Easy Sauerbraten

[altivo]

(maybe I need a cooking icon)

We had sauerbraten tonight. I felt like a splurge and something luxurious since I have tomorrow off. (It's a holiday, but with the snow they're predicting, we might have closed anyway.) There was a small (1 1/2 pound) pot roast in the freezer, so I thawed it and got out the crock pot this morning.

Crock Pot Sauerbraten

Slice a two pound pot roast in quarter inch thick (about 1 cm.) slices across the grain. Spread these in a slow cooker along with a couple of onions diced up. Pour over them 1 cup of beef stock or bouillon, 2/3 cup cider vinegar, 1/3 cup red wine. Cover and cook on low heat for about 7 or 8 hours.

When meat is nicely tender, remove slices from pot and keep warm in oven. Take the vinegar stock from the pot, and add 2 Tbsp. brown sugar and about 15 small or 12 medium gingersnap cookies, crumbled. Stir over low heat until the cookies dissolve and thicken the gravy.

Serve with hot spaetzle or noodles, gravy on the side for both the noodles and the beef. Red cabbage is the traditional vegetable, and a little applesauce is nice. Rye bread and red wine or German style beer completes the ensemble.

This is incredibly easy compared to the way my grandmother taught me, which involved marinating the beef in vinegar, sugar and garlic for three days (in the fridge, of course) before cooking it. We even had enough leftovers for another supper. Yay, leftovers.

Temperature has risen since sunset, we're up to 25°F. and under a snow advisory until noon tomorrow. They say an 80% chance of 2 to 4 inches, heavier to the north of us in Wisconsin.

Comments

[tinbender.livejournal.com]

I think I'd be hungry for German food right about now if it weren't for the fact that I just got back from a chili supper. Seems to me that I've had sauerbraten before, but I can't quite remember. I'm not much of a cabbage eater, so in some ways that would be surprising if I had, but then again I have ventured that way (as long as it's not sauerkraut, I'll most likely give it a shot.) Hominy would also make a good substitute for spaetzle I would think. They're fairly similar. This sounds good and I just got a new crock pot today. I may have to get adventuresome and give it a shot.

Sounds like you're supposed to get the same store we're supposed to get. Of course we're supposed to start out with rain tonight (while we're below freezing), rain all day tomorrow and have it turn over to snow. We're expecting up to 6" by the time it moves out on Tuesday. The snow really doesn't concern me, but I'd like to avoid the rain if it's going to freeze.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Sauerbraten is a classic German dish, so if you've eaten at German restaurants or as a guest of anyone who does German cooking, you may well have had it. It's beef cooked in a vinegar broth, so it has a slightly sour or pickled flavor. The vinegar tenderizes so it is always very tender.

If you don't like cabbage just substitute another vegetable. Beets, carrots, or peas would be suitable.

[baphnedia.livejournal.com]

Yay food and snow!

Except I still gotta work tomorrow - even if we got buried in snow...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Looks like a good 3 inches here so far. The fluffy, blowy kind.

[doco.livejournal.com]

Wakh! Atrocity, I say.

Next time, let it sit in the marinade for 5 to 7 days and feel the difference. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I've done the long term marinade. That was how I was taught. I agree there's a difference, but it's subtle. ;D

[doco.livejournal.com]

Actually, the long-term marinade originates from the meat being horse leftovers originally, and most of the time it was hand-me-down meat the poor picked up when old and stringy horses went to the slaughterhouse. That's why seven days of marinading were not unheard of in order to get the meat properly tenderised.

Luckily though, one can now buy the meat (or beef, as it mostly is today) pre-tenderised in most stores here, so it only needs to be cooked briefly.

Here's a nice recipe I've used a few times, though I must say there's at least as many recipes as there are families in the Rhenish Basin, and there's a lot of variety in preparation depending on where you live. Personally, I've found it to be best around Cologne (Eschweiler has a certain reputation for that dish, but I've never been there, so I cannot comment.)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recipe. I've printed it for next time.

