This week’s challenge was Rheinischer Sauerbraten (Rhineland sauerbraten) with Schneebällchen (small potato dumplings). This was pretty much a complete disaster, though it was not at all the recipes fault. I love Sauerbraten, it’s one of my favorite German dishes, so I was really looking forward to today and nothing seemed to go my way.
I did my shopping at Metro this week and there was no rump roast, so I asked one of the butchers for the best piece for a Sauerbraten and he selected a piece of meat for me. Not sure what cut it was, as I threw away the packaging on Wednesday, when I made the marinade and put the roast in it. Every day I turned it. It took on a slimy gray color, but I was used to this since we occasionally buy marinated Sauerbraten at the supermarket. I took a photo of the marinade, but forgot to upload it, maybe I’ll add it to the post later, or maybe I’ll just be lazy and leave it as is.
I chopped the carrots, onions, parsley and celery root. The recipe didn’t say how much celery root to use, it just said “a piece”, but since my root was pretty huge, I just put in half of what was left after making the Wurzelsuppe. It’s lucky I did this, because as soon as I started preparing the roast, Oliver decided to make a mad dash for the table, climb the chair, and just as a yelled “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”, he dumped all the cut vegetables onto the floor. Then he dumped all the peelings. Charlie rushed in to feast on the wreckage, so nothing was salvageable. I had to start over (the knife wasn’t on the table, that was in the sink, so there was no danger to Oliver up on the table, except, I suppose, falling off).
Things went well for a while. I seared the roast on all sides…
I grabbed the sauce Lebkuchen and tore it up. The recipe didn’t specifically say to do this, but it felt like the right thing to do. On a side note, in the large Edeka in Regensburg, the Lebkuchen was in the baking aisle near the sugars, later I saw that in our teeny, weeny Edeka here in our village, it was in the pasta aisle, but it was there! Another aside, I looked and looked in that baking aisle, probably for 10 minutes without finding it. I finally asked the butcher, since I figured he might have experience making Sauerbraten, there were a couple to buy sitting in his window. He had no idea what I was talking about, but he asked the deli counter woman and she knew and took me straight to it.
I sprinkled the roast with it, covered the pot, and let it set over low heat.
Meanwhile, I made the potato dumplings (Rainer says they’re only called Schneebällchen in Saarland). It is a lot of work pressing potatoes through a sieve. Or maybe I didn’t cook them long enough? I dunno. Having an Asian mom, I didn’t grow up with a lot of experience cooking potatoes. I also have no potato-related tools. No ricer, no masher, nada. (Side note: notice the nice orange color of egg yolks in Germany). I also kind of browned the onions instead of making them translucent. Oops.
I mixed everything up well. I had to add maybe another 50g of flour before the dough didn’t really stick to my hands, but I still had to rinse them well after every fifth dumpling or so. Perhaps I didn’t add enough flour, or perhaps I added too much. Not sure. Things looked good at first, but then…
They disintegrated. I ended up with a pot of potato mush and a few squishy dumplings. Rainer said I shouldn’t put this picture up, but I say I got to show the failures as well as the successes.
As the roasting time came to an end, I made the gravy. Pushing everything through a sieve again (more hard work), then pouring it through a chinois, just to give it a nice smooth texture. It looked and smelled delicious.
We added store-bought apple compote, a typical side for this dish, and sat down to dinner.
This was maybe the worst piece of meat I have ever eaten. It was full of gristle. Large parts were inedible. The few bites that were okay were totally delicious, but it was such a disappointment to have worked so hard on one of my favorite German meals and end up with mushy dumplings and inedible meat. I almost cried. I want to try this again at some point, but I’m too disheartened to attempt it anytime soon. I won’t be buying meat at Metro again, I’ll tell you that! Our neighbors did tell us of a really excellent butcher shop across the Danube from the DEZ. Maybe we’ll be going there for the next challenge requiring meat.
But that’s not where our sad story ends. During clean up, Rainer accidently knocked over the wine bottle and it landed just on the edge of our ceramic cooktop, which cracked, and now we have about a 1 centimeter chunk missing off the edge and a 2 centimeter crack. Is the cooktop unsafe now? Can I still use it? Is it ruined? We don’t know. I guess we’ll find out the next time we cook something.
Other participants (will be updated throughout the day):
- C N Heidelberg at Heidelbergerin
- Stephanie at A Greenville Life
Next challenge!
