Gaisburger Marsch

Method

1. Put the beef and bones in the pot, cover with boiling water, and boil hard for 2 minutes. Drain, rinse the meat and the pot, and start again. This one step is why the finished broth is clear.
2. Dry the empty pot, set it over high heat, and press the onion halves cut side down until they are properly dark. That colour goes into the broth and nothing else replaces it.
3. Add the meat, bones, cold water, salt, cloves, bay, and peppercorns. Bring it slowly to the barest simmer and skim the grey foam off as it rises. Never let it boil, or the broth turns cloudy.
4. Simmer uncovered for 1 hour, then add the carrots, celeriac, leek, and parsley stems. Simmer another 60 to 75 minutes, until a fork slides into the beef with no resistance.
5. Lift out the beef and wrap it in foil. Strain the broth through a cloth-lined sieve and skim the fat. You should have 1.5 to 1.8 litres. Taste it and season hard; everything else in the bowl is bland on its own.
6. Return the broth to the clean pot, add the diced potatoes, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes until just tender. Do not let them collapse.
7. While the potatoes cook, melt the butter in a wide pan, add the sliced onions with a pinch of salt, and cook over medium-low heat for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring often, until deep gold. Lower the heat if they catch.
8. Cut the beef into 2 cm cubes. Add the beef and the Spätzle to the broth and heat through for 2 to 3 minutes. Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
9. Ladle into deep bowls so every bowl gets meat, potato, and Spätzle. Top with the browned onions, then the parsley leaves and chives.

Notes

• The name is not settled. The three explanations in circulation are that 19th century officer cadets marched out from their Stuttgart barracks to a Gaisburg inn for it, that wives of imprisoned Gaisburg men carried the pot to them daily on foot, and that “Marsch” simply describes the march of ingredients into one bowl. German Wikipedia treats all three as legend and notes the earliest written record is from 1933. So tell whichever story you like, and do not claim it is the true one.
• The broth is the whole dish, so make it a day ahead. Chill it overnight, lift the solid fat off the top, and you get a cleaner and better seasoned soup with an hour of work removed from the day you serve it.
• Potatoes and Spätzle in the same bowl is the point, not an accident. Swabians call the combination “Verheierte”, the married ones.
• Use waxy potatoes. Swabians call them Grombira or Grundbirnen. Floury ones dissolve into the broth and cloud it.
• Fresh refrigerated Spätzle from the German supermarket is a fair shortcut, but homemade is noticeably better here because the broth carries so little else. Add them at the very end; Spätzle left sitting in hot broth turn to paste.
• In Germany ask the butcher for Beinscheibe or Bugblatt plus Markknochen. In Canada, beef shank and chuck with a few soup bones are the equivalent, and the marrow bones are usually cheap.
• Brown the onions properly. Pale onions on top look like a garnish; dark ones taste like the dish.
• Leftovers keep 3 days, but store the broth, the meat and potatoes, and the Spätzle separately and combine when you reheat.
• This is not a keto recipe.

Sources used

• Küchengötter: Stuttgarter Gaisburger Marsch
• Einfach Kochen: Gaisburger Marsch nach Omas Originalrezept
• Küche Gemacht: Gaisburger Marsch
• Wikipedia (DE): Gaisburger Marsch
• Wikipedia (EN): Gaisburger Marsch