Labskaus () is a culinary speciality from

northern Germany Northern Germany (german: link=no, Norddeutschland) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony an ...

and in particular from the cities of

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

, Hamburg, and Lübeck. The main ingredients are

salted meat Salt-cured meat or salted meat is meat or fish preserved or Curing (food preservation), cured with salt. Salting (food), Salting, either with edible salt, dry salt or brine, was a common method of preserving meat until the middle of the 20th ce ...

corned beef Corned beef, or salt beef in some of the Commonwealth of Nations, is Salt-cured meat, salt-cured brisket of beef. The term comes from the treatment of the meat with large-grained rock salt, also called "corns" of salt. Sometimes, sugar and sp ...

potatoes The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...

, and onion. Some recipes put

beetroot The beetroot is the taproot portion of a beet plant, usually known in North America as beets while the vegetable is referred to as beetroot in British English, and also known as the table beet, garden beet, red beet, dinner beet or golden beet ...

, pickled gherkin, or even

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

into it, while others have these ingredients as side dishes.SPIEGEL Online on Labskaus in Hamburg (German)

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

Etymology

The origin of this word is uncertain. One possible source for the name could be Latvian ''Labs kauss'', meaning 'good bowl' or hotpot, or

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

''labas káušas'', meaning the same. The dish became common amongst sailors and seamen during the time of the great ships. Potatoes and salted meats were a standard fare and Labskaus would make a less-than-fresh cut of meat more palatable and stretch the meat supply. Labskaus is now commonly served in restaurants only on Germany's northern coast, as well as in traditional

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

restaurants. Compare with scouse.

Preparation

The meal is traditionally prepared by boiling the beef in broth and then mincing it with the beetroot, onions, boiled potatoes and herring (some recipes use ham). Finally the base is fried in

lard Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.Lard
entry in the o ...

, condiments as nutmeg,

pepper Pepper or peppers may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant ** Black pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ** Bell pepper ** Chili ...

coriander Coriander (;

, or

allspice Allspice, also known as Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, or pimento, is the dried unripe berry (botany), berry of ''Pimenta dioica'', a Canopy (forest), midcanopy tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central America, ...

are added.Labskaus mit Rote-Bete-Salat
recipe at

NDR NDR may refer to: Computing * Non delivery report, a return email message to a sender indicating failed message delivery * Network Data Representation, an implementation of the OSI model presentation layer Science and technology * Negative differ ...

The dish is similar to the British

hash Hash, hashes, hash mark, or hashing may refer to: Substances * Hash (food), a coarse mixture of ingredients * Hash, a nickname for hashish, a cannabis product Hash mark *Hash mark (sports), a marking on hockey rinks and gridiron football field ...

. Countless variations of the dish exist. For example, in

, 95 km (60 miles) away from Hamburg, Labskaus usually is a preparation of fried

, onions and mashed potatoes with the beetroot and ''

Rollmops Rollmops () are pickled herring fillets, rolled into a cylindrical shape, often around a savoury filling. Presentation The filling usually consists of onion, sliced pickled gherkin, or green olive with pimento. Rollmops are often skewered wit ...

'' being served as a side dish. Variations of the dish are also to be found in Scandinavia, generally without the use of herring. In Denmark, the dish is similar to the Bremen version, but without the herring and some times with added gravy. In

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, ''Lapskojs'' is a stew made with beef and mashed potatoes. In Norway, the word ''

lapskaus Lobscouse (or ''lapskaus'') is a thick Norwegian stew made of meat and potatoes. There are many variations of ''lapskaus''. The dish may be made of fresh or leftover meat (usually beef or lamb, but sometimes also chicken, pork, or ham) and p ...

'' more often refers to a variation of beef stew often made with gravy, or in some cases other types of stew,Lapskaus: a Hearty Norwegian Stew
at ''Nordic Nibbler'', 8 November 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2022 more or less identical to the Liverpudlian scouse.

References

Beef dishes North German cuisine Danish cuisine German beef dishes {{germany-cuisine-stub

Etymology

Preparation

See also

References