Date I made these recipe:
November 2, 2014 (late-breaking Oktoberfest)
American Cooking
"In der Kuche" – 850 Recipes In English – In German by Sadie
Summers
Published by: William
Frick Publishers
© 1952
Purchased at Bloomington
(Police) Crime Prevention Association used book sale
Recipe: Sauerbraten –
p. 225
Best of German
Cooking by Edda Meyer-Berkhout
Published by HP Books
© 1984 (2nd printing)
Purchased at Goodwill Stores
Recipe: Beet Salad – p. 104
Oktoberfest: It came,
it saw, it went. At least it did in Germany. In Germany, Oktoberfest runs from late September through
the first weekend in October, which is a little puzzling given the name,
right? So I threw caution to the wind
and decided that my "Oktoberfest" would run until the month's
end. I can do these things because well,
it's my blog and I'll Oktoberfest if I want to!
And I would have come in under my own self-imposed deadline
of October 31, 2014, had I not wanted to make one of my favorite things –
Sauerbraten. And for this recipe, you
must (and fair warning here) marinade the meat four days in advance of
cooking. So with tax, license and
waiting, I finally made this on November 2nd. Well—it's the thought that counts, right?
Now, you should know that observing Oktoberfest is not
something I normally do, even though my maternal grandfather's family was
German (last name was "Barr," converted from the original "Beer"
– for real) It might be because I don't
like beer which is almost inexcusable in life and during Oktoberfest but such
is life. My husband though, likes beer
and so he drank mine. I could have had
some German wine, I suppose, except my familiarity with German wine is limited
to the following: Riesling. And I'm not
a big fan of Riesling so that was out. Instead, I had a martini which paired
well with the sauerbraten and beets and if it didn't, who cares? Besides, having a martini is just another way
to get "pickled" – just like our beef and beats recipes!
Prior to moving to Minnesota,
I thought this state was the land of the Scandinavians but I soon learned that
there are far more people with German ancestry in their backgrounds than
Scandinavian so go figure. Many Germans
came here to become farmers, a profession to which I do not aspire but admire
those who did. Neighboring states of
North and South Dakota, Wisconsin,
Iowa and Nebraska also have high populations (in
terms of percentage of population that is German). Yet when it comes to sheer numbers (as in
number of people who are German/German ancestry), the California leads the way. Huh.
In terms of German language skills, I have none or next to
none. My mother's parents came from Austria-Hungary
and mostly spoke a Slavic dialect but used Hungarian and a smattering of German
when they wanted to talk about something private their children were present. I think that's pretty cool.
I've only been to Germany once and of course, walked
away with a few hilarious stories, most of them owing to the fact that during
our brief visit, we managed to encounter people who didn't speak much
English. This was surprising because we
were under the impression that most German's spoke English. Let me sum up the reality for you: "Nein!"
So story #1: where
Ann and Andy land in Frankfurt, then traveled to Dresden to spend the night. We didn't have reservations but planned, like
we often did, to get hotel names at the train station where there's usually a
tourist bureau. Trouble was, nobody at
the train station seemed to understand English and so this was a problem! But we will credit them for realizing that we
needed assistance so they called someone.
And this is "gut" (good)! Well, we waited and waited for this
"someone" only to have a little man come flying by us beckoning us to
follow him and so we did and we ran like bunnies to our hotel for the night –
the Red Cross. Hahahahahaha... But you know, it was clean, it was
inexpensive and it was fine. And, as
these things go, some friends of ours ended up in the same situation in Dresden and also stayed
at the Red Cross which we redubbed the Red Cross Hotel.
Story #2: where Ann is touring a museum located just outside
Frankfurt and wants to make a pit stop at the
bathroom before leaving. I was once
again astonished to find that the museum guides did not know the English word
"bathroom" or other variations thereof and so in the end I had to
pantomime what I needed. So ridiculous.
(And of course, the restroom was a million miles away from where I was.)
Story #3: where Ann and Andy wanted to go into a small
convenience store only to find out that it closed at 4:30. In fact, all stores back then (1995) closed
at 4:30, period, end of discussion.
Huh. Did not see that coming. This almost made me twitch. It's not like I'm addicted to late-night
shopping but 4:30 might as well be dawn o'clock as it came so early.
Story #4: where Ann
and Andy eat dinner just outside Frankfurt and
once again, the server didn't know English.
So when I asked her (in English, natch) what a particular item was, she
had a hard time telling us so we started guessing. "Chicken? "Nein." "Beef?" "Nein." Then there was a pause and she said
"Pig." Okay, then...pork it
is.
Story #5: where Ann
tries to order a cup of hot water so she can make tea. In romance languages, the sentence structure
is always a noun followed by the adjective so, for example, agua caliente is
Spanish for "hot water." But
again, this was not helpful in Germany
as I soon learned: "Waser
heiss?" "Waser
heiss?" Crickets. So Andy suggested I try the opposite: "Heiss Waser?" Ding, ding, ding – correct! It would figure that the Germans would put
the adjective in front of the noun just like we do here – bastards! ;) (By the way, in college I took a linguistics class
and found that German words account for the basis of a lot of our American
ones.)
So that's all I've got about travels to Germany. Except I may have picked up a wee bottle of
kirsch (a cherry-flavored brandy) to commemorate the occasion because when in Rome...Frankfurt...
