Hello, friends!
For almost seven years, we’ve been making films and videos about World of Warships,
how it’s created,
and the people who make the game really great and famous all over the world.
Moreover, we’ve told you about the history of the navy, famous ships, and battles.
And today, I’m really happy to present to you a brand-new project
that will surely imbue your home with the true sea spirit
and enrich your life with a new taste.
So, welcome to Navy Kitchen.
Here, we’ll cook some kinds of famous and little-known dishes
that sailors from all around the world—
from different eras, from different countries—ate.
And we’ll try to tell you about the history of their appearance
and even restore their original recipes.
We’ll try, probably.
So, let's get started!
The Beatles, the German Chancellor, and toothless sailors—
they are all united by a dish, after seeing which,
I’m pretty sure, you won’t want to eat.
But if you decide to try, you'll remain its admirer for all your life.
So, today, we’re preparing labskaus—
an ancient dish of Northern European sailors.
This culinary monument appeared in distant times
when people with iron stomachs plied the sea on wooden ships.
Their diet was really poor and consisted mainly of
corned meat, pickled and salted vegetables, and sometimes fish.
That’s why it caused a lot of health problems.
And the most common disease among the sailors was scurvy,
because of which most sailors lost their teeth.
And now, answer me a simple question—
how a toothless sailor can eat something like that?
It’s impossible!
So, the decision was to turn it all into porridge.
And that’s how labskaus was born.
To cook labskaus we need:
Corned beef or pork (600 gr)
Potatoes (300 gr)
Pickled beetroots (300 gr)
Onions (200 gr)
Pickled cucumbers
If you have brine, it’s very good.
Vegetable oil
Black pepper
Bay leaf
And, of course, herring fillet
Just to decorate our dish.
The idea of labskaus is quite easy—
just put everything you got into the pot
and cook it till it reaches the consistency of soup.
That’s how peasants in Northern Europe did it about 300 years ago.
Today we’ll cook it with modern methods
but try to keep the original spirit of labskaus.
The first step is to put the meat in cold water in the pan.
Like this.
Turn on the heat.
To the question of the meat component,
let's keep in mind that labskaus came to us from Nordic lands.
And there are plenty of Nordic countries.
That’s why the original recipe allows us to use plenty of different kinds of meat.
For example, in Sweden, they used dried pork and bacon;
in Denmark, they replaced corned beef and pork with fresh beef and pork;
and in the UK, especially in Liverpool, they used mutton to cook labskaus.
To complete the first, we can throw onions into the pan.
And then also add spices.
I’d add only bay leaf, pepper, and leave it all for an hour and a half.
So, let’s do it!
In Liverpool, people of the town loved labskaus so much!
And they called the dish scouse, because it looked more like soup.
So, they called themselves scousers.
Also, one linguist had a theory that
the Liverpool accent and dialect were called Scouse after the dish.
For example, you can listen to how
John Lennon and George Harrison talk in A Hard Day's Night.
That’s exactly the Scouse accent.
Another funny theory says that
the accent was called Scouse because of the chronic runny nose of Liverpudlians.
Now, it’s time to check the meat.
I think it’s soft enough, even for sailors without teeth.
We can take it out.
Look how great it is!
I’ll put it here, cover it with a towel, and move to the second step
Let’s take potatoes. I’ll use unpeeled but washed ones, and add them to the broth.
So easy!
Three large potatoes and a small one will do.
And now, it's time for the third step.
Meat grinder!
Let's take our meat.
I think it's too big for the grinder,
so I’ll slice it a little bit.
Somebody might ask: "Where can I find a meat grinder in the 17th century?"
Yeah, you're right.
There were no such miracle mechanisms back then.
They had double-handed knives called mezzalunas instead.
But thanks to Karl Drez we have this great thing.
Also, he invented the first bicycle but without pedals.
Now, I’ll take the meat and start creating a miracle!
Works perfectly.
It’s a perfect Christmas dish.
Everybody will like it.
And it looks like a perfect mass for toothless sailors.
But you should put some effort to use the meat grinder.
It’s a pretty old one.
Not from the 17th century, of course, but it’s like 15 years old.
This model was produced before Tesla was designed.
That’s hard!
I can’t imagine how a sailor cook did that for like 15 sailors on board.
It’s impossible.
But I’m trying to do my best!
And if you like our meat grinder 2000, you can buy it in our Premium Shop.
Nobody understood the joke about the Premium Shop…
Let’s go on.
I’ll take pickled beetroots now but leave a couple of them for garnish.
We need to grind them all and mix them with the meat.
Pick a beetroot, put it in the grinder, and grind again.
I like grinding very much!
I think I was born for grinding meat, beetroots, potatoes, anything!
So beautiful!
We need to take cuisine specifics, sailors' cuisine specifics, into account
since they most probably peeled their vegetables simply and roughly.
But look, it’s really a piece of art!
Just mix the red mass with the meat.
Looks gorgeous!
I think that’s enough.
Let’s check the potatoes!
Very good, very good!
And now, it's time for the fourth step.
Leave the potatoes, take the broth away, and mash them with a potato masher.
To be honest, I’ve never tried labskaus before.
I hope I’ll like it.
And as I told you before, I’ll remain its admirer for all of my life.
Put potatoes back into the pan.
And mash them.
Next step!
Let’s put the meat and broth into the mashed potato and mix it all.
As I told you before, the right labskaus must be something between porridge and soup.
In my opinion, we should add some broth and brine from pickled cucumbers.
Broth.
Add it here.
It's very good, it’s becoming more liquid.
I think that’s what we need
And now we add brine from our pickled cucumbers.
This is it, good enough!
Now it’s perfectly salted!
Put the cucumbers back here.
And mix everything again.
After that, put it back on slow fire,
and stew it under the lid for 15–20 minutes until it's ready.
I think our labskaus looks ready.
Put it to the side and leave it breathing for a while.
And it’s time to fry some chicken eggs.
But before the pan is ready, I’ll slice some pickled cucumbers.
The cucumbers are ready.
And now, I’ll take a beetroot and slice it a little bit.
And now it's time to fry eggs, some chicken eggs.
A little bit of oil.
That’s the hardest step in our cooking process.
And we’re ready for the final step.
Let’s take the fried egg away for a while.
By the way, there is no exact translation of the word labskaus.
One theory says it means "easily swallowed",
which is quite close to the point;
according to another—"a good bowl",
and this also has its own logic
becuase of its taste and consistency.
So, let's go on with decorating.
I’ll use my special decoration plate.
Laying out our main component.
You can see the mashed potato and beetroots here.
I want to make the plate look minimalistic.
We can take a photo and upload it to our social media.
Because if you haven’t uploaded it, it means that you haven’t eaten it
One interesting fact—
in cities like Hamburg and Bremen, the dish was served with herring fillet.
I got some here.
And let’s decorate our dish with such a good piece.
This is what real sailors' diet must look like.
As I told you before.
No, one piece is enough.
For one sailor, it’s good enough.
This one is for me and my friends.
Tony, it's for you.
Ladies and gentlemen, here comes labskaus!
It was famous not only among the sailors,
but even a German Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, was very partial to this dish.
See you soon, Captains!
Cook and play with pleasure!