Chef Klaus
Apfelmus
The apple-harvest preserve of the German kitchen, cooked low until the fruit collapses, then kept smooth, tart, and ready for potato pancakes or warm Mehlspeisen.
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Rübenkraut (Apfelkraut)
Created by
The Rhenish larder spread made from sugar beets and tart apples, cooked slowly until the juice turns dark, glossy, and sharp-sweet enough for rye bread.
Sauces & Condiments
German
Make Ahead
Budget Friendly
35 min
Active Time
3 hr cook•3 hr 35 min total
YieldAbout 3 small jars, 600ml total
Rübenkraut sits in the Rhineland and Westphalia, on the bread board and beside the potato pan. You spoon it onto dark rye, drag Reibekuchen, potato pancakes, through it, or set it next to a sharp cheese when the table wants sweet against sour. This is autumn work, when sugar beets come out of the ground and apples are still firm enough to press.
The regions argue in the usual useful way. Around Cologne and the Lower Rhine, Rübenkraut means sugar-beet syrup, dark and plain. Apfelkraut brings apples into the pot, lighter in acidity and better on bread. Further west toward the Dutch border, the same family of syrups turns up under different names and different ratios. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. Here I make the Rhenish apple-beet version, because the apple keeps the sweetness from going flat.
The deciding technique is reduction without scorching. You first cook the chopped sugar beet and apple with just enough water to loosen their juice, then strain hard and reduce only the liquid. If the solids stay in, the pulp catches on the bottom before the syrup is ready, and scorched beet tastes bitter all the way through. Runter mit der Temperatur once it thickens. A slow bubble gives you gloss; a hard boil gives you burnt sugar and regret.
Do not buy a jar and pretend the larder did the work. Nicht aus dem Glas. This is cheap produce, a heavy pot, and time. Das braucht seine Zeit.
Sugar beet processing became economically important in German lands after Franz Carl Achard opened the first beet-sugar factory at Cunern in Silesia in 1801, building on Andreas Sigismund Marggraf's 1747 identification of sugar in beet roots. In the Rhineland and Westphalia, beet syrup became a farm and factory larder product, used on bread, with Reibekuchen, and as a sweet-sour note in regional cooking. Apfelkraut belongs to the same western preserving tradition, often made by boiling down apple juice with beet juice until it held for winter without fresh fruit on hand.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
sugar beets
Quantity
1.5kg
scrubbed, peeled, and chopped small
tart apples
Quantity
1kg
cored and chopped, peels left on
water
Quantity
750ml
plus a little more if needed
salt
Quantity
1 small pinch
lemon juice or apple cider vinegar (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| sugar beetsscrubbed, peeled, and chopped small | 1.5kg |
| tart applescored and chopped, peels left on | 1kg |
| waterplus a little more if needed | 750ml |
| salt | 1 small pinch |
| lemon juice or apple cider vinegar (optional) | 1 tablespoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy wide pot, 5 litre capacity
- •Fine sieve
- •Clean muslin or kitchen cloth
- •Sterilised jars with lids
Instructions
- 1
Cut the roots
Scrub and peel the sugar beets, then cut them small, about 1cm pieces. Small pieces give up their juice before the outside turns woody, which matters because sugar beet is harder than a table beet and not built for quick cooking. Core the apples and chop them with the peels on; the peel brings pectin, and pectin helps the finished kraut set with body.
- 2
Cook for juice
Put the beets, apples, and water in a heavy pot, bring it to a steady simmer, then cover and cook 60 to 75 minutes, until the beet pieces crush easily against the side of the pot. Keep the water just high enough that the fruit and roots do not catch. You are extracting juice here, not making jam, so a quiet simmer does the work without driving bitterness out of the beet.
Use true sugar beets if you can get them, not red table beets. Red beets taste earthy and stain everything purple; sugar beets give sweetness and a pale juice that darkens properly as it reduces. - 3
Strain it hard
Line a sieve with a clean cloth and pour the cooked mixture through into a wide clean pot. Press the pulp firmly with a ladle, then twist the cloth when it is cool enough to handle. Weggeworfen wird nichts in the old kitchen, but here the spent pulp has done its job; if you leave it in the syrup, it catches on the bottom before the liquid is thick enough.
- 4
Reduce slowly
Bring the strained liquid to a boil, then lower it to a steady, open simmer and cook 90 minutes to 2 hours, stirring more often as it darkens. The syrup is ready when it falls from the spoon in a thick ribbon and a drop on a cold plate holds its shape after a minute. Runter mit der Temperatur at the end, because the last water leaves quickly and sugar burns before a slow cook has time to blink.
- 5
Season and jar
Stir in the pinch of salt and taste. If the apples were mild, add the lemon juice or vinegar now, not earlier, because the long boil would flatten the brightness. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss, even when there is no fat. Spoon the hot kraut into clean hot jars, seal, cool, and refrigerate. It thickens as it cools, so stop a little looser than you want on the bread.
Chef Tips
- •Sugar beet is a field root, not the red beet from the salad bowl. If you cannot get sugar beets, make Apfelkraut from apple juice alone rather than boiling red beets and calling it the same thing.
- •Use tart apples, Boskoop if you can find them. A sweet dessert apple makes a flat syrup, and then you start adding things to repair a mistake you bought at the market.
- •A wide pot is better than a tall one. More surface area means faster evaporation, and faster evaporation means less time for the beet sugars to darken into bitterness.
- •For Reibekuchen, serve the syrup in a small dish beside the pancakes, not poured over them. Crisp potato goes soft under a blanket. Schön ist, was schmeckt.
Advance Preparation
- •Rübenkraut is made for holding. Refrigerated in clean sealed jars, it keeps about 4 weeks after opening.
- •Make it a day before serving if you can. The syrup firms as it cools, and the apple sharpness settles into the beet sweetness overnight.
- •If it sets too stiff, warm the jar gently in a bowl of hot water and stir in a spoon of boiled water. Do it slowly, or you turn spread back into sauce.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 20g)
Calories
40 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
10 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
0 g
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