Next week’s challenge is a Pharisäer, or Pharisee. It’s a coffee and rum drink from the North Sea coast of Germany. I think that’ll be the perfect cure for what’s ailing me after this week’s disaster. A nice, easy, alcoholic drink. The following week we’re doing Kalbshaxn, or veal knuckle. You may need to order this from a butcher, so keep that in mind when you plan your shopping.
Want to pick a future recipe? Go through the list and let me know which recipes you want to do.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh no! That sounds so frustrating. I especially hate looking for a specific cut of meat and then having it turn out poorly. Sounds like a confluence of cooking misfortunes. I hope it’s just a one-time thing!
Sarahs last blog post..Cheddar Bacon Scallion Scones
Well it looks really good in the pictures! Maybe how the dumplings come out depends on the type of potato you use? Yours look like they would have been delicious with some of the gravy. Now that you mention it, we’re usually satisfied with the meat we buy at Metro, but awhile ago bought a chunk of beef labeled “Rinderbraten”. I made a pot roast and it was also kind of stringy and gristly, like smaller chunks of meat held together by stuff you really don’t want to eat.
My mother makes sauerbraten quite often and I think she use regular gingersnap cookies for the sauce. I guess it’s mostly about the spices and the thickening factor.
christinas last blog post..two and a half men
Aww, I’m so sorry to hear about all your disasters.
I’m surprised the butcher recommended such a bad piece, I would never have expected that either! I hope you do get to try it again sometime, it really was good! I forgot to write it in my post (I was so tied up thinking about the meat I didn’t say much about the potatoes) but I think we used more flour, maybe that helps with the dumplings.
CN Heidelbergs last blog post..AmiExpat’s Sauerbraten challenge!
@sarah: I hope so too. Would hate to have bad cooking luck from now on!
@christina: I used Mehligkochendekartoffeln. The dumplings were a little mushy, but I ate them with the sauce and they were tasty enough. I agree that the Lebkuchen could be replaced with any type of spice cookie.
@cn: I’m surprised too. I usually trust butchers to pick out good stuff for me. Really added to the disappointment. If I’d just picked it out myself from a pile of meat I could write it off as my own mistake, but he’s supposed to be an expert on meat and gave me this stuff. I always wonder when this sort of stuff happens if it’s a “let’s pawn the crap off on a stupid foreigner” kind of thing or just incompetence. I hope it’s the latter, I guess.
It’s a shame you don’t have a potato ricer (http://potatoricer.co.uk/) but it look like it turned out ok in the end.
I give you a gazillion kudos for even attempting Sauerbraten. Alex’s mom always comes out of the kitchen spent but her SB is excellent -this, I think, comes down to over 30 years of experience preparing Sauerbraten for Christmas/Easter. It’s definitely not a recipe that’ll guarantee a slam dunk the first couple of goes. Don’t give up! You’ll find a Metzger you can trust and maybe Oliver will help prepare the veggies next time. (Cute photo!)
Just curious, are you using bio/organic eggs? I never found bio eggs that orange in Germany, that’s cool if they are.
hezamaries last blog post..It’s Starkbier-drinking, dirndl-wearing time!
Oh no! I hope that your cook top isn’t ruined! I’m sure it is still usable, but you just have to mind the crack.
Loved the story about Oliver and Charlie though. My Charlie is always nearby when I’m chopping veggies…just waiting for something to fall. Especially if it is a carrot!
I’ve also had a butcher recommend a bad cut of meat to me, so needless to say, I don’t go to that one anymore. And so I know how it feels to be a slave in the kitchen, and then have the meat be so gristly that it is almost inedible. But at least your sauce was good!
Jentrys last blog post..A picture is worth a thousand words…
I’m with the others, you deserve big kudos for the attempt. It’s my husband’s favorite dish so I’ve had years of practice (and failures!) with the ready-marinated roast you get out of the grocery. Even then this meat takes me all day to prepare. And yes, it’s usually full of gristle and tough as nails soup meat quality. This is so often the case I’m beginning to think this dish was created to cook down a bad piece of meat until it falls apart and is tender enough to eat.
“This is so often the case I’m beginning to think this dish was created to cook down a bad piece of meat until it falls apart and is tender enough to eat.”
Actually that’s what I thought Sauerbraten began life as too!
CN Heidelbergs last blog post..AmiExpat’s Sauerbraten challenge!
I am sorry that your recipe didn’t turn out! Damn those bad pieces of meat (but I have to admit, the story surrounding this is pretty hilarious…!
