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Alsace
On the blackboards of winstubs, “rossbif” has never been roast beef: in Alsatian, “Ross” means horse — and behind the name lies a red-wine braise sliced thinly, just like roast beef.
Traditional dish from Alsace.
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On the blackboards of Alsatian winstubs, “rossbif” is nothing like roast beef. Yet the French word “rosbif” is indeed borrowed from the English roast-beef, attested from the late 17th century to denote roasted meat — first mutton, then beef. In Alsace, however, its use became fixed exclusively to mean horsemeat: a reinterpretation of the word through the Alsatian and German “Ross”, meaning “horse”, accounts for both this distinctive meaning and its spelling with two “s”s. “Real rossbif is horsemeat,” summed up the owner of a Strasbourg winstub a few years ago. The dish consists of a cut of horsemeat, taken most often from the loin, sometimes from the chuck or neck, marinated then braised and served in slices, usually accompanied by spätzle or a warm potato salad.
In the 19th century, rossbif was first and foremost a “poor man's dish”: it originated in Alsace's brewing towns, where horses were employed in large numbers for brewery work, before gradually being codified in traditional cookery books. Schiltigheim, a brewing town in Bas-Rhin, remains one of its most frequently cited cradles: horsemeat slowly braised in red wine was a speciality there, at a time when the brewing industry's draught horses were numerous throughout the town.
Rossbif is traditionally a dish for the “Messti” — the patronal festival of each Alsatian village or neighbourhood. The singer Herbert Léonard recalled carrying an intact childhood memory from Strasbourg of the rossbif eaten at the Krutenau Messti, where every restaurant featured this braised horsemeat speciality on its menu. Formerly marinated for three days and two nights — to mask the smell of meat that was not always fresh in an era before freezers —, today it is often marinated for only a single night in modern kitchens, even if some cooks, faithful to the “old-fashioned” recipe, still keep the long three-day marinade. Today, it remains a speciality unique to Alsace and eastern Moselle: outside this area, restaurants rarely offer horsemeat to their patrons.
Appearance
Thin slices of dark brown meat, coated in a rich, smooth brown sauce.
Taste
A full-bodied sauce, flavoured by the slow cooking in red wine and aromatics (bay leaf, cloves, juniper, coriander).
Texture
Melt-in-the-mouth meat after several hours of simmering, which holds together well and can be cut into thin slices once cooled.
While horse loin or chuck remain the reference cuts, some caterers and cooks offer a beef version (chuck, chuck tender or rump steak) for diners who do not eat horsemeat — an unapologetic alternative that keeps the same marinade and the same slow braising in red wine.
Drained, the meat is seared on all sides in a little oil, then kept warm.
The meat is returned to the sauce and simmers covered for about three hours, until melt-in-the-mouth tender.
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Rossbif is enjoyed piping hot, with the sauce coating the thin slices of meat. The three traditional accompaniments are warm potato salad, chips and spätzle — some even serve all three at once.
Rossbif alsacien carries no official quality seal (PDO (AOP), AOC, PGI (IGP), TSG (STG), Label Rouge): it is a traditional, artisanal recipe passed down through generations and prepared differently across households, caterers and charcuteries, never codified by official specifications.
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