Chef Elsa
Eiersalat (Austrian Egg Salad)
Cool, creamy Austrian egg salad with sour gherkins and tart apple in a mustard-yogurt dressing, the kind of honest Jause food that tastes like an Austrian Easter table and works beautifully all year round.
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Tiroler Specksalat mit Äpfeln
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Thinly sliced Tyrolean Speck with crisp tart apple and celery, dressed in a sharp cider vinegar Marinade. The alpine pantry on a plate, smoky and bright, ready in twenty minutes.
Salads
Austrian
Weeknight
Outdoor Dining
20 min
Active Time
0 min cook•20 min total
Yield4 servings
On childhood trips to Austria with Gretel and my grandmother Eva, we'd stop at a Gasthaus somewhere in the Tyrolean Alps and there would be a salad like this on every table. Speck cut thick, apples from someone's orchard, a dressing so vinegar-sharp it made your eyes widen. The men at the next table would eat it with dark bread and beer at two in the afternoon, and it looked like the best meal in the world.
Tiroler Specksalat is the alpine pantry speaking for itself. Speck, slow-cured with juniper and cold-smoked over beechwood, brings a depth of flavor that ordinary bacon can't touch. The apple brings tartness and crunch. The celery brings a clean, peppery bite. The Marinade ties it together, vinegar-forward the way Austrian dressings always are, just enough oil to carry the acid, never enough to make it slick. This is not a salad dressed in fat. It's a salad dressed in sharpness.
Gretel always said that Austrian salads are simple food done well, and this one proves it. Five or six good ingredients, cut properly, dressed honestly, served at the right temperature. Nothing is cooked. Nothing is complicated. Everything depends on what you start with. If your Speck is good and your apple is tart and your vinegar is real, you can't fail. If any of those things are wrong, no technique in the world saves you. That's what makes Austrian food both forgiving and demanding at the same time.
Tiroler Speck has been produced in the Austrian and South Tyrolean Alps for centuries, originally as a way to preserve pork through long mountain winters. The curing method, a combination of dry salt, juniper berries, and cold smoking over beechwood followed by months of air-drying in cool alpine air, earned Tiroler Speck g.g.A. its EU Protected Geographical Indication in 1996. Specksalat became a Jause staple across the Tyrol, part of the tradition of cold platters served at midday or in the late afternoon with bread and a glass of local wine or beer.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
Tiroler Speck g.g.A.
Quantity
200g
sliced 2-3mm thick
tart apples (Boskoop, Braeburn, or Cox's Orange Pippin)
Quantity
2 medium
celery stalks with leaves
Quantity
2
red onion
Quantity
1 small
mixed salad leaves (butter lettuce, frisée, or Vogerlsalat)
Quantity
150g
Apfelessig (apple cider vinegar)
Quantity
3 tablespoons
Dijon mustard
Quantity
1 teaspoon
honey
Quantity
1 teaspoon
neutral oil (sunflower or rapeseed)
Quantity
5 tablespoons
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
to taste
fresh chives
Quantity
1 tablespoon
finely cut
crusty bread
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Tiroler Speck g.g.A.sliced 2-3mm thick | 200g |
| tart apples (Boskoop, Braeburn, or Cox's Orange Pippin) | 2 medium |
| celery stalks with leaves | 2 |
| red onion | 1 small |
| mixed salad leaves (butter lettuce, frisée, or Vogerlsalat) | 150g |
| Apfelessig (apple cider vinegar) | 3 tablespoons |
| Dijon mustard | 1 teaspoon |
| honey | 1 teaspoon |
| neutral oil (sunflower or rapeseed) | 5 tablespoons |
| salt and freshly ground black pepper | to taste |
| fresh chivesfinely cut | 1 tablespoon |
| crusty bread | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Sharp chef's knife
- •Small whisk
- •Wide serving platter or individual plates
Instructions
- 1
Make the Marinade
Whisk together the Apfelessig, mustard, and honey in a small bowl until the honey dissolves. Add the oil in a thin stream, whisking constantly, until the dressing comes together. It should taste vinegar-forward, sharp and bright, with the honey just softening the edge. Season with salt and pepper. Austrian Marinade is never oily or sweet. The vinegar leads. If you taste it and think it's too sharp, you've got it right. It will mellow the moment it hits the Speck and apple.