As to German food, I've always loved Sauerbraten but since
it takes so long to make, I always passed on that recipe. But not today, kids, not today. And then because I like pickled beets, I
threw in the beet salad for a delicious meal.
I thought about making spaetzel, a popular German dumpling, but decided
that would likely mean even more work in the kitchen and so I boiled some
dumpling noodles instead.
And so onto the cookbooks!
The first cookbook, American
Cooking "In der Kuche," had quite the selection of recipes, many
of which were authentic German although every once in a while, some American
dish would creep in, like a recipe for a Zombie (cocktail). I passed on that but not without think of the
irony of seeing that recipe in this book so close to Halloween.
And then there was a recipe for Peanut Butter Bread, which I have to say is a new one for me. I love the German name for this dish
though: Erdnussbutter-Kuchen. In
fact, half the fun of reading through this cookbook was seeing the German
translations and the German names. That
said, I was pretty much determined to make the sauerbraten and so didn't spend as much time perusing the
cookbook like I normally do.
What I really loved about the Best of German Cooking book was that photos accompanied each recipe
and so thankfully, I was able to eliminate any plate that contained fish as I
am not fond of fish. So goodbye to
"Pickled Herring" (I'm sorry but... "ew") and "Herring
Fillets with Green Beans."
"Fish salad" was also off the table. And since I had already
selected a meat dish from the other German cookbook, and since this cookbook
didn't contain a competing sauerbraten recipe – what?, I settled on beet
salad. I know, I know – some of you
think beets are the "ruddest" food ever, but we love them. And we loved this dinner. Just remember though, that you have to
marinade the beef for four days and to
plan on an hour or more for the beets to marinade. Please note too, that the cooking time for
this roast is 3 to 4 hours so sit back, relax, have a beer (or other adult
beverage) and maybe take in an NFL football game...or 12.
"Zum Whol! "
To your health!
Sauerbraten – Serving
size not given but estimate at least four generous servings
For the marinade
4 pounds round or rump of beef
Salt and pepper
1 ½ cups vinegar
1 cup water
4 bay leaves
1 teaspoon peppercorn
12 whole cloves
1 teaspoon mustard seed
To cook the roast
¼ cup fat
6 carrots, cut into strips
2 onions, sliced
4 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon sugar
12 ginger snaps – finely crumbled
Wipe the meat with a damp cloth and sprinkle thoroughly with
salt and pepper. Combine the vinegar,
water, by leaves, peppercorn, cloves and mustard seed in a large deep bowl and
set beef in this mixture. (This must be
done 4 days before serving). Cover and
let stand in refrigerator, turning the meat each day. At the end of this marinating period, drain
meat, place in a Dutch oven or deep kettle and brown well on all sides in the
hot fat. Strain the vinegar mixture and
add to meat along with the strips of carrots and 2 sliced onions.
Cover pot tightly and simmer until meat is tender – 3 to 4
hours. Remove meat to heated platter,
slicing before serving if you wish.
(Ann's Note: If I
"wish?" As opposed to what –
tearing off chunks? This cracked me
up.) Strain liquid and reserve.
To make the gravy for this dish, place the flour, sugar and
finely crumbled gingersnaps in kettle or Dutch oven. Slowly add the liquid and simmer until
thickened and hot, stirring constantly. (Ann's Note: this made for a pretty thick gravy. To make a thinner gravy, add hot broth or hot
water incrementally until you achieve your desired thickness/thinness.) Pour some of this gravy over the meat and
serve the rest separately.
Ann's Note: They
didn't say what to do with the onion and carrots that simmered along with the
beef so we ate them. Why not?
Beet Salad – makes 4
servings
1 lb small beets
1 piece fresh horseradish root of 1 tablespoon prepared
horseradish
1 onion
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 to 5 tablespoons vinegar
½ teaspoon cumin or caraway seeds
Salt and pepper
Pinch of sugar
½ teaspoon mustard seeds, crushed, if desired
Chopped fresh parsley (for garnish)
1 bay leaf (for garnish)
Wash beets thoroughly but do not remove leaves and
roots. Boil in plenty of water 30 to 50
minutes, depending on size. When beets
are tender, plunge into cold water. Let
stand to cool. Trim beet roots and
tops. Peel and dice or thinly slice
beets. Peel horseradish root; finely
grate. Finely chop or thinly slice
onion.
In a small bowl, combine beets, grated horseradish (or
prepared horseradish), and onion.
In a small bowl, combine oil, vinegar, cumin or caraway
seeds, salt, pepper, sugar and mustard seeds, if desired. Pour dressing over beet mixture. Garnish with parsley and bay leaf. Let stand 1 hour before serving. This salad will keep well up to 7 days if
covered and refrigerated. Serve at room
temperature.
Ann's mini rant: I
was almost out of white vinegar and my grocery aisle choices were abysmal. I had to buy either a big-ass bottle of
vinegar that I would probably not use up in my lifetime or buy a small plastic
bottle of the stuff. The problem with
the plastic bottle is that it looked like a water bottle and there was no way I
was mixing up the water bottles I keep on my counter when cooking with that
thing. But—it was the size I wanted so I
bought it and when I got home, transferred it into the existing glass
bottle. Hard to confuse that with a
plastic water bottle, right?