Here is my post:
http://agreenvillelife.blogspot.com/2009/03/sauerbraten-mit-schneeballchen.html
Stephanies last blog post..Sauerbraten mit Schneebällchen (Sauerbraten with Small Potato Dumplings)
I should have mentioned – I used a fork to mash my potatoes up (cooked until they could be mashed easily) and I used about 1 cup of flour or so – I really saw the potato mixture turn into a “dough” of sorts….
@joe: I don’t think the ricer was the problem
@hezamarie: My kitchen was a wreck afterwards. Rainer asked if maybe I could try and not use every pot, bowl and surface next time. These were Freilandseier (free range), normally I get Bio, but I needed large eggs for the custard I made last week and the Bio were only medium size. I think the Bio eggs around here are maybe just slightly less orange.
@jentry: Yes, my Charlie also loves carrots. The only thing he left on the floor were the onions. At least he was very helpful in the cleanup!
@lisa: Thanks. Maybe with a tough piece of meat it needs to cook a lot longer. I think for what I had, two hours wasn’t nearly long enough. I should have tested a piece before serving. Coulda woulda shoulda!
@cn: Yeah, the vinegar works as a tenderizer, so I think you’re right, maybe another day of marinating would have helped as well.
@stephanie: Having a funny story is the bright side of the disaster
I think I didn’t put enough flour in to the dumplings then. I felt like adding an extra 50g was already a lot, but thinking about it, it still had a bit of a thick mashed potato quality. Also, I think browning the onions gave a lot more flavor to the dumplings. I ate them with a lot of gravy, but tried one plain and the onion flavor was pretty good.
Oh no, I am soo sorry that it did not turn out so good!
It looked good on the plate tough!
Maybe you should have trown the meat behind the butcher’s counter at Metro…Maybe it is really best to buy at the local butcher shop. I am surprised that there is Sauce Lebkuchen available, never seen that before. But that’s maybe because we don’t care much for Sauerbraten and would use the Knorr Fix instead…LOL I have never seen or heard that people eat apple sauce with it. Also, I am not sure what a chinois is??? And for your ceran cooktop, isn’t your Hausratversicherung taking care of that?
I think when we got our Hausratversicherung, there was a special, optional clause for a Ceran cooktop. So maybe it’s covered.
Sarahs last blog post..If pie ≈ Kuchen and Kuchen ≈ bread, then bread ≈ pie?
We’ll have to look at the Hausratversicherung. Hopefully it’s covered, then we don’t need to worry about it. Thanks for the suggestion!
And a chinois is kind of a cone shaped sieve that’s used to strain sauces.
Christina Gs last blog post..Real German Cuisine Challenge: Rheinischer Sauerbraten
Hey, long-time lurker here… I come from a German family (all grandparents & my Dad were natives), and everyone in the family who cooked perpetually complained about making sauerbraten. According to my Mom & Grandma, it’s just a very tricky dish to get right, so don’t feel too bad. As for the potato dumplings, there’s definetly a trick to them– they have to be exactly the right consistency.
Still, I’m very impressed with your cooking– If I could actually cook (and find the right ingredients here in the US), I’d join in….
)
I don’t know if it carries over to potato dumplings, but when my host mom taught me to make Semmelknoedel, she said that the little dumplings have to be very tight and perfectly round to keep them from falling apart. A few of mine always fall apart anyway, but they taste good, so who cares?
Katzes last blog post..More Language Pedantry
@alyson: Nice to hear from you! I never thought of Sauerbraten as that difficult, but everyone is saying different, so I won’t feel bad anymore
Hey, and maybe there will be some easy recipe you’ll be able to do with us sometime in the future. If you drink coffee and rum, the Pharisäer might be fun.
@Katze: I don’t know, I tried making them very tight and round. I think the problem was not enough flour. I’m gonna attempt potato dumplings again at Easter, but this time I’ll do them with my mother in law so I can watch an expert at work.
hey Christina. You need to add more flour to the recipe. When you make the mixture for the first time make one dumpling and then cook it quickly to do a test.. if it goes mushy add more flour ot hte rest of the mixture. You should then chill the dumpling in the fridge for a hour as this helps to firm them up when cooking, but leaves them fialry light. You should invest in a mouli or potato ricer lol! They are pretty cheap.. you can get on for around 5 Euros.. but the stainless ones are better
.-= Potato ricer´s last blog ..Judge – Heavy Gauge Stainless Steel =-.
{ 2 trackbacks }