Hamburger Labskaus

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.