North German Labskaus Recipe from Hamburg

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 would last for a long time such as pickled red beet, eggs, potatoes, onions and cured beef in a brine, and that we call “corned beef”. Nowadays we find corned beef canned in super markets. But it is originally preserved beef with salt.

So where is this weird name coming from? The origin of this word is quite uncertain. One possible source for the name could be from Latvian “labs kauss”, meaning “good bowl” or hotpot, or from Lithuanian labas káušas, meaning the same.
The combination of these ingredients mentioned above make this Northern 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 should visit Hamburg one day check out following restaurants that offer Labskaus on their menus:
– Kramer Amtsstuben
– 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), natural
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 – Find them here –

---

German Snack Box Filled with Imported Germany Snackscom

---

 

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).