Sauerbraten Dinner

Hello again!

So I've been wanting to try making saurebraten for a while now, but I just hadn't ever gotten around to it. You know how it goes, right? Who can be bothered to make a dish that needs half a week to prepare? We're all busy folks, and none of us has the time to just decide, "huh, how about a German pot roast/brisket marinated in vinegar for dinner?"

Well I'm here to tell you that not only is this in fact doable, it's actually pretty easy, especially if you can cheat a bit!

As is my M.O., I started with the Alton Brown method for sauerbraten, but I made a few changes. He calls for a bottom round, but I used a brisket. I was fairly confident that it would work, since the method found here used brisket as well, and the methods are very similar. I did follow the braised cabbage recipe from that page too, but I'll get to that shortly.

Also, I couldn't find juniper berries, but the interents suggested subbing in some gin, which I thought was brilliant. Last, I decided to just throw the whole thing in a slow cooker, because let's face it, those things are magic. To round out the meal, I also made braised cabbage, as I mentioned before, and pretzel rolls, based on this recipe here.

All in all, it was a good meal, which is why I've decided to share it with y'all, my loyal readers.

Without further ado, let's jump right to it!

THE INGREDIENTS!!!
For the sauerbraten:
2cups water
1cup cider vinegar
1cup red wine vinegar
1 medium onion, chopped roughly
1 large carrot, ditto the onion
1tbs + 1tsp kosher salt
1/2tsp pepper, fresh ground
2 bay leaves
6 or so whole cloves
1tsp mustard seeds
a good splash (maybe 1/4cup?) gin
3 1/2 - 4lb beef brisket
vegetable oil for rubbing the brisket
1/3cup sugar
around 18 old fashioned gingersnaps, crushed

For the cabbage:
5tbs unsalted butter
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1 medium white onion, also diced
2 granny smith apples, peeled and diced
1 large red cabbage, cored and sliced thin
about 2/3cup dried cherries
1 1/2cup red wine, like a shiraz
2 whole cloves
1/3 cup brown sugar
1-2 bay leaves
a good splash of cider vinegar
juice of half a lemon

For the pretzel rolls:
1 1/2cups warm (not hot!) water
1tbs sugar
2tsp kosher salt
4 1/2cups AP flour
1 package rapid-rise yeast
2oz unsalted butter, melted
10cups water
2/3cup (yep!) baking soda
1 egg yolk beaten with 1tsp water
more salt for sprinkling

(Ok, yeah, that's a lot of stuff, but a lot of it is cheap or else a staple, so just bare with me. I'm going to show you how easy this is in the method below. Just read the whole thing.)

THE METHOD!!!
Start the meat. Turn on a fan ('cause, y'know: vinegar!) and bring the water through mustard to a boil. Then drop the heat and simmer for 10min. Set aside to cool, then add the gin.

Pat the meat dry, rub with a little oil, and sprinkle with salt. Heat a large skillet over high and brown the brisket on both sides. It should take 2-3min per side. Let that cool, then drop (not literally!) the meat into the marinade. Stash the whole thing, covered, in the fridge for around 5 days. Yes, 5 days. Be sure to flip the meat over every day if it's not completely submerged.

The morning you want to eat, pull out your slow cooker. Set the thing on its lowest, longest setting (mine was for 10hrs) and put the meat and marinade within said vessel. Don't forget to add the sugar like I did. When you get home, switch the setting to warm and work on the rest.

Oh, and at the last minute, strain the solids out of the marinade and discard. Put the remaining liquid in a small pot and place over med-high heat. Whisk in the gingersnaps to form a sauce, adding a bit of water of it gets too thick. Serve sauce over the meat.

To make the pretzel rolls, drop the water through butter into your bread maker and turn it on to the dough setting. Don't have a bread machine? That's ok, just follow the method in the link above. When the dough is done, bring the 10cups of water to a boil with the baking soda. Roll the dough out into 16 even pieces and form into balls. Give each a 30sec bath in the water, then place on a cookie sheet. Brush each with the egg wash and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 450 for 12-14min, or until GBD (golden, brown, and delicious).

Meanwhile, while the dough is doing its thing in the bread machine, start the cabbage. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions and apple and saute for 5min, or until the onions are translucent. Add the cabbage through the bay leaves and bring the whole thing to a boil over medium high. Cover the pot, reduce the head, and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Remove the bay leaves (if you can find 'em!) and the vinegar and the lemon juice.

See, now wasn't that easy?

...Ok, yeah, it's still kind of daunting, isn't it? But I promise, it's worth the time and effort to make this meal.

The brisket came out perfectly tender, and was fall-apart-in-your-mouth delicious. Like I said though, I forgot to add the sugar to the marinade at the end. As a result, I think we lost a little bit of the sweetness we should have had, and the meat had a bit too much acidity. The cabbage was also quite good, crunchy and tender, aromatic and sweet. The pretzel rolls were also phenomenal, perfectly salted, and kind of stole the show.

I think next time I make this meal, I'll be sure to sweeten the marinade for the actual cooking process, so as to get the flavor balance correct. Other than that though, I'd call the meal a success. I hope that if you are brave enough to try it for yourself that you have as much luck as I did.

As always, thanks for reading. I look forward to seeing some feedback on how y'all think I'm doing here.

Go forth and eat well!

(Oh, by the way: you're probably asking yourself, "where are all the pictures he usually posts?" Well, unfortunately, all the pictures came out blurry, so none of them are worth sharing. Sad times, right? I really need to get a better camera...)