Beef broth with marrow bones – Tafelspitz recipe

Ingredients

1500 g beef topside (UK) / top round (US)
500 g beef marrow bone
300 g beef bones
4-5 liter water
2 flat tablespoon of salt
1 teáskanál whole black peppercorns
1 small piece ginger root (approx. 2 cm)
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
½ leek
4 carrots
2 parsnip (parsley root)
1 small piece celery root
1 kohlrabi
1 potato
1 bunch parsley green
5-6 Brussels sprouts or 1 kale leaf

For the horseradish apple sauce:

4 apples
sweetener to taste (I used xylitol, but honey is also good)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated horseradish in a jar

Instructions

Wash the bones thoroughly. Place them in the bottom of a large pot.
The meat should remain in large pieces. I recommend cutting the 1.5 kg of meat into three pieces. It will soften faster and be easier to remove. Wash the meat in cold water and place it in the pot.
Pour in cold water so that it generously covers the meat and bones.
A beef broth with this composition usually requires 4-5 liters of water, depending on how strong you want the flavor to be. If you want a richer, more concentrated broth, 4 liters is enough, but if you want a lighter, thinner broth, use 5 liters of water.
Place the pot on the stove and bring the water to a boil. When it boils, foam will form on the surface. Remove it with a strainer. Repeat the process until no more foam forms. Then lower the heat so that the soup simmers gently.
Now it's time for the salt. Add two level tablespoons. You can add the whole black peppercorns straight away, but if you don't want to pick them out one by one at the end, I recommend putting them in a tea egg. Fill the bottom of the tea egg with whole black peppercorns and simply hang it in the soup. This way, you can remove it all at once at the end.
Cook the soup for at least 3-5 hours. This also depends on the quality of the meat. After 2 hours, check how tender it is and cook it further if necessary. To extract all the delicious flavor from the bones, you can cook them for up to 5 hours, but it is important to remove the meat and vegetables as soon as they become tender.
But that's still a long way off. First, you have to add the vegetables. Once the soup vegetables have been cleaned and cut into large pieces, it's best to add them when the meat is almost tender. The key is to ensure that they soften at the same time and that the vegetables don't overcook, so that they remain bite-sized.
When everything is tender, remove the meat and vegetables with a slotted spoon.
It is worth letting the finished soup rest for at least 30 minutes, then straining it. If you want a very clear, almost fat-free soup, you can also use a cloth diaper. I simply pour the soup through a fine-mesh strainer into the bowls. The strainer is needed to filter out any remaining bone fragments or vegetable pieces.
Serving the broth:
Chop up the cooked soup vegetables and mix them together on a plate. Slice the meat, then dice it and place it on the bottom of the plate. Add cooked pasta to taste. Pour hot soup over it. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and it's ready to eat.
Serving tafelspitz:
For tafelspitz, slice the meat and place it in a deep plate. Add vegetables cut into large pieces. Pour the hot broth over it, but do not cover it completely. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley or chives, or possibly leeks. Serve the boiled beef with horseradish apple sauce in a separate bowl. This is good for spreading on the meat.
Preparation of apple horseradish sauce:
Wash and peel the apples. Cut them into cubes and place them in a saucepan. Pour in enough water to cover them halfway. Sprinkle with cinnamon and add the sweetener. Cook until completely soft. This will be ready very quickly. Then pour into a blender, but only the apples, not too much of the juice, so that it is not too thin. Add a teaspoon of grated horseradish and blend. Pour into a bowl and serve with the meat.