Many cooks like to add crumbled gingersnaps to the gravy as an alternative thickener. It is not traditional to the family, but the Editor likes to substitute beef stock for some or all of the water. Some recipes add carrots and celery to the marinade. It is nice to slice the sauerbraten thin. Authentic variations on sauerbraten use pork, and some use chunks of meat rather than a whole roast, but not ours. Some cooks use chuck the Editor’s mother never does. Most new Orleans blends have an undertone of anise. If you like New Orleans crab boil, use that, but not the liquid variation. Any brand of pickling spice, even bog standard McCormick’s, works a magic with this recipe. Always serve sauerbraten with red cabbage and either mashed potato or dumplings.If the gravy is too thin for your liking, boil it down. Reduce the heat under the pot to low and slowly swirl the roux liaison into the bath, add a dollop of Kitchen Bouquet for depth and color, and check for salt and pepper.While the vinegary bath bubbles off, whisk together the butter and flour to make a white roux, then slowly ladle small amount of the bath into the roux so that it stays smooth and does not lump.Remove the sauerbraten from the pot and keep it warm bring its bath back to a boil.Bring the sauerbraten to a boil, for that is what it is becoming, reduce to a simmer that is the merest occasional burp, then cover the pot and let it go until the meat is tender to the point of melting, about 4 hours.Reduce the heat to medium, add the marinade and onion to the pot and top it with enough vinegar and water to reach halfway up the side of the beef.Put the oil in a big heavy pot over high heat until it begins to smoke, then sear the beef all over.Strain the marinade and keep the liquid.Pat the beef very, very dry and generously salt and pepper it all over. Remove the beef from the marinade and wipe it clean of the spice fragments but do not rinse it.Put the beef in a plastic bag followed by the marinade and refrigerate it for three days, turning the bag over twice a day.Mix together the pickling spice, onion, vinegar and water. more vinegar and water mixed in equal proportion 2 heaped Tablespoons commercial pickling spice ( see the Notes) The Editor’s mother never adds gingersnaps to the gravy. There are more elaborate recipes but none better nor even, we think, as good. If, as some sources maintain ( see our essay in the critical) Philadelphia pepperpot is of German origin, then sauerbraten is British, which gives the Editor an opportunity to share a cherished family recipe handed down by her mother from her Aunt Carrie decades ago.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |