Sauerbraten (German Sweet and Sour Beef)

When I was in NZ last year, I found an excellent deal on beef brisket and came home with a nice piece. It went in the freezer to be cooked later... But then I never quite got to it before I left. So it was still waiting for me in the freezer when I returned this year.

Another time I might've tried to smoke and/or barbecue it. But we're kind of out of grilling season in this hemisphere now and, after a year in the freezer, it was a bit freezer-burnt, so I decided to go for a slow cooker option instead.

After giving it a bit of thought and tossing around a few different ideas, I settled on taking a crack at turning it into sauerbraten. I have fond memories of the sauerbraten that my dad made. And, while I don't have his recipe, I figured I could at least ask the internet and try to come up with something similar. And it seemed like the ideal thing to do with a big chunk of slightly freezer-burnt beef.

The recipe that I used recommends using a bottom round or rump roast for this, but I figured the brisket would also work quite well. And it did! I really enjoyed how it came out. That said, I'm sure it would be good with other cuts too.

Sauerbraten

Slightly adapted from Daring Gourmet

Ingredients

• 2 onions, chopped
• 2-3 carrots, cut into large chunks
• 1 leek, white parts only, thoroughly rinsed and chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 juniper berries
• 6 whole cloves
• 10-12 black peppercorns
• 2 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 2 1/2 c. red wine
• 1 c. red wine vinegar¹
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 1.5-2kg beef roast (brisket, bottom round, rump, etc.)
• 1-2 Tbsp. oil or lard
• 4 slices bacon, chopped (optional)
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1/4 c. raisins
• 75-85g gingersnaps/gingernuts (6-7 gingernuts), crushed
• 1 Tbsp. honey

Directions

1. Combine the onion, carrot, leek, garlic, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, juniper berries, cloves, peppercorns, salt, sugar, wine, vinegar, and water and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
4. Nestle the roast into the marinade, cover, and refrigerate for 4-7 days, turning each day if the marinade does not completely cover the meat.
5. When ready to cook, remove the meat from the marinade and set aside.
6. Strain the marinade and reserve both the solids and the liquids.
7. Heat the oil over medium-high heat.
8. Add the beef and sear on all sides. Set aside.
9. Add the bacon (if using) to the now-empty pot and cook.
10. Add the vegetables and sauté for ~5 minutes.
11. Add the flour and cook until no longer raw (3-4 minutes).
12. Pour in the reserved marinade, raisins, gingersnaps/gingernuts, and honey and bring to a boil.
13. Add beef, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 2-4 hours if cooking on the stovetop. Otherwise, transfer everything to a slow cooker and cook on "high" for ~6 hours. (Or use an InstantPot-style multi-cooker to do the whole thing in place.)
14. Once beef is cooked through and tender, remove from the pot and set aside.
15. If desired, remove the bay leaves, juniper berries, and cloves from the liquid and purée the veggies into it to make a thick gravy. Otherwise, adjust consistency by mixing in a cornstarch or flour slurry and boiling until gravy thickens to desired consistency.
16. Adjust seasoning to taste.
17. Slice beef and serve with the gravy (and veggies if you chose not to purée them).
18. Serve with a starch (potatoes, bread, etc.) and rotkohl (sweet-and-sour red cabbage) or another vegetable dish of your choice.

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¹ I couldn't find any red wine vinegar, so I just used white wine vinegar. Either is fine. I think that cider vinegar would also be good in a pinch. ^Back

TF's family is from New England and a lot of her family still lives in Pennsylvania. Thanks to this, I discovered scrapple. Scrapple is a mix of ground pork and often some organ meats cooked with cornmeal and spices. It's then formed into a loaf, sliced, and fried for breakfast. It's apparently a "Pennsylvania Dutch" thing and you can't get it outside of Pennsylvania and a few of the surrounding states.

When I stumbled across a recipe for goetta, I was getting similar vibes. It's a mix of ground meats (usually pork and beef) cooked with oats and spices, formed into loaves, sliced, and fried for breakfast. Sounds similar, right?! And it is also a German-American dish. It just stems from a different region. As far as I can tell, this particular grain sausage loaf originates in Ohio rather than Pennsylvania, but the idea is very similar.

There are many different goetta recipes. Most seem to lean toward a 50-50 mix of ground pork and ground beef, but some use more of one or the other. I even ran across a few recipes that use sausage (already seasoned) and then add additional salt and seasonings to the mix. I felt like this might make it too salty and fatty, so I stuck to using unseasoned ground meat.

