Europe

Tafelspitz Recipe: Vienna's Boiled Beef and Broth

Name: Tafelspitz Recipe: Vienna's Boiled Beef and Broth
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 3 h 10 min
Total time: 3 h 30 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Austrian (Viennese)
Ingredients: 1.5 kg Beef, a single piece; 500 g Beef bones; 1 Carrot; 1 stalk Celery; 3–4 Parsley stems; 1/2 Leek; 1 large Onion; 2 Bay leaves; 10 Black peppercorns; 3 L Water; 1 tbsp Salt; 3 Apples; 1 1/2 tbsp Lemon juice; a pinch Baking powder; 16 g Fresh horseradish; 6 g Sugar; a pinch Salt; 200 g Sour cream; 100 ml Water; 2 tbsp Chives; a pinch Salt

A tafelspitz recipe for Vienna's signature beef dish: a single cut of beef simmered gently with aromatics, charred onion and bay leaf. Includes the legend of Emperor Franz Joseph and Sacher, why the broth comes first, apple-horseradish Apfelkren and chive sauce.

Published: October 29, 2026Total: 3 hr 30 minLevel: Beginner

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 6

Char the cut sides of the onion

5 min

Charring the cut sides of unpeeled onion in a skillet until blackish — No oil, cook until the cut sides are dark brown nearly black

Place the unpeeled onion halves cut side down in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes. The trick is to cook until the cut sides are a dark brown close to black. This char gives the broth its savor and amber color. The onion skin also helps color, so leave it on.

STEP 22 / 6

Lower the beef into water with aromatics

10 min

Lowering a single piece of beef into water boiled with aromatics — Add the meat after the water boils, and lower to low just before it boils again

Put 3 L water in a large deep pot, add the carrot, celery, parsley stems, leek, charred onion, bay leaves and peppercorns, and bring to a boil over high heat. When boiling, gently lower in the beef and the bones. Add water if needed so the meat does not stick out above it. When it starts to come to a boil again, drop to low heat at once.

STEP 33 / 6

Simmer 2 hours without boiling

2 hours

Skimming gray scum from the surface of a gently simmering pot — At a low heat where the surface barely trembles, skim often

Set the lid slightly ajar and hold a heat just below boiling, where the surface of the pot trembles slightly now and then. Skim the gray scum that rises with a ladle each time it appears. If you boil it hard the scum and fat mix into the broth and cloud it, and the meat shrinks and toughens. When water drops and the surface of the meat shows, top up with hot water each time.

STEP 44 / 6

Add the salt at 2 hours and cook until tender

30 min–1 hour

Testing the tenderness of the cooked beef with a fork — If the fork slides in, it is done. Keep the removed meat warm in broth

After 2 hours of simmering, add 1 tbsp salt. In Viennese recipes too, salt goes in about 2 hours after the start, once the meat is somewhat cooked. Simmer another 30 minutes to 1 hour, and when a fork goes into the thickest part without resistance, it is done. If it is still firm, extend in 15-minute steps. Take the meat out, spoon a little broth over it so it does not dry, and keep it warm in a covered dish. Taste the broth and adjust the salt, then strain it through a sieve.

STEP 55 / 6

Make the Apfelkren and chive sauce

15 min

Apfelkren of grated apple with horseradish, and a sour cream sauce with chives — Grate the apple and mix with lemon juice at once; add the horseradish at the last minute

Make the condiments in the last 30 minutes of simmering. Peel and core the apples, grate them on a fine grater, and mix at once with lemon juice, sugar, baking powder and salt. Just before eating, grate the horseradish, add it and mix again. For the chive sauce, add 100 ml water a little at a time to 200 g sour cream and whisk until smooth, then add salt and chives.

STEP 66 / 6

Serve the broth first, then slice the meat

5 min

Slicing the cooked beef across the grain to 1 cm thick — Cut across the grain to 1 cm, arrange on warmed plates and spoon broth over

Warm the strained broth and first serve only the broth, with chives scattered. Then slice the beef across the grain to about 1 cm thick. Slicing with the grain makes it taste stringy when chewed. Arrange the meat on warmed plates, spoon a little hot broth over so it does not dry, and add the Apfelkren and chive sauce.

