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History
Tafelspitz was a court-cuisine dish under the Habsburgs and became a bourgeois Sunday lunch in 19th-century Vienna. Each cut of beef has its own name and use: Schulterscherzel for tenderness, Beinfleisch with the bone in, Kruspelspitz with cartilage. Plachutta opened his Wollzeile restaurant in 1986 specifically to cook the dish, with twelve cuts named on the menu. The dish remains the canonical Viennese boiled-beef tradition.
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Common allergens: Milk
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg beef rump cap or shoulder, in one piece
- 1 large onion, halved and charred in a dry pan
- 2 carrots, 1 leek, 1 small celeriac, all cut into large chunks
- 10 black peppercorns, 2 bay leaves, 1 sprig lovage
- 1 small apple and 100g fresh horseradish, for the sauce
- 100ml double cream, 30g chives, 1 hard-boiled yolk, for the green sauce
- Boiled potatoes, creamed spinach, fried rosti to serve
- Sea salt
Method
- Bring 3 litres of water to a boil in a wide pot. Add the charred onion halves and the vegetables, salt the water, simmer for 20 minutes.
- Lower the beef into the simmering stock, skim the foam, and poach at a bare tremble for 2.5 hours. The water should not boil; the meat should stay tender.
- While the beef cooks, grate the apple and fresh horseradish together for the sauce. Whip the cream lightly and fold through the apple-horseradish.
- For the green sauce, blend cooked yolk, chopped chives, a splash of poaching stock, and cream into a smooth pale-green spoonable sauce.
- Lift the beef, rest 5 minutes, then carve in 1cm slices across the grain. Serve in shallow bowls with a ladle of stock, the two sauces, rosti and creamed spinach.
Tip from the editors. A bare tremble of stock, never a rolling boil; boiling toughens the beef. Reserve the marrow bones to serve on toast with sea salt as the first course.
Where to eat tafelspitz
Tafelspitz in Vienna
Plachutta Wollzeile ★ 4.6
Plachutta on Wollzeile in Vienna is the canonical Tafelspitz address, the boiled-beef pot served in copper pans with rösti, apple horseradish.
OrderTafelspitz vom Schulterscherzel; the cut Franz Joseph is said to have favoured.
TipOpen daily 11:30-23:30; the kitchen runs lunch through dinner without a break.
Plachutta Hietzing ★ 4.5
Plachutta Hietzing serves the family's canonical Tafelspitz across town in 1130 Hietzing, an opera-quiet 13th-district room that draws Schoenbrunn locals.
OrderTafelspitz with the full set of sides; the cut of the day is the recommended order.
TipA quieter Tafelspitz alternative to Wollzeile, especially at lunch; the 1130 postcode makes parking easier too.
Restaurant Rote Bar ★ 4.4
Restaurant Rote Bar inside Hotel Sacher on Philharmoniker Strasse in Vienna serves classic Viennese cuisine in a red-damask room across from the State Opera.
OrderSacher's Tafelspitz, followed by the Original Sachertorte for dessert.
TipThe winter garden seats face the Opera directly; ask for one when booking.
Zum Schwarzen Kameel ★ 4.5
Zum Schwarzen Kameel on Bognergasse in Vienna has stood since 1618, the 1901 Jugendstil dining room and front-of-house Stehplatz for canapés a single.
OrderTwo or three of the open-faced canapés from the front-counter glass.
TipThe standing-bar at the front is the quick-lunch entry; the dining room behind takes serious bookings.
Gasthaus Ubl ★ 4.7
Gasthaus Ubl on Pressgasse in Vienna's Wieden has been a family-run Beisl for over fifty years, the green-tiled stove and wood-panelled rooms turning out.
OrderZwiebelrostbraten with crisp onions; the kitchen's most-ordered plate.
TipCash only; book by phone because the room is almost always full.
Tafelspitz in Zurich
Kronenhalle ★ 4.7
The canonical Zurich bourgeois room, open since 1924, with original Chagall, Miro and Bonnard on the dining-room walls. Geschnetzeltes, Tafelspitz, the canon.
Book2 weeks ahead
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