The seasonings also varied widely. Bay leaves, marjoram, black pepper, and white pepper seemed to be common to most of the recipes, but things diverged widely from there. Some included things like cloves, ginger, nutmeg, or mace. Others had coriander, allspice, sage, or thyme. And most recipes seemed to have at least a few people saying the seasonings were spot on while others said that the sausage was delicious but not at all authentic-tasting. I'm assuming this is just a case of regional variations and different people being used to different flavour profiles.

I read through a few different recipes, took note of the different seasonings and instructions, and then came up with my own based on what I thought sounded good. This seems like a fairly flexible recipe though. I'm sure you could play around with the exact ratios and seasonings to suit you own tastes or what you have on hand.

Goetta

Adapted from Daring Gourmet (and a few other sources)

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 c. steel-cut oats
• 4-6 c. beef stock¹
• 2-4 c. water
• up to 2 tsp. coarse sea salt²
• 3 dried bay leaves
• 1/2 Tbsp. dried marjoram
• 450g lean ground beef
• 500-700g ground pork³
• 1 onion, chopped
• 5-6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. coriander, ground
• 1/2 tsp. dried sage
• 1/2 tsp. allspice berries, ground

Directions

1. Combine the oats, stock, water, bay leaves, and marjoram and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, for 30-60 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add beef, pork, onion, garlic, black pepper, white pepper, coriander, sage, and allspice, bring to a boil, cover, and cook for another 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally.
4. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.
5. Line two 9"x5" loaf pans with foil.
6. Divide the goetta mixture between the two prepared pans and chill for at least 4 hours and as long as overnight.
7. The next day, unmold the goetta and cut it into 1-1.5cm thick slices.
8. At this point it can either be fried (preferably in bacon grease) or frozen for future enjoyment.
9. Don't overcrowd the pan or move the goetta around too much while frying it or it may fall apart.
10. Serve with eggs, toast, and whatever other breakfast foods you desire.

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¹ I used homemade chicken stock instead of beef stock. The original recipe called for 4 c. broth + 4 c. water, but I ended up with about 6 c. of stock, so I used all of it and then added water to bring it up to a total of 8 c. of liquid. I was quite happy with how this worked out. ^Back
2 The original recipe calls for 1 Tbsp. of salt. I thought this sounded like way too much. I put in 2 tsp. because I was using homemade stock that had very little salt in it. If using commercial stock/broth, I would likely omit the salt entirely. Once the mixture is cooked, you can taste it before putting it in the molds and add more salt if needed. ^Back
3 All the recipes I found called for 900g of meat for 2 1/2 c. of oats. However, I had a 450g package of beef and a 700g package of pork. I didn't want to try to save and find a use for 250g of pork, so I just put all of it in. I doubt the little bit of extra pork made much of a difference and it saved me dealing with leftover raw meat. ^Back

I picked up some frikandellen at the Dutch grocery store the other day, not being entirely sure what they were. Upon returning home with them, TF and I did a bit of research and discovered that they're Dutch fried hotdogs/sausages. They're normally made from a mixture of spiced beef, pork, and chicken. They're first boiled (or steamed) and then deep fried. For frikandel speciaal you cut them open lengthwise (either before or after frying) and top them with mayo, curry ketchup, and finely chopped raw onion. I figured I'd like to try doing them up that way, but this meant that I needed curry ketchup. They had tonnes of curry ketchup for sale at the Dutch grocery store, but I didn't think to get any because I didn't know what frikanellen were yet!

Some casting about on the internet turned up this recipe for curry ketchup. It's part of a German currywust preparation. I'm hoping that Dutch curry ketchup and German curry ketchup are similar enough as to make no odds. It's not like I'll be able to tell anyway given that I've never had either!

Curry Ketchup

Slightly adapted from The Daring Gourmet

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. Madras Curry Powder
• 1 Tbsp. sweet paprika
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 c. ketchup
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 5 Tbsp. chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. prepared yellow mustard
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add onion and cook until softened, but not browned (3-4 minutes).
3. Add garlic and cook for another minute or two.
4. Add curry powder, paprika, cloves, and cinnamon and cook for another 30-60 seconds.
5. Add ketchup, tomato paste, stock, vinegar, honey, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, mustard, and pepper, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.
7. Transfer to blender jar and puré (or use an immersion blender).
8. Allow to cool, cover, and transfer to fridge. Let sit overnight before serving.
9. Enjoy with sausages and/or fries.