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Ingredients
- 3-4 pound roast of venison (or beef chuck)
- 1 bottle of red wine
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 cups water
- 1 Tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 Tbsp juniper berries
- 1 Tbsp mustard seed
- 6-8 cloves
- 3-5 bay leaves
- 1 Tbsp dried thyme
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup melted butter or olive oil
- 8 ginger snap cookies
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 2 Tbsp flour
- Salt
Preparation
Step 1
Sauerbraten comes in as many varieties as there are cooks. Ive seen all sorts of variations on the sauce, on the cut of meat, on the cooking temperature. At its core, however, sauerbraten involves a large piece of meat that has been marinated and slowly cooked in a vinegar-based marinade, which is then turned into a sauce.
A word on the marinade. You must boil the marinade before using it for two reasons: First, to burn off much of the alcohol in the wine if you dont, the meat gets a weird metallic taste and second, the heat extracts more flavor from all the spices you put in it. Let the marinade cool completely before submerging the venison.
Bring marinade ingredients -- wine, vinegar, water, peppercorns, juniper, mustard, cloves, bay leaves, thyme, celery, carrots and onion -- to a boil and turn off the heat. Allow to cool. Submerge the venison in the marinade and let it sit in the fridge for at least 24 hours, and up to 5 days. Three days is a good length of time. When you are ready to cook, take the roast out of the marinade and salt it well. Set it aside for 15-20 minutes or so.
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Actually, 225 is a better temperature, but the roast can take up to 8 hours to properly cook then; this is what I do at home on weekends. At 275 degrees, the roast will probably take about 5 hours to cook. You can go up to 300 degrees a typical venison roast will be ready in 3 1/2 hours at this temperature but you will get gray, not pink, meat. It will still taste good, though.
Now you have an optional step: You can, if you choose, brown the venison in butter or oil. I chose not to because if you then simmer the venison at a low enough temperature, it will remain pink all the way through. If you brown the outside, you will get a gray ring around the edge of the venison when you cut into it. Either way is fine.
Pour the marinade into a pot and bring it to a boil. Pour it into a Dutch oven or other lidded pot and place the venison inside. Cover and put in the oven. If the venison is not submerged by the marinade, turn the roast over every hour. This is also a good way to test for doneness you want the roast to almost be falling apart. When the roast is done, take it out of the pot and coat it with some of the 1/4 cup olive oil or melted butter. Reserve the rest of the oil or butter for later. Wrap it in foil.
Now you make the sauerbraten sauce and sauerbraten is all about the sauce. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine-meshed sieve into a bowl. Take the 8 ginger snap cookies and pulverize them in a blender. You want it to look like a rough meal or coarse flour.
In a medium-sized pot, melt 3 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat. When it is frothing and totally melted, whisk in 2 tablespoons flour. Cook until it is the color of coffee-and-cream, stirring often. Slowly whisk in the cooking liquid, one cup at a time. The mixture will turn to clay at first, then loosen into a silky sauce. Taste for salt it will probably need it and add enough to your taste.
Whisk in 4 tablespoons of the pulverized ginger snaps. They will not dissolve completely at first, but keep stirring and they will disappear. Taste the sauce. Add another tablespoon of ginger snaps if you want, or add a tablespoon of sugar. The sauce should taste sour, warm (a pumpkin pie sort of spicy warm) and a little zippy and sweet.
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My husband grew up in Germany so I cook all kinds of German dishes. I always put gingersnaps in the gravy, it makes it delicious!
Looks great, but need a source for venison! No hunters in my house! Plenty of deer in my backyard, but not the buying kind. Most places charge an arm and a leg for shipping!
Neither venison nor juniper berries are readily accessible here, but I will definitely make this using beef and maybe some rosemary. It sounds like a great sauerbraten.
Actually, I don't believe that wine is a requirement for sauerbraten. You'll find that in some parts of Germany buttermilk is used as a marinade instead. Like you said, there's a lot of variety in this dish. But what cannot be left out is the vinegar! My husband remembers his grandmother (who made deliveries for the German army during WWII--very interesting history there) making saurbraten by soaking a roast in a buttermilk mixture for days before cooking, and then cooking it all day. She's still alive and well, but I haven't had her sauerbraten in years. I'm lazy and use the Knorr seasoning with a generous amount of red wine vinegar, bay leaves, and onion, then thicken it with sour cream. I've not tried the ginger snaps, but it sounds delicious! I'm not a fan of venison so I imagine they used the seasonings that make a traditional sauerbraten to mask the wild/gamey flavor of the meat. ;) I'll have to check out your other German recipes. Thanks!
My mom in Germany used to make Sauerbraten, Knoedel and Rotkraut a lot when I was younger. I haven't had it in forever and should give your recipe a try. Thanks.
Wow, this looks great. Back when my BIL was healthy enough to hunt, my sister used to make venison stroganoff, very tasty.
It seems a little long, but I've gone 5 days with no problem. If I were you I'd make it. Let us know how it turns out! ~Hank
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