North German Labskaus Recipe from Hamburg

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The North German Labskaus Recipe has not been originated from the German city Hamburg but it comes from that region, and is very popular in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. It is a dish they cooked on the fishing boats when they were at sea for weeks and months. Because on these boats there were no fridges or cooling systems, so they had to use ingredients which were lasting for a long time such as pickled red beet, eggs, potatoes, onions and beef that was cured in a brine and is called “corned beef”. Nowadays we find corned beef canned in super markets. But it is originally preserved beef with salt.
The combination of these ingredients mentioned above make the dish “Labskaus”, which is served with potatoes, fried eggs, herring and pickles.Happy Cooking!

Hamburg has some restaurants where you can enjoy home cooked Labskaus. If you visit Hamburg check out following restaurants that offer Labskaus on their menus:
– Krameramtsstuben
– Zum alten Lotsenhaus
– Old Commerical Room
– Rive
– Anno 1905
– Deichgraf  and Hamburger Stube im Hotel Lindner

Ingredients North German Labskaus Recipe

(serves 4)
1 can corned beef (200-300g)
750 g potatoes
3 pickles
2 smaller onions
pickled red beets
salt, pepper to taste
1 dash ground all spice (Piment)
butter for frying
some pickle liquid
4 eggs
4 Matjesfilets, Bismarck Herring or Rollmops

German Herring Fillets in Tomato Sauce from LoveGermanFood.com

Cooking Instruction North German Labskaus Recipe

– Peel potatoes, cut in halves, boil them in salt water. Peel onions
– Chop onions fine, saute in butter until they are transparent.
– Add corned beef, saute covered for 3 min.
– Cut pickles in cubes, add to beef with some pickle liquid. Spice to taste.
– You can add chopped red pickled beet or serve it aside.
– Let simmer for about 10 min.
– Mash the boiled potatoes roughly (not fine like you do for mashed potatoes). Combine with the beef mix. If the mix is too firm add some more pickle liquid.
– Place on plates and serve with one fried egg per plate, herring and pickles of your choice (red beet, cucumber, celery etc).