Sour Beef: Sharpen Your Sauerbraten with Vinegar
In these late winter days, I’ve found myself wishing for a seat at the epic bulkhead bar at Prime Meats in Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens neighborhood. The restaurant closed in 2018, but I’m still craving its sauerbraten, a long-roasted wedge of beef brisket that had been transformed by a marinade of with equal parts red wine and red wine vinegar, mirepoix and mixed spices (e.g. juniper berries, allspice, whole black peppercorns). Left to soak for at least a few days, the typically tough cut turned meltingly tender and tremendously flavorful after an ample browning and a slow braise alongside white onions, green apples and golden raisins.
Sour pot roast, aka sauerbraten in German, is thought to have been around since the 1st century, when none other than Julius Caesar allegedly sent amphoras (clay jars) filled with beef and wine from Rome, across the Alps to Cologne, as the Roman army conquered the colony. After the weeks-long journey,, the wine would have likely turned to vinegar during the, giving the beef its signature sour flavor. In the 9th century, it is said that whenever leftover roast meat was in the presence of Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Carolingian Emperor, it was plunged into a potion of red wine vinegar and spices to perfume and preserve it. It wasn’t until the 13th century that sauerbraten caught on across Germany.
Luisa Weiss, author of Classic German Cooking, has archived Sauerbraten’s ascent. In her book, Weiss lets her meat marinate for 5 days in a highly spiced red wine vinegar marinade. Then, it’s seared before being braised until the meat’s tender. As is tradition, she reduces the cooking liquid and serves it over thick slices of the braised meat. Because the cooking takes so long, “it shouldn’t be some extra-special expensive vinegar,” says Weiss.
Prepared throughout Germany, there are regional varieties, which Weiss notes in her book. Rhenish Sauerbraten “veers sweet, with sugar beet syrup and raisins in the sauce,” says Weiss, whereas Franconian iterations forgo raisins and incorporate lebkuchen (gingerbread) in the sauce as it reduces. Weiss mentions the Westfalian recipe “uses pumpernickel crumbs for thickening the sauce instead of the aforementioned spiced cookie, but it’s Saxons that added spaetzle and potato dumplings as classic accompaniments.
“Vinegar’s importance to German cooking truly can’t be overstated,” says Weiss. “It shows up in salad dressings, for raw vegetables like sliced cucumbers (gurkensalat), and in potato salad (schwäbischer kartoffelsalat), where the dressing is boiled and poured over cooked sliced potatoes.” There’s standard sauerkraut of course, which is lacto-fermented, but you’ll also find vinegar versions with braised red cabbage (Rotkohl), and similarly for green cabbage (Bayrisch Kraut).
While it’s interesting to note that classic sauerbraten recipes use red wine vinegar, the dish’s origins come from a prolific white wine–growing region: Rhineland. While German vinegar brands, like Hengstenberg, white distilled vinegar infused with herbs, or “seasoned” for salads, or Surig, a very concentrated vinegar at 25% acidity, exclusively meant for pickles and pickled herring (Bismarckhering in German), apple cider vinegar is widely used as well, and is puckering replacement for red wine vinegar for while souring your beef. But have patience, for a recipe that’s taken thousands of years to perfect, it’s worth the handful of days it takes to make.
RECIPE
Sauerbraten (Spiced Braised Beef)
By Luisa Weiss, Classic German Cooking, Ten Speed Press, 2024
Serves 4 to 6
1 cup red wine vinegar
3 cups water
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 onions, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1-inch thick slice of celery root, diced
1 Tbsp plus
1 tsp sugar
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp juniper berries
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 tsp allspice berries
2 large bay leaves
2.2 lb beef rump roast, eye of round, or bottom round
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp clarified butter or vegetable oil
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp molasses or sugar beet syrup
2 to 3 Soßenlebkuchen, crumbled, optional
2 or 3 slices German pumpernickel, crumbled, optional
2 to 3 Tbsp lingonberry jam, optional
½ cup raisins, optional
1 Tbsp cornstarch, optional
Place the vinegar and water in a heavy-bottomed pot large enough to contain the roast and marinade. Place all the vegetables in the pot. Add 1 Tbsp of the sugar, the salt, and all of the spices.
Bring the marinade to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, uncover, and let the marinade cool completely.
Place the beef in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 4 to 5 days, turning the meat once a day.
On the day you plan to cook, remove the meat from the marinade and pat it dry with paper towels. Season with salt and black pepper. Pour the marinade through a fine-mesh sieve into a separate bowl or liquid measuring cup and set aside. Reserve the vegetables from the marinade.
Place the butter or oil in a pot large enough for the roast and set over high heat. When the butter has melted or the oil is shimmering, place the roast in the pot and sear for about 3 minutes on each side, until crusty and brown all over.
Remove the roast from the pot and place on a plate. Set aside. Lower the heat to medium and put the vegetables from the marinade into the pot and stir well. Cook for a few minutes, stirring, to loosen the browned bits on the bottom of the pot. Add the remaining 1 tsp of sugar, the tomato paste, and the molasses and stir well, then continue to cook for a few minutes.
When the paste has loosened the browned bits on the bottom of the pot and they have been incorporated into the vegetable mixture, place the beef roast on top of the vegetables and pour in the reserved marinade. It should come up about halfway the sides of the roast. Raise the heat, bring the marinade just to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, flip the roast, add the Soßenlebkuchen or pumpernickel, if using, and simmer for another hour. At this point, the roast should be very tender. Remove the roast from the pot, put on a plate, and cover with aluminum foil.
To finish the sauce, you have a few different possibilities:
a. Pour the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve into a small pot and discard the vegetables. Boil the sauce until the liquid has reduced by half. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt, pepper, or sugar, or lingonberry jam, if using. Add the raisins to the sauce, if using, and simmer for about 5 minutes. Slice the roast against the grain and serve with the sauce.
b. Pour the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve into a small pot and press the vegetables through the sieve. (Discard what remains.) Boil the sauce until the liquid has reduced by half. Taste for seasoning, adding salt, pepper, and/or lingonberry jam, if using. Place the cornstarch in a small bowl and add 2 to 3 Tbsp of the sauce to the bowl, then whisk until smooth. Pour the slurry back into the pot with the sauce and simmer for another minute or so, stirring, until thickened. Slice the roast and serve with the sauce.
c. Pour the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve into a small pot. Carefully pick out all the spices from the vegetables in the sieve and discard. Scrape the cooked vegetables back into the pot. Using an immersion blender, puree everything until completely smooth. Depending on the consistency of the sauce, you may want to reduce it a bit—bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, until it has the consistency you’d like. Taste for seasoning, then slice the roast and serve with the sauce.