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Ingredients

1 / 3

Broth and beef

Ingredient	Amount	Substitutes & notes
Beef, a single piece	1.5 kg	Rump cap (part of the rump) is a close cut. Beef round or a piece of shank also works. Keep the fat layer
Beef bones	500 g	If you can get them. It can be made without
Carrot	1	Cut in half lengthwise
Celery	1 stalk	Cut in half crosswise. Use some leaves too
Parsley stems	3–4	Stands in for European parsley root or parsnip
Leek	1/2	Locally leek; a long green onion also works
Onion	1 large	Halved crosswise, unpeeled
Bay leaves	2	Dried is fine
Black peppercorns	10
Water	3 L	Top up as it reduces
Salt	1 tbsp	Add after 2 hours of simmering and adjust by taste

2 / 3

Apfelkren (apple and horseradish condiment, for 4 servings)

Ingredient	Amount	Substitutes & notes
Apples	3	Tart varieties suit it
Lemon juice	1 1/2 tbsp	Prevents browning
Baking powder	a pinch	To keep the color. Optional
Fresh horseradish	16 g	With prepared horseradish, add a little at a time and taste
Sugar	6 g
Salt	a pinch

3 / 3

Chive sauce

Ingredient	Amount	Substitutes & notes
Sour cream	200 g
Water	100 ml	About half the sour cream
Chives	2 tbsp	Thinly sliced. Scallion greens can substitute
Salt	a pinch

0 / 0

Order tafelspitz at one of Vienna's old restaurants, and it may come to the table in the steaming pot itself. First comes the amber, clear beef broth. After you finish it, the beef that was simmering in the pot is cut thick and eaten with a sharp grated apple condiment and a sour cream chive sauce. Tafelspitz is a Viennese beef dish in which you taste the broth and the meat in one sitting.

The method is surprisingly simple: a single piece of beef is simmered with aromatics for nearly 3 hours, without boiling. There is no browning and no reducing of a sauce. That is why a heat that never boils largely decides how clear the broth is.

The Emperor's Table and the Legend of Sacher

A beef stew on silverware and a white cloth, suggesting a 19th-century Viennese court table

Viennese people have long had a relationship with beef. According to the traditional food database of Austria's Federal Ministry of Agriculture, beef was an important food for townspeople from the end of the Middle Ages. In the mid-16th century, hundreds of thousands of cattle raised on the Hungarian plains were reaching Vienna. In an age without railways the cattle were driven on foot for days, and even when they had grown thin on the way they were regarded as good animals for fattening. In the 19th century the livestock market at St. Marx came to consolidate Vienna's meat supply.

Boiled beef was a staple of the court table by the 1830s. Emperor Franz Joseph I was known to love the dish, and a 1912 waiter's handbook states: "Good boiled beef is never missing from His Majesty's private table." From there it spread to townspeople's homes and restaurants and became a dish everyone in Vienna ate, regardless of rank. The name "Tafelspitz" is said to first appear in a recipe collection of 1911.

Did you know?

A legend connected with Hotel Sacher surrounds the birth of tafelspitz. Franz Joseph ate very fast, and under court custom, when the emperor finished eating, the other guests also had to stop. For the officers who left court still hungry, Anna Sacher is said to have prepared a dish that could simmer for a long time. Hotel Sacher tells this story as part of its history, but the Austrian ministry's database presents it only as a "legend."

The name "Tafelspitz" was originally the name of a cut of beef: part of the hind leg or round of a young bullock, marked by a thin layer of flavorful fat along the upper curve. That cut itself became the name of the dish. In Vienna, the cuts of beef for boiling each have fine names, and besides Tafelspitz, names of cuts for boiled beef such as Hieferscherzel, Kruspel and Kavalierspitz are in use.

After the Second World War the culture of boiled beef declined for a while, but from the 1950s several restaurants revived the tradition. Today it is a signature dish of restaurants serving traditional Viennese food, well known to tourists too.

Ingredients (serves 6)

Beef, carrot, celery, leek, unpeeled onion, bay leaves and peppercorns laid out

In Vienna, tafelspitz uses part of the beef round. At a butcher, the closest cut is the rump cap, the end of the rump, sometimes sold as a piece with its fat layer. If you cannot find it, beef round or a piece of shank also works. Shank has a lot of sinew, so long cooking melts the gelatin to a silkiness and adds richness to the broth. With any cut, do not trim off the fat layer.

Tip

Fresh horseradish is sometimes available as whole root from import grocers, produce shops or online. It is sharpest at the moment of grating and loses aroma over time, so ideally grate it just before eating. Prepared horseradish can substitute, but its heat differs by product, so add a little at a time and taste.

