Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large pot for boiling beets
• •Small saucepan for warming marinade
• •Fine Microplane grater or box grater for Kren
• •Wide shallow bowl for marinating

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the beetroot whole

   Wash the beetroots gently but don't peel them and don't cut off the root tails. If you nick the skin before cooking, the color bleeds into the water and your beets come out pale and washed-out. Place them in a large pot, cover with cold water by a few centimeters, and add the whole caraway seeds, bay leaf, and a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a steady simmer and cook until a knife slides through the center without resistance. Depending on size, this takes forty-five minutes to an hour. Small beets cook faster, so check early.

   Choose beets that are roughly the same size so they cook evenly. If you're stuck with a mix, pull the smaller ones out first and let the larger ones keep simmering.
2. 2

   Peel while warm

   Drain the beets and let them cool just enough to handle. The skins slip off under running water while they're still warm. If you let them go cold, the skins cling and you'll be there all afternoon with a knife, staining everything in sight. Rub gently with your thumb and the skin should slide right off. Trim the root end and the stem.

3. 3

   Slice the beets

   Cut the peeled beets into slices about three to four millimeters thick. Some cooks prefer half-moons, some prefer full rounds. I like full rounds for a Beisl-style presentation, half-moons if it's part of a Gemischter Salat. The slices should be thin enough to absorb the marinade but thick enough to hold their shape. Put them in a wide, shallow bowl where they can lie in a single layer or just slightly overlapping.

4. 4

   Make the warm marinade

   In a small saucepan, warm the vinegar with the oil, sugar, salt, pepper, finely diced onion, and the crushed caraway seeds over low heat. You're not cooking it, just warming it through until the sugar and salt dissolve and the caraway starts to release its fragrance, about two minutes. The marinade must be warm when it hits the beets. Warm vinegar opens the surface of the slices and lets the flavor soak in. Cold marinade sits on top and never really penetrates.

   Crush the caraway seeds lightly with the flat of a knife or in a mortar. You want them cracked open, not ground to powder. Whole seeds bounce off the tongue; powdered caraway turns bitter. Cracked is the middle ground where the flavor lives.
5. 5

   Dress and marinate

   Pour the warm marinade over the sliced beets while they're still warm. Tilt the bowl gently to distribute it. Don't stir with a spoon or you'll break the slices and end up with pink rubble. Let the salad cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for at least four hours. Overnight is better. The beets deepen in color as they marinate and the caraway and vinegar work their way through every slice. Tomorrow's salad will be twice the salad today's is.

   Hesperidenessig is a mild, slightly citrusy Viennese vinegar that Gretel always preferred for beet salad. If you can't find it, a good Apfelessig (apple cider vinegar) is the right substitute. Avoid white wine vinegar here. It's too sharp and it fights the earthiness of the beets instead of lifting it.
6. 6

   Finish with fresh Kren

   Take the salad out of the fridge thirty minutes before serving. It should be cool, not ice cold. Arrange the slices on a plate or in a shallow bowl. Spoon some of the marinade and the soft onion pieces over the top. Grate fresh Kren directly over the beets at the table using a fine Microplane or the small holes of a box grater. The horseradish must be freshly grated. The moment it hits the air, the sharp heat starts to fade, so you grate it at the last second. That first bite, where the sweet, earthy beet meets the sinus-clearing punch of raw Kren, is everything this salad is about. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •Buy your beetroot with the leaves still attached if you can. The leaves tell you how fresh the beets are. Wilted leaves mean the beet has been sitting around too long. And save those leaves: wilt them in butter with a little garlic and you've got a second dish for free.
• •Wear gloves when you peel the beets, or accept that your hands will be pink for two days. I've accepted it. My kitchen towels in Salzburg are permanently stained and I've stopped caring.
• •The vinegar-to-oil ratio matters. This is a vinegar-forward salad, not a vinaigrette. The oil is there to round the edges, not to dominate. If your instinct is to add more oil, resist it. Austrian salad dressings are sharper than French ones. That's the point.
• •Fresh Kren loses its heat within minutes of grating. Never grate it ahead of time and leave it sitting. If you can only find prepared horseradish in a jar, it will work, but it won't give you the same sinus-clearing sharpness that makes this salad extraordinary.

Advance Preparation

• •The salad should be made at least four hours before serving. Overnight is ideal. It keeps beautifully in the fridge for up to four days, improving in flavor every day.
• •Do not grate the Kren until the moment you serve. Its heat is volatile and fades quickly once exposed to air.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 205g)