Sauerbraten

Talk about slow food: This recipe doesn't really involve that much cooking time, but it does involve a fairly lengthy total elapsed time from start to finish, since you marinate it for three days.

Sauerbraten

Adapted from “The Complete Book of World Cookery” from Crescent. My mother had this 1972 cookbook on her shelf unused for many years and passed it along to me in hopes it would get some mileage. Can’t say as I’ve done right by it either, but it’s an interesting book, organized alphabetically by country. Measurements are imperial; directions are minimal, almost church-cookbook-esque in that regard. They smack of handwritten recipes passed along upon request, from Germany to Ghana.

Ingredients

3 pounds topside (or in our world top round or bottom round)

2 cups red wine (or at least that’s how I liberally interpreted 2 glassfuls, since I figured a bit more liquid for covering the meat seemed called for, and in my experience the contributors to this book did not believe in small glasses)

1 tablespoon wine vinegar

1 onion, sliced

1 carrot, sliced

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 bay leaf

1 spring thyme

4 whole cloves

6 peppercorns

Salt

2 ounces lard (!)

1 ounce flour

1 cup sour cream

½ cup broth if needed (I didn't need it)

Method

Combine wine, vinegar, onion, carrots, mustard, bay leaf, thyme, cloves, peppercorns and some salt in a large container. Add meat, trying to get it below the surface of the liquid as much as possible. Cover, refrigerate and let marinate for 3 days, turning every 12 hours or so.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Drain meat, retaining marinade. Heat lard in an oven proof pan that has a lid. Brown meat lightly on all sides. Pour marinade on top. Cover and bake for 3 hours.

Remove meat to a cutting board to let rest while you make the sauce. Strain the sauce and pour liquid back into pot over medium-low heat. Add flour and stir with a whisk until well blended. Add the sour cream (and some broth if needed to make a sauce) and cook and stir until thickened. Serve slices of the meat with hot buttered noodles or spaetzle and top with the sauce.

Rating: Dave's response: "My satisfaction level is quite high." Dave says this brings back memories of Sunday roasts at his grandmother's house after church, which for him is a good thing. I grew up on all beef, all the time, and I'm still not really nostalgic for that. But I agree that a wet roast is much better than a dry roast when it comes to this cut of meat. The meat is fairly moist and the sauce is essentially a really nice gravy. I'd say the three hours of braising resulted in a superior outcome compared with half that time dry roasting. Was it worth waiting three days for? Not sure. But it was a really nice gravy. And Black Forest sells its spaetzle at Kowalski's, so I balanced a slow food with a fast food.