bones in the 4 litres of water with the peppercorns and bay and bring to a simmer, skimming, for forty-five minutes.
Char the halved onions cut side down in a dry pan until genuinely black, then add them to the broth with the carrots, celeriac, leek, and parsley root.
The charred onion is what gives the broth its amber colour, and Viennese cooks take it well past golden.
Now lower the whole piece of beef into the simmering broth.
It goes into hot liquid, not cold. Cold water draws the flavour out into the broth; hot liquid seals the surface and keeps it in the meat, and here the meat is the point.
Simmer at the barest tremble for two and a half to three hours, skimming occasionally, until a skewer meets no resistance. Never let it boil.
Make the Apfelkren: mix the grated apple and horseradish with the vinegar, sugar, and a pinch of salt, and keep it covered and cold. Make it within an hour of serving, since grated horseradish loses its heat quickly once exposed to air.
Make the chive sauce: soak the bread in the milk, squeeze it out, and blend with the egg yolks and vinegar, then trickle in the oil as for a mayonnaise until thick.
Stir in the chives at the last moment and season.
Lift the beef out, strain the broth, season it, and serve it first in bowls with a little of the diced root vegetables.
Slice the beef across the grain, not with it, and serve with the Apfelkren, chive sauce, creamed spinach, and roast potatoes.

Notes

The beef goes into hot broth and is never boiled. Slice it across the grain. Make the Apfelkren shortly before serving and use a sharp apple; horseradish grated in advance goes flat, and a sweet apple makes the sauce cloying. The chive sauce is thickened with soaked bread rather than flour, which is the Viennese method and gives a lighter result. The broth is a course in its own right and is worth straining carefully. Any leftover beef is fried the next day with onion and potato as Gröstl.

The Gastrographer

Name: Tafelspitz
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 3 h 30 min
Total time: 4 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Vienna & Austria
Ingredients: 1.5 kg beef rump tip or top rump, in one piece; 1 kg beef marrow bones; 4 litres water; 2 onions, halved and charred cut side down; 3 carrots, in lengths; 1 small celeriac, peeled and quartered; 1 leek, in lengths; 1 parsley root or parsnip; 10 black peppercorns; 2 bay leaves; 1 small bunch lovage or parsley; 2 tsp salt, or to taste; 2 sharp apples, peeled and coarsely grated; 80 g fresh horseradish, finely grated; 2 tbsp white wine vinegar; 1 tsp caster sugar; 3 slices stale white bread, crusts off; 150 ml milk; 2 hard-boiled egg yolks; 150 ml sunflower oil; 1 tbsp white wine vinegar; 1 large bunch chives, finely snipped; 600 g spinach, cooked and creamed, to serve; 800 g potatoes, roasted, to serve

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control