Chef Klaus
Backfisch mit Kartoffelsalat
Backfisch works when the batter is cold, the fish is dry, and the oil is steady. Miss one of those and you get a wet coat, not a crisp one.
Culinary Explorer
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Hamburger Labskaus
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Hamburg's sailor mash is not pretty by accident: pink potato, corned beef, beetroot, fried egg, herring, and pickle, all held together by one rule, dry potatoes before you mash.
Main Dishes
German
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
20 min
Active Time
35 min cook•55 min total
Yield4 servings
Labskaus is sailor food from Hamburg and the north German ports, a weeknight dish from the preserved larder, not a feast that waits for candles. Corned beef or cooked salted beef, floury potatoes, beetroot, gherkin, herring, egg. The cupboard did the hard work before the cook came in. It kept at sea, then it came home to the table.
Every port has an opinion. Hamburg drives the beef, potato, and beetroot into a smooth pink mash and sets a fried egg on top; Bremen and Lübeck often leave it rougher, and some cooks keep the beetroot and pickle at the side so the potato stays paler. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders, and here the north is speaking. Das ist kein Bierzelt.
The rule that decides it is the potato. Boil a floury potato, drain it hard, let it steam dry, then mash or turn it through the mincer while warm with the beef and beetroot. Wet potato makes a slack heap, and a blender makes glue because the starch breaks loose. Add the brine spoon by spoon at the end, so the mash tastes sharp and cured without going loose.
I serve it with the herring cold, the egg just set, and the gherkin biting at the side. The silver fish, ruby beetroot, yellow yolk, and pink mash do the plate's colour, so don't fuss it up. Weggeworfen wird nichts: the potato water loosens the mash, not the sink. Schön ist, was schmeckt.
The name Labskaus is traced in food history to English lobscouse, a sailor's dish recorded in English in 1706, and the word travelled through Low German ports around the North Sea and Baltic. In Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck, and Schleswig-Holstein, the shipboard idea became local Hausmannskost, honest home cooking: salted beef kept without ice, potatoes filled the crew, and beetroot, gherkins, and herring brought acid when fresh produce was scarce. The ports still divide over texture and beetroot, Hamburg often turning the whole plate pink, Bremen and others leaving more pieces or serving the beetroot at the side.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
floury potatoes
Quantity
900g
peeled and cut into even chunks
corned beef or cooked salted beef
Quantity
350g
diced
pickled beetroot
Quantity
250g
diced, plus 2 tablespoons brine
onion
Quantity
1 large
finely diced
butter or lard
Quantity
2 tablespoons
plus more for frying eggs
reserved potato cooking water or unsalted beef stock
Quantity
120ml
plus more as needed
sour gherkins (Gewürzgurken)
Quantity
4
2 finely diced, 2 quartered for serving
gherkin brine
Quantity
1 tablespoon
bay leaf
Quantity
1
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
to taste
salt
Quantity
only if needed
eggs
Quantity
4
Matjes, Bismarck herring, or rollmops
Quantity
4 fillets or rollmops
kept cold
snipped chives (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| floury potatoespeeled and cut into even chunks | 900g |
| corned beef or cooked salted beefdiced | 350g |
| pickled beetrootdiced, plus 2 tablespoons brine | 250g |
| onionfinely diced | 1 large |
| butter or lardplus more for frying eggs | 2 tablespoons |
| reserved potato cooking water or unsalted beef stockplus more as needed | 120ml |
| sour gherkins (Gewürzgurken)2 finely diced, 2 quartered for serving | 4 |
| gherkin brine | 1 tablespoon |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| freshly ground black pepper | to taste |
| salt | only if needed |
| eggs | 4 |
| Matjes, Bismarck herring, or rollmopskept cold | 4 fillets or rollmops |
| snipped chives (optional) | 1 tablespoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Hand-cranked mincer with coarse plate or sturdy potato masher
- •Wide heavy pan
- •Small frying pan for eggs
Instructions
- 1
Cook the potatoes
Put the potatoes and bay leaf in cold salted water, bring them up gently, and cook until the pieces split easily under a fork, about 18 to 22 minutes. Starting in cold water cooks the potato through evenly; boiling the outside first gives you wet edges and a hard middle. Drain well, save a mug of the cooking water, then return the potatoes to the empty pot for one minute over low heat so the surface dries. Weggeworfen wird nichts, that starchy water is what loosens the mash later.
