Lobscouse or Labskaus: A Dish From The Sailing Ship Days

English "Lobscouse" and German "Labskaus" aren't so much true recipes, but rather they are an assembling of various parts of a meal, all easily bought at your local store and none really requires much preparation, unless you choose to make some things from "scratch." Lobscouse, pronounced as if, "lops-cowse," developed from foods commonly carried on sailing ships in the 1700s. The term "may" have developed in England, as "Lobscouse," and then spread to the close cousin of English, Low German, where is was borrowed by standard German. On the other hand, there are those who believe the term developed in German and spread elsewhere. The problem I have with this theory is, in the 1700s, most Germans in the coastal north of Germany spoke Low German, as standard German was not really that common in those areas at that time. Further, there are some obviously related terms in Denmark and Norway, as well as clear over in the areas of the eastern Baltic Sea, all areas, in those times, much more in contact with Low German, but the similarity in the terms and the passing of the base term from area to area is not surprising, as trade between the various regions of the Baltic and North Seas was quite common, but still the word's exact history is unclear.

The component parts of the dish also varied, with English "Lobscouse" being a stew of salt cured beef, soaked a bit in water to lessen the saltiness, then stewed with potatoes, carrots, onions, or perhaps some other vegetables, when available. It seems that some sea cooks thickened the stew with bread crumbs made by pounding stale bread. Some stories I've read mention that beets were often served with the stew (see German Labskaus, below). In more modern times, the basic idea has remained, but the meat nowadays is often mutton or beef, or even ham, and more seasonings are included, as well as other vegetables and rich meat stock. Of course, in the days of the great sailing ships, the beef was salt cured to preserve it. Lobscouse is a specialty of the city of Liverpool in England.  

German "Labskaus" is well known in northern Germany, especially in the cities of Hamburg and Bremen; in fact, I first had "Labskaus" in Hamburg in 1985. "Labskaus" is typically canned corned beef (there's the salt cured beef), potatoes, pickled beets, pickled herring and pickles; then the dish is topped by a fried egg (German: Spiegelei). Rather than use canned corned beef, some people simmer a piece of beef with some salt and seasonings for a couple of hours. They then grind the meat. Sometimes, the pickle, along with a bit of onion, is wrapped up in herring fillets, which is called "Rollmops." Other preserved fish is also used at times. The potatoes are peeled, diced and simmered until just tender, but not falling apart. They are then drained and mixed into the corned beef. A good serving of the beef and potato mix is put in the middle of the plate and it is ringed by some pickled beets, pickled herring or other fish, and some sliced pickles. A fried egg goes on top of the corned beef and potatoes. Some cooks grind or chop the beets and the herring and mix them into the corned beef and potatoes.

So, what you'll need:

canned corned beef or beef simmered with salt and maybe some peppercorns and bay leaves
potatoes, peeled, diced and simmered just until tender
pickled beets from a jar are fine or make them yourself
pickled herring or other herring or sardines
dill pickles, cut into slices lengthwise    
fried eggs

In the picture, I used "Rollmops," a German herring specialty of pickle slices and some onion rolled up in herring fillets, which are then held in place with wooden picks. You can find Rollmops in some supermarkets, but some seafood places may also have them, but regular pickled herring is totally fine to use, as are sardines. I made my own beets, and I improvised, as I had a couple of green onions, so I cut them up, green and all, and used them in the beets. 

WORD HISTORY:
Wade-This word, distantly related through Indo European to the "vade" part of both "invade" and "evade," words of Latin derivation that were borrowed by English, goes back to Indo European "wahd," which had the notion, "to go through." This gave its Old Germanic offspring, "wadan," meaning, "to go through, to cross through," seemingly also with the underlying notion of "go against hindrance." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "wadan," with the same meaning, but more specifically, "to cross a shallow part of a river or stream, to ford, to walk through generally shallow water." This then became "waden," before the modern form, along with the figurative meanings, "to proceed regardless of difficulty, to become involved in some difficulty." The other Germanic languages have: German "waten" (to wade), Low German Saxon "waden" (to wade), Dutch "waden" (to wade), Danish "vade" (to wade), Icelandic "vaða" (=vatha, meaning, "to wade"), Norwegian "vade/vada" (to wade), Swedish "vada" (to wade). (I found what appeared to be forms of the verb in West Frisian, but I could not find the infinitive form.) The "Wadden Sea," known in Low German as the "Wattensee" and in West Frisian as the "Waadsee," is the name of a coastal area of shallow water and wetlands in the North Sea running from southwestern Denmark, northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. In a way, you could say, it's the "Wading Sea," as the term is derived from the same Germanic source, with the idea being, "an area of the sea being shallow enough to be waded." By the way, French "gué" ("ford") was borrowed from Germanic Frankish.