Sauerbraten

The story

Sauerbraten, sour roast, is the German answer to a tough cut of beef. The meat sits for days in a marinade of vinegar, red wine or both with onions and whole spices, then braises slowly until it can be cut with a fork. Many regions have their own version, from Baden and Franconia to Thuringia and Silesia. Cooks closer to France lean on red wine, while those in the east rely more on vinegar. The best known is the Rhineland version, called Soorbrode in Cologne dialect. There, raisins go into the gravy, sometimes with a spoonful of sugar beet syrup, and crumbled gingerbread or Aachener Printen thickens it into a glossy sweet-and-sour sauce. In the Rhineland, meat was traditionally eaten on Sundays, most often as a roast, and that roast was often Sauerbraten; a Cologne brewhouse recipe serves it with potato dumplings or potato pancakes and applesauce. Horse meat later became common in Rhineland restaurants, though it was not used in the original dish. A popular story credits Julius Caesar with sending wine-soaked beef over the Alps to the Roman settlement at Cologne, but the tale is unsubstantiated. Put the meat in the marinade on Wednesday or Thursday for a Sunday dinner.