Recipe: Sauerbraten

Sauerbraten is a German recipe that involves marinating a cut of beef for a long period of time and roasting it in a sweet and sour sauce with some vegetables.

This recipe is a little complicated and requires a bit of prep time. You have been warned.

For the marinating portion, you will need the following stuff:

1 beef roast, usually rump or something similar, about four pounds

1 onion, chopped

1 cup cider vinegar

1 cup wine vinegar

2 cups water

Various spices - salt, pepper, juniper berries, bay leaves, cloves, mustard seed

(Use plenty, but not more than a tablespoon of anything but the pepper)

Combine everything that isn't the roast in a pot and bring it to boil. Put the roast in a container that you can leave it in for a while and pour the liquid over it. Cover or close the container and refrigerate the roast in the marinade for about three days.

Use a non-metal container and make sure to turn the roast twice a day if not completely submerged.

After three days, you'll use the following stuff to actually cook the roast:

1 bag of miniature carrots

1 onion, chopped

1 box of ginger snaps

First, you remove the roast from the marinade and dry it. Try not to waste any of the liquid. You'll want to coat it in olive oil and place it in a crock pot with the onion and carrots.

Then, strain the marinade. This will remove any chunks, as well as the onion that was used. Pour this over the roast and cook on low or high until you feel comfortable that it is well done - it should be falling apart on the edges. Will take longer to cook on low than high, but both are suitable.

While the roast is cooking, you'll want to grind up as many ginger snaps as you feel like using to make your sauce. I'd suggest at least a dozen, but it's really up to you. I personally used a shot glass in a bowl covered with a plastic bag to crush them up, but I'm sure those of you with more well-equipped kitchens will have more suitable devices to do this with. If not, just improvise something.

It doesn't really matter, so long as all the chunks are fairly small, although a few big ones are particularly problematic.

From here, remove the vegetables and roast and put them in a separate bowl for the moment. Strain the marinade into a large saucepan, and add in your crushed ginger snaps. Cook on low for a while and whisk. Keep adding ginger snaps and tasting until the sauce is as thick and sweet as you'd like it to be.

Now, add the vegetables and roast back to the crock pot, and strain the marinade back into the crock pot - this will take care of any chunks of cookie that are not properly dissolved. Cook on low for an hour or two, and then keep heated until you're ready to enjoy it.

This is super tasty, and there are a bajillion things you could do with it. I'm personally thinking I'm going to add cabbage to the vegetables the next time I make it, as well as add more cloves to the original marinade.

Anyways. I hope if you make it you enjoy it. I know I did.