- 2
Sweat the onion
Melt the butter or lard in a wide pan and cook the onion with a pinch of salt over medium-low heat until soft and pale, 6 to 8 minutes. Do not brown it hard. Brown onion tastes like fried hash here, and Labskaus needs sweet onion sitting under the cured beef and pickle.
- 3
Warm beef and beetroot
Add the corned beef, diced beetroot, beetroot brine, and 120ml potato water or stock to the onion pan. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until the beef loosens into fibres and the beetroot stains the liquid deep pink. Warm meat folds into potato; cold meat sits in lumps and makes you work the mash too hard.
- 4
Mash, don't beat
Pass the warm potatoes and beef-beetroot mixture through the coarse plate of a hand mincer, or crush them by hand with a potato masher until the texture is rough, pink, and spoonable. Do not use a blender or food processor. Floury potato beaten hard releases starch and turns gluey, and then no herring in Hamburg can save it. Fold in the diced gherkins and gherkin brine, loosen with more potato water spoon by spoon, then taste. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss: pepper first, salt only if the cured beef and pickles haven't already done the work.
A hand-cranked mincer gives the old texture, fine enough to bind but coarse enough that you still know potato from beef. If you only have a masher, use it. The mistake is the machine blade. - 5
Fry the eggs
Fry the eggs in a little butter over medium heat until the whites are set and the yolks still run when touched. If the pan is too hot, the edges scorch before the white firms; lower heat gives you a yolk that becomes the sauce on top of the mash.
- 6
Serve with herring
Spoon the Labskaus onto warm plates, top each mound with a fried egg, and set the cold herring, quartered gherkins, and a few beetroot slices at the side. Keep the herring refrigerated until the last moment; its clean silver flesh and acid cut the salted beef and potato. Finish with chives if you're using them. Schön ist, was schmeckt.
Chef Tips
- •Use floury potatoes, the kind that falls apart when boiled. Waxy potatoes stay tight and slick, and they make a mash that never binds properly with the beef.
- •Good canned corned beef belongs here if cooked salted beef is hard to find. Choose one with beef as the first ingredient and visible fibre, not a soft paste full of filler. The can is preserved meat, not a packet pretending to be dinner.
- •For a Hamburg plate, put the beetroot through the mash. For a paler Bremen-style plate, keep more beetroot at the side and add only enough brine to sharpen the potato. Same coast, different argument.
- •Matjes is mild and fatty, Bismarck herring is sharper, and rollmops bring vinegar and crunch. Pick one and keep it cold until serving; cured fish is not decoration to sit around while you fuss with the eggs.
- •Leftover Labskaus reheats well in a covered pan with a splash of potato water. Fry fresh eggs and add fresh herring at the table. Do not reheat the fish.
Advance Preparation
- •The onion, beef, and beetroot mixture can be cooked a day ahead and chilled. Rewarm it before combining with the potatoes, because warm fat and meat fold in cleanly while cold pieces force you to overwork the mash.
- •The potatoes are best cooked the day you serve. If they must be cooked ahead, rewarm them gently with a little saved cooking water before mashing, or they break into dry lumps.
- •Do not plate the herring or fry the eggs ahead. The herring stays cold, the egg goes on last, and the yolk does its work at the table.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 590g)
Calories
740 calories
Total Fat
37 g
Saturated Fat
14 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
20 g
Cholesterol
320 mg
Sodium
2200 mg
Total Carbohydrates
56 g
Dietary Fiber
7 g
Sugars
13 g
Protein
45 g
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