I figured it was probably poor folks' food. So many classic dishes get their start that way. I think I'll definitely skip the horsemeat though. I wonder if the vinegar treatment would render lamb edible? I have yet to find a way to cook that so I can stand it.

[bonnie-tiler.livejournal.com]

Oh how I would like to be able to eat lamb. People think your just ankward type, but I really can't, it turns my tummy inside out, if it even gets as far as that.
I used to be a cooksteward on an oiltanker for a couple of years, am really interested in all kinds of cooking, but I have yet to come across lamb or mutton recipe that I can eat and enjoy.
I envy your slowcooker, we used to have one but it broke and they don't sell them in Sweden.
The supper sounds delicious, bon appetit!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I feel the same about lamb, except that I have no desire to eat it. It's just too rank, frankly.

I'm surprised you have no slowcookers there in Sweden. It seems like a natural for many Swedish dishes and very practical too.

[corelog.livejournal.com]

Well, I went looking for horses cooking...and all I found was this:

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hee! So are you gonna get that one for when I come visit? ;p That's really funny.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

The German in me is ashamed to admit it but
I can't stand saurbrauten.

>.<

The rest of the family loves it though so I'm
making a note of your recipe.

^_^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, do you like other things that are sour or sweet and sour? Or is it just the vinegar that puts you off?

I like sour things in moderation, including sauerkraut and German potato salad. I like pickles too. Sweet and sour together, whether Chinese or some other cuisine, I really enjoy. I also like Chinese hot and sour soup.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

I /do/ enjoy things like Hot and Sour soup,
but mostly vinegar is yuk. Though I've
learned its good in some recipes if used
in just a touch for that bit of bite.

German potato salad? No. Pickles? Oh yes.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Lemonade? Limeade? Lemon pie? XD

I actually like vinegar. The ordinary grocery store stuff is just acid, but real vinegar that has been fermented and aged the old way can be as good as wine.

I also like lemon or lime juice as a seasoning on things, like vegetables or salads.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

Lemonade and Limeade yes. Its the
vinager that gets me going "ACK". Prolly
has to do with the cooking when I grew
up. Too much of a good thing? ^.^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Or too much of a mediocre thing. If you get a chance, sample some aged Balsamic vinegar from Italy, or some real raspberry or pear vinegar.

Good vinegar is magnificently fragrant and smooth. Cheap vinegar is just sour.

drools:)

[bladehorse.livejournal.com]

One word YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: drools:)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The leftovers were just as good. Had 'em last night. :)

Nine Pferden!!!

[bladehorse.livejournal.com]

I will pass on the horse meat option tho! EEEPS!

Re: Nine Pferden!!!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Me too. I remember back in the 60s for a time they tried to promote horsemeat here in the US. Beef prices had gone sky high for some reason. It didn't succeed though. We saw it in the supermarkets for a few weeks, but I guess no one bought it because it disappeared. Thank goodness.

Re: Nine Pferden!!!

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

That brings back a memory.

When I was but a wee lad there was a place
that served horsemeat in contravention to
the rules back then. People complained
at first about how tough the roast "beef"
was, but when it came out that it was
roast "horse" they went out of business.

Of course back then there was still plenty
of old farmer types that had sequed to the
factories and didn't like the idea of eating
horses.

Re: Nine Pferden!!!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Even today it's clear that, here in the US, the strong majority of people don't like the idea of eating horses. I'm sure there are many different reasons for that. While I feel that it's the same as eating a dog or cat, others wrestle with the depression notion that it's a sign of absolute poverty or worry that somehow horsemeat is unsafe to eat.

Nonetheless, horse slaughter for human consumption continues here, even though the meat can't be sold legally in the US and has to be shipped overseas for sale. That continues to be viewed as "business" and somehow is legitimized by its commercial nature. In this session, Congress will almost certainly try to outlaw the practice completely, and Bush will with almost equal certainty veto the bill.