German Sauerbraten

German Sauerbraten is a specialty pot roast.

Marinating a beef pot roast in a sour-sweet marinade for 2 to 3 days makes it.

It's then browned and braised in the marinade for several hours.

The result is an extremely tender roast and a delicious sauce. German Sauerbraten is traditionally served with dumplings, boiled potatoes or noodles.

German Sauerbraten Recipe

3 to 4 lb. pot roast
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup water
2 Tbsp. Sugar
2 tsp. Salt
3 bay leaves
10 peppercorns
12 whole cloves
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
1/3 cup fat (such as Crisco)
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup water
6 to 8 gingersnaps

Rub the pot roast with a damp paper towel and place it in a deep crock.

In a saucepan, combine the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, bay leaves, peppercorns and cloves and heat to boiling. Reduce the heat to a slow simmer and simmer for 5 minutes. Allow the marinade to cool and then pour it over the beef. Arrange the sliced onion and carrots over the beef. Cover and refrigerate in the marinade at least 3 days.

To cook the German Sauerbraten remove the beef from the liquid and blot dry with paper towels.

Melt the fat in a heavy Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the pot roast and brown slowly on all sides. When the beef is completely browned, strain the marinating liquid over it, discarding the spices, onion and carrot slices.

Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer and cook 3 to 4 hours or until the beef is very tender.

Blend 1/4 cup flour to a thin paste with 1/3 cup water and stir into the juices around the beef. Stir and cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove the beef to a warm platter. Stir the crushed gingersnaps into the liquid in the pot and cook until blended.

I believe the above recipe is pretty close to an authentic German sauerbraten.

German Sauerbraten and Spatzle

This recipe is done with round steak instead of a pot roast. It also skips the marinating which makes it much quicker.

Spaetzle is a dish of tiny noodles or dumplings made with flour, eggs, water or milk, salt and sometimes nutmeg. The word means "little Sparrow" when literally translated from German.

In Germany, spaetzle is served as a side dish much like potatoes or rice, and is often accompanied by a sauce or gravy as in this recipe.

This recipe is from a German friend of mine and she prepares it this way all the time.

German Sauerbraten Steak

3 lb. round steak
2 cup water
2 cup vinegar
1/2 bay leaf
12 whole allspice
2 chopped onions
Loaf pumpernickel bread

Spatzle:
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Sauerbraten:

Brown the round steak in bacon grease. Salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the water, vinegar, bay leaf and allspice.

Add the 2 chopped onions to the beef and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the vinegar mixture. Simmer for 2 hours.

Place the loaf of pumpernickel on top of the beef keeping it out of the liquid. Cover. Remove the beef and the bread after the bread has been steamed. Make the gravy thicker using the flour and water mixture.

Spatzles:

Mix the eggs, milk, flour and salt. Place on a breadboard and cut with a spatula into salted water. Cook 1 minute after the spatzles rise to the top of the water.

This German Sauerbraten recipe is from my friend Cindy Voigt.

Buy Beef Online

Now why would anyone want to buy beef online? Beef is readily available at the supermarket. There’s only one answer: Quality! In order to compete with the supermarkets mail order beef has to be the best.

(Don’t buy beef online for German Sauerbraten. Or for that matter any old fashioned pot roast dinner. Supermarket beef is fine.)

In fact there are some types of gourmet beef that you can’t get except online. Kobe beef, grass fed beef, dry aged beef? I’ll bet you’ve never seen those in the supermarket. The only way to get them is to buy beef online.

Kobe Beef

Kobe beef is from the Japanese Waygu cattle. The marbling, flavor and tenderness of Kobe beef puts it grades above USDA prime beef. But you can only get Kobe beef when you buy beef online.

Grass Fed Beef

Grass is the natural food of the beef animal. And some people feel the flavor of grass fed beef is far superior to feed lot beef. This is gourmet beef at it’s best. And once again you can only get grass fed beef when you buy beef online.

Dry Aged Beef

Dry aged beef is how beef was done in the good old days. The beef is hung in a controlled temperature and humidity environment and allowed to age for almost a month.

Why can’t you get dry aged beef at the super market? Expense! Dry aged beef loses approximately 1/3 of it weight during the drying process. Today’s wet aged beef brings more profit to the processor.

Guess what? You can only get dry aged beef when you buy beef online! Dry aged beef is truly gourmet beef.

Old Fashioned Pot Roast

Certainly you wouldn’t want to buy beef online for old fashioned pot roast. Mail order beef is for special occasions. Your Sunday pot roast dinner is fine with a chuck roast from the supermarket.

German Sauerbraten is fine with supermarket beef also. As any old fashioned pot roast dinner would be.

On that special occasion, such as boss for dinner night, is when this beef will make an impression. My thoughts would be running along the line of a Prime rib dinner with sure enough USDA prime beef. You can only get USDA prime beef when you buy beef online. USDA choice is the best you can get at the supermarket.

Enjoy German Sauerbraten with your family with beef from the grocery. But when you really want to impress buy beef online.

Enjoy the German Sauerbraten!