Chef Klaus
Erzgebirgischer Buttermilchgetzen
The Erzgebirge potato bake that makes a meal from stored roots, sour buttermilk, bacon fat, and patience, with the crust doing the talking.
Culinary Explorer
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Teichelmauke
Created by
The Oberlausitz plate built like a little pond: floury mashed potatoes holding beef broth, sliced boiled beef, and sharp sauerkraut in one honest spoonful.
Side Dishes
German
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
Weeknight
25 min
Active Time
2 hr 20 min cook•2 hr 45 min total
Yield4 servings
Teichelmauke belongs to the Oberlausitz, eastern Saxony, where the potato, the soup pot, and the kraut barrel do the work. This is not a side dish that behaves politely beside a roast. It is a whole plate built from mashed potato, a hollow of beef broth, slices of boiled beef, and sauerkraut, eaten with a big spoon because the shape tells you how to eat it.
The regions split on this sort of potato cooking. In the north the potato often sits beside fish or goes into a salad; in Swabia it may be pushed aside for Spätzle, little egg noodles. In the Oberlausitz the potato becomes the bank, the broth becomes the pond, and the meat and kraut sit where they can season every spoonful. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. German food has no single national version.
The technique is simple and unforgiving: cook the potatoes floury and dry, then mash them with hot milk and a little fat until they hold a wall. Watery mash collapses into the broth and gives you soup with lumps. A dry, hot mash holds the well, drinks the broth at the edge, and still tastes of potato. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.
Use the beef cooking liquor. Nicht aus dem Glas. The broth is the reason the cheap simmering cut was worth cooking in the first place, and Weggeworfen wird nichts, nothing gets thrown away. Sauerkraut brings the winter larder to the plate, sharp enough to wake up the beef, plain enough for a weeknight.
Teichelmauke is recorded as a regional dish of the Oberlausitz, the eastern Saxon borderland shaped by German, Sorbian, Silesian, and Bohemian kitchens. The dish belongs to the period after the potato became ordinary rural food in central Germany in the late 18th and 19th centuries, following state promotion of potato cultivation and repeated grain shortages. Its name is dialectal: Mauke points to mashed potato or mash, while the little Teichel, a pond or hollow, describes the way the potato is banked around the broth.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
beef brisket, shoulder, or shin
Quantity
800g
in one piece
cold water
Quantity
1.5 litres
onion
Quantity
1
halved
carrot
Quantity
1
chopped
celeriac or celery stalk
Quantity
1 small piece
chopped
leek
Quantity
1
rinsed and sliced
bay leaf
Quantity
1
black peppercorns
Quantity
6
salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
floury potatoes
Quantity
1kg
peeled and cut into even chunks
hot milk
Quantity
150ml
butter
Quantity
40g
freshly grated nutmeg
Quantity
to taste
sauerkraut
Quantity
500g
drained lightly
lard or butter
Quantity
1 tablespoon
small onion
Quantity
1
finely chopped
caraway seeds (optional)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| beef brisket, shoulder, or shinin one piece | 800g |
| cold water | 1.5 litres |
| onionhalved | 1 |
| carrotchopped | 1 |
| celeriac or celery stalkchopped | 1 small piece |
| leekrinsed and sliced | 1 |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| black peppercorns | 6 |
| salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| floury potatoespeeled and cut into even chunks | 1kg |
| hot milk | 150ml |
| butter | 40g |
| freshly grated nutmeg | to taste |
| sauerkrautdrained lightly | 500g |
| lard or butter | 1 tablespoon |
| small onionfinely chopped | 1 |
| caraway seeds (optional) | 1 teaspoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy soup pot, 4 litre or larger
- •Potato masher or ricer
- •Deep plates or shallow bowls
Instructions
- 1
Simmer the beef
Put the beef in a pot with the cold water, onion, carrot, celeriac, leek, bay, peppercorns, and salt. Bring it up slowly, skim the grey foam, then keep it at a quiet tremble for about 2 hours, until a fork slides into the meat. Hard boiling tightens the beef and clouds the broth, and the broth has to be clean because it becomes the pond on the plate.
Use a simmering cut with connective tissue, not steak. Brisket, shoulder, or shin gives the broth body and stays juicy when sliced. - 2
Cook the kraut
Warm the lard or butter in a small pot and soften the chopped onion without browning it. Add the sauerkraut, caraway if you use it, and a ladle of the beef broth, then simmer it 25 minutes. The kraut should stay sharp but not raw; it is the winter larder on the plate, not a sour punishment.
- 3
Dry the potatoes
Boil the potatoes in salted water until they break easily, then drain them and return them to the hot pot for a minute, shaking them gently. Letting the surface moisture cook off matters. Wet potatoes make loose mash, and loose mash cannot hold the broth.
- 4
Mash firm
Mash the potatoes smooth with the hot milk, butter, nutmeg, and salt. Add the milk in stages, because floury potatoes differ from sack to sack and you need a mash that is soft enough to eat but firm enough to bank. Taste it now. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss, season, fat, salt at the end.
- 5
Strain the broth
Lift out the beef and keep it covered. Strain the broth, taste it, and salt it until it tastes like something you would drink. Thin broth makes a thin dish; this is where the potato takes its flavour, so don't be timid.
- 6
Build the plate
Spoon the mashed potato onto each deep plate and shape it into a thick ring with a hollow in the middle. Pour hot beef broth into the hollow, lay sliced beef partly into the broth, and set sauerkraut at the side where it can meet each spoonful. Eat from the edge into the middle, potato, broth, beef, kraut. Schön ist, was schmeckt.
Chef Tips
- •Choose floury potatoes, the kind that fall apart when boiled. Waxy potatoes make a sleek mash for another dish, but here they turn elastic and won't drink the broth properly.
- •Cook the beef from cold water. Starting cold pulls flavour into the broth; dropping meat into boiling water seals the outside faster and gives you less of the liquor this dish is built around.
- •Don't rinse the sauerkraut unless it is painfully salty. Its acidity is there to cut the potato and beef, and washing it flat is how a useful larder food becomes dull.
- •Leftover broth is not waste. Chill it, lift off the fat, and use it for potato soup or lentils the next day.
Advance Preparation
- •The beef and broth can be cooked a day ahead. Chill them together so the meat stays moist, then lift off the set fat before reheating.
- •Sauerkraut can be cooked a day ahead and reheated gently with a splash of broth. The flavour settles overnight.
- •Mash the potatoes just before serving. Reheated mash loosens and loses the firm edge that holds the broth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 650g)
Calories
780 calories
Total Fat
37 g
Saturated Fat
17 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
19 g
Cholesterol
170 mg
Sodium
1800 mg
Total Carbohydrates
62 g
Dietary Fiber
10 g
Sugars
10 g
Protein
49 g
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