Sauerbraten

My father never lived or even visited Germany. We have a German heritage and his father had lived in Germany. We would cook Sauerbraten and it was one of our favorite dishes.

The Marinade
===========
3/4 Tablespoon of Salt
2 cups of water
2 carrots (peeled and chopped)
1-2 Bay Leaves
1 Cup of Wine Vinegar
2 Whole Cloves
2 Peppercorns

The Ingredients
========================================
3 pounds of bottom round beef
1 tablespoon of butter or margarine
1 cup of raisins
1 cup of bread crumbs (Usually we used old bread)
1 tablespoon of corn syrup
1 cup of sour cream

Directions
========
Use a deep pot and add the marinade and then bring these ingredients to a boil and lower the heat. Keep on a low heat for about 20 minutes and then allowed to cool. Place the meat into the pot with the marinade and turn it over a few times to baste it in the marinade. We would sometimes place this in a large plastic bag and place the meat in the marinade in the refrigerator for a day and turn the bag over several times. Remove the meat from the bag and brown in a coated pan. Place the meat into a pan that will go into the oven. We would also put the marinade into the pan. Some people would strain the marinade, we did not. The oven should be preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The raisins should be soaked in warm water for about 30 minutes, drained and added the final 15-25 minutes of cooking to keep the raisins from overcooking. The meat should take about 1 to 1 1/2 hours to cook. You should baste the meet to keep it moist. (Today you could do this in a cooking bag.) After cooking you can slice the meet into thin slices, place the meat and marinade into a clean pan and season with salt and pepper. You can also drain off the marinade and degrease it and then add the salt and pepper and also add bread crumbs, corn syrup and sour cream to thicken the sauce and then pour it back over the meat. The sauce can also be poured over the meat if it is placed on a serving plate. Many German dishes like this are also served with potato dumplings, potato pancakes and/or applesauce.

Try some variations of this dish. You may not like using as much vinegar etc. As they grew older my parents would use less and less salt in anything they cooked. This may affect the overall taste of the Sauerbraten and it can turn out rather dry if you don't constantly baste it while cooking. The leftovers made great sandwiches and many times were eaten much later at night as a snack.