This beef roast has a very nice sour tangy flavor and is a popular German dish. This recipe is based on Alton Brown’s Sauerbraten recipe. This meat needs to marinade for 3 days. On the day you plan to make the Sauerbraten, start the meat cooking about 4 hours before you plan to eat. Make sure you prepare the first part of the recipe 3 days before you plan to eat the meat. I like to serve this with German Pretzel Rolls (seen in picture), German Spaetzle (seen in picture), and German Apple Strudel.
Tools Needed
Large pot to boil marinade
Cutting board
Chef’s knife
Electric knife optional
Vegetable peeler or table knife
Zip top bag or other plastic container that can be sealed.
Large frying pan to brown meat.
Tongs to turn meat.
Large glass baking dish
Strainer
Medium boiler or sauce pan
Food processor
Whisk
List of Ingredients to Purchase
Grocery store items (by location where I find them)
Meat department
3 to 4 pound flat bottom round roast (can also use eye round or top round- these may be a little dryer.)
Produce Department
1 medium carrot or ( 6 baby carrots)
Spice / sugar/flour section
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 bay leaves
6 whole cloves
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/3 cup sugar
18 hard gingersnaps
Other aisles
1 cup cider vinegar
1cup red wine vinegar
1 gallon sized zip top bag
Oil cooking spray
Speciality food store items
( international market, Whole Foods, …)
12 juniper berries
Recipe steps:
Peel carrot.
Ingredients needed
1 medium carrot or ( 6 baby carrots)
Vegetable peeler or table knife
Cutting board
Chef knife
If using a medium carrot, first peel the carrot. To wash and peel the carrot hold the carrot over the sink and if using a vegetable peeler, just peel off the outer layer of the carrot, peeling away from you. Turn the carrot and peel each side of the carrot until all of the carrot is peeled.
If using a table knife, use the blade of the knife and scrape off the outer layer of the carrot into the sink. Turn the carrot and peel each side of the carrot until all of the carrot is peeled. Cut off the very top of the carrot (about ¼ inch) and discard it.
Clean out the sink by throwing the carrot scrapings away if you do not have a garbage disposal.
If using baby carrots, they are already washed and cleaned. You do not need to cut the tops off of the baby carrots.
Slice and cut into small pieces the carrot or baby carrots.
Ingredients needed
1 medium carrot or ( 6 baby carrots)
Cutting board
Chef knife
Take the chef’s knife and place it so that it is perpendicular to the carrot. To cut the carrot, move the chef’s knife in an up and down motion leaving the part of the knife blade close to the pointed tip of the knife resting on the cutting board. Carefully move the knife up and down while moving the carrot under the knife blade with the other hand.
Cut the carrots into small pieces.
Once the carrots are sliced, using the same up and down motion of the knife and placing the heel of your hand on top of the knife with your fingers up out of the way, keep cutting the carrots until they are in small pieces. Move the carrots around as necessary in order to cut them in different directions until the carrots are in fine pieces.
Mix and cook the marinade ingredients.
Ingredients needed
chopped carrots
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 bay leaves
6 whole cloves
12 juniper berries
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 cup cider vinegar
1cup red wine vinegar
2 cups water
Large boiler or saucepan
Place into a large boiler or saucepan the chopped carrots, 1 Tablespoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, 2 bay leaves, 6 whole cloves, 12 juniper berries, 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, 1 cup cider vinegar, 1cup red wine vinegar, and 2 cups water.
Place the boiler on high heat. Cover the mixture with a boiler lid. Bring the mixture to a boil. Once it is boiling, there will be large bubbles coming to the surface of the mixture. Once the mixture is boiling, turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. There will be small bubbles coming to the surface of the mixture during a simmer.
Let the mixture cool to room temperature. If you are in a hurry, you can pour the mixture into a metal container. The metal container must be large enough to leave about 3 inches of space at the top of the container. Place the container into some ice that you have placed in the sink. The ice will help cool the mixture faster. Be careful not to spill the liquid if the ice shifts while melting.
Trim and brown the meat while the mixture is cooling.
Ingredients needed
3 to 4 pound flat bottom round roast
Cutting board
Chef knife
Zip top bag or other plastic container that can be sealed.
