Labskaus — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

A vivid pink sailor's hash of corned beef, potatoes, and beetroot, topped with a fried egg, rollmops herring, and pickled gherkins — Hamburg's most iconic dish.

Ingredients

400g corned beef (canned or home-cured)
600g floury potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 medium beetroots, cooked and diced
1 large onion, diced
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp beetroot liquid
4 eggs for frying
4 rollmops (pickled herring rolls)
Pickled gherkins, sliced
Salt, pepper, nutmeg

Instructions

1 Boil potatoes until tender, about 20 min. Drain and mash roughly.
2 Sauté diced onion in butter until translucent. Add crumbled corned beef and heat through.
3 Fold in mashed potatoes and diced beetroot. Add beetroot liquid for moisture and color. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
4 Mash everything together until you get a rough, pink-hued hash. Keep warm.
5 Fry eggs sunny-side up in a separate skillet.
6 Plate the Labskaus, top each serving with a fried egg, and garnish with rollmops and sliced gherkins.

Did You Know?

Labskaus was originally a sailor's dish designed to be eaten by men with scurvy who had lost their teeth — everything is mashed soft enough to gum.