Name: Tafelspitz
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 2 h 30 min
Total time: 2 h 50 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Austrian
Ingredients: 1.5 kg beef rump cap or top rump, in one piece; 2 ½ litres water; 2 onions, halved and charred cut-side down in a dry pan; 3 carrots, in chunks; ½ celeriac, in chunks; 2 leeks, in thick lengths; 1 tbsp black peppercorns; 3 bay leaves; 1 bunch lovage or parsley; 2 ½ tsp fine sea salt; 2 apples, peeled and grated; 4 tbsp grated fresh horseradish; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 1 tsp caster sugar; 3 tbsp chopped chives

Tafelspitz

Beef simmered gently in broth with root vegetables and served in it, with apple horseradish alongside. Vienna's.

2 hr 50 min total Serves 6 servings Easy

How to Cook Tafelspitz

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Bring the water to a simmer with the peppercorns, bay and 1.5 tsp of the salt.
Lower the beef in — the water should already be at a simmer — and skim for the first 10 minutes.
Add the charred onion halves and the lovage or parsley.
Hold at a bare shiver for 2 hours. Do not let it boil.
Add the carrots, celeriac and leeks and cook 30 minutes more, until the beef is tender to a skewer.
Mix the grated apple with the horseradish, lemon juice, sugar and remaining salt for the sauce.
Lift the beef out and rest it 10 minutes.
Strain some of the broth into bowls and taste it for salt.
Slice the beef across the grain, about 1 cm thick.
Serve the slices in the broth with the vegetables, the apple horseradish alongside, and chives scattered over.

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Keep an Eye on These

Into simmering water, not cold.
Never boil — that is the whole discipline.
Char the onion halves first for colour in the broth.

The Short Version

The meat goes into water that is already simmering, not cold water. Started cold, the proteins leach out and you get a superb broth and dull, grey beef — started hot, the outside sets and the meat keeps its flavour, which is the point here since it is the thing being served. Never let it boil after that; a bare shiver for two and a half hours.

To Go With It

Rösti potatoes · Chive sauce · A Grüner Veltliner

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Griessknödel, Serviettenknödel.

Keeping Tafelspitz

Keeps 3 days refrigerated in its broth and reheats gently.

The Numbers per Serving

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

Gluten-Free