I love sauerbraten but it seems we hardly ever make it make it because of the whole marinating the meat for three days thing - that requires more advance planning than my unpredictable household schedule can usually handle. Is there such a thing as a great sauerbraten recipe that you can make in one day?
Well, I like to use a nice pork loin, cover it in sauerkraut, half a can of beer and seasonings (salt, pepper, a touch of garlic) I cook it in a crockpot so that by the end of the day it is nice and tender. I’ve used a beef roast once or twice but the kraut flavor didn’t seem to soak in as much compared to the pork loin. Rope sausage works well as do pre-cooked bratwurst (otherwise brats are way too greasy).
So, not really sauerbraten but a tasty alternative.
I don’t think I’ve ever marinated for the whole 3 days. I’d have to find my old cookbook to see what they actually recommended, but you can poke some holes in the meat and and you’ll be in pretty good shape after 24 hours. A longer slower cook will get the tenderness you need. Crockpot versions seem to be popular.
I confess I made a “sauerbraten” one time using a package mix. Suffice it to say it fell short of hopes and dreams. The slow cooked pork loin you describe sounds yummy, but I really like the tangy-sour flavor one finds with traditional sauerbraten.
My grandmother used to prepare the marinade on a Saturday morning and she used a big flat chuck roast, it was refrigerated for 24 hours. She put in the oven on Sunday morning before church and it was tender by 4 or 5 p.m. No one ever complained it needed more marinating! I suppose you could use thinner cuts of meat like sliced round steak for better absorption of marinade.
I’ve done anywhere from a day to a week. It definitely changes character and texture as it goes along. I aim for 4-5 days, but I suspect most people will be fine with a 24-hour marinade. Or why don’t you do an experiment. Do a “quick” sauerbraten and an extended marinade at the same time and see what you prefer and whether it’s worth the wait. To me, it starts developing a bit of a “cured” flavor with the extended time in the fridge.
I’ve tried doing a 24 hour marinade, but find I much prefer the 3 day variety. I’ve also had sauerbraten that marinated for a week (gramma was the only one who had the patience for that), and my impression is that the law of diminishing returns starts to kick in some time after day 3.
I just wish there was some way to make marinating go faster. Where’s America’s Test Kitchen when you need 'em? …saaaaay, any dopers by chance have an on-line subscription to ATK?
I created a red wine/red wine vinegar marinade using onions, juniper berries, carrots, peppercorns, pickling spices, and cloves. It was a large 5 lb thick cut of beef we put in the fridge on Saturday. I plan to take it out on Thursday for a low and slow cooking.
The only real way to marinate faster is to gash or poke holes in the meat.
I’m a weeklong sauerbraten marinator, in my grandmother’s tradition. Start it on Sunday, cook it on Sunday. She remembered to turn hers every day. I remember about every 2 days.
If it ain’t purple and fuzzy, it ain’t ready for the oven.
I haven’t met a restaurant sauerbraten that I thought worth eating.
I have experimented over the years with marinating duration, and for my personal taste 3-4 days is ideal. You don’t get the depth of flavor in less than 3, and at more than 4 days the texture of the final product changes subtly in a way I don’t really care for.
I have gotten good, if somewhat different than my family’s recipe, sauerbraten in Amish restaurants (one whose name I cannot remember in Iowa’s Amana colonies was excellent), but most German restaurants cheat on the marinade time, and it shows in the finished product.
ETA - I have wondered if the sous vide technique one sees on the cheffy tv shows might work with sauerbraten. If any of the cooking pros here have given that technique a go, I would be interested in hearing your results.
My German mother made excellent Sauerbraten, she said the Sauerbraten had to be strong enough to “walk out of the refrigerator on its own.” 3 days minimum, she took no shortcuts.
I have nothing to add here, but wanted to say I read the thread title as Marinating subterranean.
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Got a vacuum sealer? If you can fine a vacuum jar large enough it’ll go way faster.