How to Make Tafelspitz

Prep is about 20 minutes and simmering is 2 1/2–3 hours. Simmering takes almost no attention, so make the Apfelkren and chive sauce in the last 30 minutes.

Tip

If you also want to eat the aromatic vegetables, prepare separate carrots and celery from the ones in the pot and add them to the pot only for the last 45 minutes or so. Vegetables put in from the start give up all their flavor to the broth over 3 hours and turn limp.

Tip

The meat is easier to slice thin when cold. If you cook it the day before, take the meat out of the broth, wrap it tightly in plastic and refrigerate, then slice when serving and warm it in hot broth. Not letting the broth boil again when reheating keeps the meat moist.

Note

Grating horseradish releases a strongly pungent compound that stings eyes and nose. Keep your face away and work with ventilation. The Apfelkren contains no wheat or the like, but the sour cream in the chive sauce contains milk.

Starting with the Broth: The Viennese Way of Eating

A Viennese table with beef broth with small dumplings, sliced beef, roast potatoes and creamed spinach — Enjoy the broth first, then the meat and sides

Tafelspitz is like making two dishes at once. First the broth, then the meat. In a recipe from the Austrian National Tourist Office, semolina dumplings (Grießnockerl) or thin strips of crepe (Frittaten) float in the broth, with chopped chives, served as a starter. In a home kitchen, floating thin strips of omelet or crepe gets close to the feel of Frittaten.

The sides on the meat plate are also nearly fixed in Vienna: Apfelkren of apple and horseradish, Semmelkren of bread and horseradish, chive sauce, Rösterdäpfel (pan-roasted sliced potatoes), and creamed spinach or dill-flavored green beans. Austrian public broadcaster ORF's recipe also lists creamed spinach and roast potatoes as traditional sides. You need not have everything: with just Apfelkren and chive sauce, the Viennese table feel is plenty.

Dishes that boil beef with aromatics the same way exist across Europe: French pot-au-feu (in Japanese), Italian bollito misto. Germany's neighboring Swabian Gaisburger Marsch is likewise a beef broth with potatoes and Spätzle. Eating them side by side shows how distinctive the Viennese style is, serving the broth first and eating the meat with condiments.

FAQ

A piece of beef showing the fat layer on its upper side

What cut should I use if I cannot find rump cap?

Beef round, shank or chuck in a single piece works. Shank has a lot of sinew, so with long simmering it becomes tender and adds richness to the broth. For a leaner cut, shorten the simmering and stop when a fork slides in.

My broth went cloudy.

Boiling hard mixes scum and fat into the broth and clouds it. Next time keep the heat low enough that the surface barely trembles and skim often. Cloudy broth also clears somewhat when strained through a sieve lined with paper towels.

What should I do with leftover meat and broth?

Do not store the meat soaked in broth; wrap it in plastic, refrigerate and eat it soon. Soaking in broth actually makes the meat dry. Keep the broth refrigerated in a separate container, and when reheating, heat it thoroughly through.

Can I make the Apfelkren ahead?

Made the day before, the horseradish's heat weakens a little. If you make it ahead, keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator and add a little more horseradish just before eating to bring the aroma back.

Sources

Österreichisches Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Klima- und Umweltschutz, Regionen und Wasserwirtschaft, „Tafelspitz" (Traditionelle Lebensmittel). Accessed and checked 22 October 2026. https://www.bmluk.gv.at/themen/lebensmittel/trad-lebensmittel/speisen/tafelspitz.html
Österreich Werbung (austria.info), Renate Wagner, „Tafelspitz". Accessed and checked 22 October 2026. https://www.austria.info/de-at/rezepte/tafelspitz/
ORF, „Silvia kocht": Gekochter Tafelspitz mit Schnittlauchsauce, Apfelkren und Semmelkren. Accessed and checked 22 October 2026. https://extra.orf.at/rezepte/silvia-kocht/gekochter-tafelspitz-semmelkren-apfelkren-schnittlauchsauce102.pdf
Angelika Kreitner-Beretits, Vienna Sunday Kitchen, „Tafelspitz Schritt für Schritt". Accessed and checked 22 October 2026. https://www.vienna-sunday.kitchen/tafelspitz-schritt-fuer-schritt
Hotel Sacher, "Tafelspitz." Accessed and checked 22 October 2026. https://www.sacher.com/en/tafelspitz/