If you can find Hesperidenessig, a Viennese citrus-infused vinegar, use it in place of the Apfelessig. It's extraordinary with smoked pork and fruit. But good cider vinegar does the job honestly. - 2
Prepare the Speck
Trim any hard rind from the Speck if your piece still has it. Slice the Speck about 2-3 millimeters thick, then cut each slice into strips roughly the width of your little finger. You're not making lardons. You want pieces wide enough that you can taste the smoke and the cure in each bite, thin enough that they yield without chewing. Good Tiroler Speck has a balance of lean meat and creamy fat. Don't trim the fat away. It's where half the flavor lives.
Look for Speck labeled Tiroler Speck g.g.A. (geschützte geographische Angabe), which means it carries EU protected geographical indication. Generic smoked bacon or pancetta won't give you the same juniper-and-beechwood depth. If you can't find it, a good quality South Tyrolean Speck from an Italian deli is the closest substitute. - 3
Cut the apple and celery
Quarter and core the apples but don't peel them. The skin gives you color and a bit of snap against the tender flesh. Cut each quarter into thin slices, about 3 millimeters. Toss them immediately with a splash of the prepared Marinade to keep them from browning. Slice the celery on a slight diagonal, thin enough to be crisp without being stringy. Save a handful of the pale inner celery leaves for the top. They taste peppery and fresh and look beautiful against the pink Speck.
Choose a tart, firm apple. Boskoop is what you'd find in Austria, but Braeburn or Cox's Orange Pippin both work. A sweet apple like Gala or Fuji turns this salad flat. You need the sourness to push back against the smoky fat. - 4
Slice the onion
Peel the red onion and slice it into very thin rings. Separate the rings and drop them into a small bowl of cold water for five minutes while you arrange everything else. This draws out the harsh sulfur bite and leaves you with something sweet, crisp, and gentle. Drain and pat dry before adding to the salad. Raw onion that burns your tongue has no place in this dish.
- 5
Compose the salad
Wash and dry the salad leaves thoroughly. Wet leaves dilute the Marinade and make everything slide off. Arrange the leaves on a wide platter or divide among individual plates. Scatter the Speck strips, apple slices, celery, and drained onion rings over the greens. Don't toss everything together in a bowl. This is a composed salad, not a tossed one. Each ingredient should be visible and distinct so the person eating it can choose their own balance in each forkful.
- 6
Dress and serve
Spoon the remaining Marinade evenly over the composed salad. Scatter the chives and reserved celery leaves across the top. Serve immediately at cool room temperature with thick slices of crusty bread on the side. The bread is for soaking up the Marinade that pools on the plate, and if you skip it, you're leaving the best part behind. Mahlzeit!
This salad should be cool but not fridge-cold. Pull the Speck out of the refrigerator twenty minutes before serving. Cold dulls the smokiness. You want the fat just soft enough to melt slightly on your tongue.
Chef Tips
- •Taste your Speck before you dress it. If it's very salty, ease back on the salt in the Marinade. Speck varies enormously in saltiness depending on the producer and how long it was cured. Let the ingredient tell you what it needs.
- •Austrian Marinade is vinegar-forward. The classic ratio is roughly two parts vinegar to three parts oil, not the French one-to-three you might be used to. If you dress this salad like a French vinaigrette, it will taste flat and oily. Let the vinegar lead.
- •Don't refrigerate this salad after composing it. Cold Speck loses its smokiness and the fat turns waxy on the palate. Serve within fifteen minutes of dressing, at cool room temperature. If you're eating outdoors, so much the better.
- •This is a late summer and autumn salad when the apples are fresh and firm from the tree. In winter, it's still lovely with a good stored apple, but don't attempt it with mealy, off-season fruit. The apple must snap when you bite it.
Advance Preparation
- •The Marinade can be whisked together an hour ahead and left at room temperature. Whisk again before dressing.
- •The Speck can be sliced and cut into strips a few hours ahead and stored covered in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before serving.
- •Do not slice the apples ahead of time. They brown quickly, even with acid, and the texture softens. Cut them just before composing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 300g)
Calories
500 calories
Total Fat
29 g
Saturated Fat
6 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
22 g
Cholesterol
40 mg
Sodium
1290 mg
Total Carbohydrates
43 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
13 g
Protein
18 g
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