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Apfelkren
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Freshly grated horseradish folded with tart apple and lemon, the cold, sharp sauce that belongs beside every plate of Tafelspitz in Vienna and has done for as long as anyone can remember.
Sauces & Condiments
Austrian
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
15 min
Active Time
0 min cook•15 min total
YieldAbout 250ml (serves 6 as a condiment)
Gretel always said you could judge a Viennese cook by three things: their broth, their Schnitzel, and their Apfelkren. The first two take time and technique. The third takes five ingredients and fifteen minutes. But get it wrong and the whole Tafelspitz falls apart.
Apfelkren is the cold horseradish sauce that sits beside boiled beef in every Gasthaus and every home kitchen in Austria. Kren is what Austrians call horseradish, and it grows wild across lower Austria and Styria, pulled from the ground in autumn when the roots are thick and fierce. You grate it fresh, fold it through tart grated apple and lemon juice, and serve it cold against warm, tender beef. The heat of the Kren hits your nose first. Then the apple comes through, cool and sharp and clean, and the two of them together do something to a slice of Tafelspitz that no other sauce can touch.
I watched my grandmother Eva make this dozens of times in her kitchen in Deal. She'd grate the horseradish with the window open because it made her eyes stream, and she'd say it was proof the root was worth using. If it doesn't make you cry, it's too old. She learned that from Gretel, who learned it from her mother's kitchen in Vienna before everything changed. Five ingredients. Fifteen minutes. A good Apfelkren is honest cooking at its most distilled.
Kren (horseradish) has been cultivated in Austria since the Middle Ages, with Styria's southeastern region still producing some of the country's finest roots. Apfelkren became inseparable from Tafelspitz during the 19th century, when boiled beef was the centerpiece of Viennese Bürgerlich cooking and Emperor Franz Josef reportedly ate it nearly every day. The traditional Tafelspitz service always includes three cold sauces on the table: Apfelkren, Schnittlauchsauce (chive sauce), and a dish of Preiselbeeren (lingonberry preserves). Leaving any of the three off the table would be noticed.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
tart apple (Granny Smith or Boskop)
Quantity
1 large, about 200g
peeled and cored
fresh horseradish root (Kren)
Quantity
80g
peeled
fresh lemon juice
Quantity
2 tablespoons
granulated sugar
Quantity
1 pinch
salt
Quantity
1 pinch
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| tart apple (Granny Smith or Boskop)peeled and cored | 1 large, about 200g |
| fresh horseradish root (Kren)peeled | 80g |
| fresh lemon juice | 2 tablespoons |
| granulated sugar | 1 pinch |
| salt | 1 pinch |
Equipment Needed
- •Box grater with both coarse and fine sides
- •Mixing bowl
- •Small serving dish for the table
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the lemon juice
Squeeze the lemon juice into a mixing bowl first, before you touch the apple or the horseradish. You need it ready and waiting. The moment grated apple hits air, it starts to brown. The moment grated horseradish hits air, it starts losing its fire. Lemon juice stops both. Having it in the bowl before you begin means you can toss each ingredient in the second it's grated.
Use fresh lemon juice, not bottled. The bottled stuff has a flat, metallic taste that will sit in the background of your Apfelkren and quietly ruin it. - 2
Grate the apple
Peel and core the apple. Grate it on the coarse side of a box grater directly into the bowl with the lemon juice. Toss it through the juice immediately. You want a tart, firm apple here, not a sweet one. The apple's job is to carry the horseradish and temper its heat with a clean, sharp fruitiness. A mealy apple or a sweet one will turn your Apfelkren into baby food.
- 3
Grate the horseradish
Peel the horseradish root and grate it on the fine side of the box grater directly into the apple mixture. Work quickly. Fresh horseradish is volatile: the heat and sharpness start fading the moment it's exposed to air. Your eyes may water. That's normal and it means the root is good and fresh. If you grate it and feel nothing, the root is old and you should find a better one.
Grate the horseradish fine and the apple coarse. The contrast matters. You want to bite into little pieces of apple while the horseradish dissolves into heat across your tongue. - 4
Season and rest
Add the pinch of sugar and the pinch of salt. Stir everything together. The sugar isn't there to make it sweet. It rounds off the raw edge of the horseradish without dulling it. The salt opens up the apple's flavor. Taste it. The balance should be sharp horseradish first, then tart apple, then a clean lemon finish. If the horseradish is too aggressive, add a little more grated apple. If it's too mild, grate in more Kren. Let it rest for five minutes before serving. The flavors need a moment to find each other.
- 5
Serve cold
Spoon the Apfelkren into a small serving dish and bring it to the table cold, alongside your Tafelspitz or boiled beef. It goes on the side of the plate, never on top of the meat. The cold sauce against the warm beef is the whole point. Let everyone help themselves. Mahlzeit!
Chef Tips
- •Buy fresh horseradish root, not the jarred stuff. Jarred horseradish is preserved in vinegar and has a completely different flavor profile: flat, acidic, one-dimensional. Fresh Kren is alive. It bites back. That's what you want.
- •Grate the horseradish last and work fast. The volatile compounds that give Kren its sinus-clearing heat begin breaking down the moment the root is cut. If you grate it and then go answer the phone, you'll come back to something disappointingly mild.
- •Boskop apples are the traditional Austrian choice for Apfelkren because they're tart, firm, and hold their texture when grated. Granny Smith is the closest widely available substitute. Don't use a Gala or a Fuji. They're too sweet and too soft.
- •Make this no more than an hour before you plan to serve it. Apfelkren is best when it's fresh. After a few hours in the fridge, the horseradish loses its punch and the apple starts to oxidize, even with the lemon juice.
Advance Preparation
- •Apfelkren is best made fresh, no more than one hour before serving. The horseradish fades and the apple softens as it sits.
- •You can peel the horseradish root and wrap it tightly in cling film up to a day ahead. Keep it in the fridge. Peel and core the apple only when you're ready to grate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 47g)
Calories
25 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
25 mg
Total Carbohydrates
7 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
0 g
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