''Steckrübeneintopf'' () is a German dish that, today, is especially common in

North 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 ...

. It generally consists of a stew made from swede, carrots and

potato 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 Unit ...

es in varying proportions and diverse, usually smoked or pickled, types of meat or

sausage A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders. ...

. Occasionally special cooking

pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the po ...

s used as well. The stew may be seasoned and refined with

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

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 ...

mustard Mustard may refer to: Food and plants * Mustard (condiment), a paste or sauce made from mustard seeds used as a condiment * Mustard plant, one of several plants, having seeds that are used for the condiment ** Mustard seed, seeds of the mustard p ...

horseradish Horseradish (''Armoracia rusticana'', syn. ''Cochlearia armoracia'') is a perennial plant of the family Brassicaceae (which also includes mustard, wasabi, broccoli, cabbage, and radish). It is a root vegetable, cultivated and used worldwi ...

celery Celery (''Apium graveolens'') is a marshland plant in the family Apiaceae that has been cultivated as a vegetable since antiquity. Celery has a long fibrous stalk tapering into leaves. Depending on location and cultivar, either its stalks, ...

, leeks or parsley, etc., according to taste.

Regional variations

On many farms this dish was prepared almost daily, alongside roast potatoes. Often it alternated with a second, daily-changing meal. For this reason, especially in the region of Stade, it is still called ''Tokokers'' (= ''Zugekochtes''). If the meat is smoked, the dish is also called ''Rökert'' (= ''Geräuchertes'' or "smoked"). In

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...

the stew is made with pre-cooked sausage ('' Kochwurst'') and ''

Kassler Kassler or Kasseler in German cuisine is the name given to a cured and slightly smoked cut of pork similar to gammon. It can be either hot or cold smoked. Pork necks and loins are the most often used cuts although ribs, shoulders and bellies ca ...

'' and is known as ''Rübenmalheur''. For the variant known as ''Lübecker National'',

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...

(blade, belly) is preferred and flour or

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

are used as

binding agent A binder or binding agent is any material or substance that holds or draws other materials together to form a cohesive whole mechanically, chemically, by adhesion or cohesion. In a more narrow sense, binders are liquid or dough-like substances th ...

s. This recipe can also contain

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onio ...

s. In

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

the corresponding dish is called ''Hamburger National'' und can contain

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adu ...

in addition to bacon and belly pork. In

Land Hadeln Land Hadeln is a historic landscape and former administrative district in Northern Germany with its seat in Otterndorf on the Lower Elbe, the lower reaches of the River Elbe, in the Elbe-Weser Triangle between the estuaries of the Elbe and W ...

the potatoes are generally replaced by white flour dumplings ('' Klüten''), which is why it goes under the name of ''Speck und Klüten'' ("bacon and dumplings"). Up to the middle of the 20th century as particularly substantial version of this stew was a popular fare for dinner on Christmas Eve (''Fullbuksobend'' = Vollbauchabend'' or "full belly evening").

References

Sources

* Erna Kayser: ''Leckeres, Deftiges, Zartes, aus Hadler Küchen.'' Aus der Reihe Hadler Almanach, Niederelbe-Druck, Otterndorf, 1980. {{DEFAULTSORT:Steckrubeneintopf German soups North German cuisine Brassica dishes