Large frying pan
Oil cooking spray
Tongs to turn meat
Place the meat onto a cutting board. If you use the same one as you used to chop the carrots, make sure to wash it first before using it for the meat. First you need to cut off the fat. To do this place your knife blade just under the fat and with the knife blade sideways or basically parallel to the cutting board, cut off just the fat with a back and forth sawing motion. If there is a large piece of fat on the beef, place your knife blade just under the large piece of fat and with the knife blade basically parallel to the cutting board, cut off just the large piece of fat. Once you have a small piece of the fat cut, with your other hand, hold the loose piece parallel to the cutting board and continue cutting until you have all of the membrane cut off. You will cut off a little of meat as well, but that’s ok. If you only cut off part of the fat, just follow the same procedure and cut off each piece of fat. If the meat is large, cut it into 2 or 3 large pieces so that it will fit into a zip top bag.
Place the large frying pan onto high heat and spray the pan with oil cooking spray. Place the meat into the pan and brown it on all sides. Remove it to a plate and let it cool until you can pick it up with getting burned and so that it is cool enough that it will not melt the zip top bag.
Once the marinade has cooled to room temperature. Place the meat into a zip top bag and pour the marinade over the meat. Be sure that the zipper part of the bag does not have any spices or carrot pieces in it or it will not seal correctly. You may need to divide the marinade into 2 parts if your meat needed 2 zip top bags. Do not place meat in a metal container to marinade. The vinegar mixture will react with the metal and the marinade will not taste very good.
Prepare the meat for marinating for 3 days in the refrigerator.
Place the zip top bags into a pan just in case the bags leak and place the pan in the bottom of your refrigerator. Check it after a few hours to see if the bags are leaking. If they are leaking, move the meat and liquid to a new zip top bag and pour any marinade that spilled into the pan into the new bag. If the meat is not completely submerged into the marinade, turn the zip top bag with the meat over once a day.
Let sit for 3 days in the refrigerator. The longer the meat sits and the smaller the meat pieces are, the stronger the vinegar taste will be in the meat. I let the flat pieces of meat sit for 3 ½ days and it had a fairly strong vinegar taste. I like the meat flavored this way. It tastes very good with the sauce that you will make once the meat cooks.
Marinate the meat for 3 days in the refrigerator.
Cook the meat.
Ingredients needed
3 to 4 pounds of meat that has been marinating for 3 days
1/3 cup sugar
Large glass baking dish
After 3 days of marinating, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Place the meat and marinade into a pan to cook in the oven. Add the 1/3 cup sugar to the meat and the marinade. Cover the glass baking dish and place into the oven. Cook about 4 hours until the meat is tender.
Once the meat is fully cooked, take it out of the oven. Place it on a plate and loosely cover it with foil to keep it warm.
Cook the sauce for the meat.
Ingredients needed
18 hard gingersnaps
Strainer
Medium boiler or saucepan
Food processor
Whisk
Count out 18 hard gingersnaps and place them into a food processer.
Use the food processer to grind the gingersnaps into small crumbs.
Use a strainer to stain all solids from the marinade in which the meat cooked. Strain the marinade into a medium boiler. Place the medium boiler on medium high heat.
Pour the gingersnap crumbs into the marinade and whisk to combine. Cook for a few minutes until the sauce becomes noticeable thicker. It will thicken all of a sudden, so keep stirring with the whisk and watching it until it becomes thicker. Once it becomes thicker, strain the sauce through the strainer into a serving bowl to get rid of any lumps in the sauce.
Slice the meat.
Ingredients needed
Cooked meat.
Cutting board
Chef’s knife or electric knife
Fork
Using a clean and dry cutting board and a clean and dry chef’s knife, slice the meat. Never allow anything that touched raw ingredients to touch cooked ingredients. You can transfer bacteria to cooked items that way. Place the cooked meat onto the cutting board. Use a fork or your hand to hold the meat in place. Slice the meat into thin slices. Be careful not to cut yourself.
Place the slices onto a serving plate. Serve immediately with the sauce. I like the taste of the meat much better with the sauce. Even if you do not usually like gravy, please try a little of this sauce with the meat. It really makes the meat taste very good.
I like to serve this Sauerbraten with German Spaetzle, German Pretzel rolls, Sweet Baby Carrots, and German Apple Strudel.
