Sauerbraten is one of the few remaining dishes from medieval cuisine which can be traced back to Roman cuisine. The typical elements are:
- a sweet-and-sour taste, which was very popular in medieval age
- using a lot of exotic spices like pepper, laurel, cloves, cardamon, coriander, mustard seed, allspice, cinnamon, ginger
- thickening the sauce with gingerbread
- adding raisins (or other fruit) for extra sweetness
Sauerbraten is marinated in a mixture of red wine, vinegar, spices and vegetables for 3–7 days, so it is also a way of preserving the meat. Then it is roasted and the sauce is made from the marinade and thickened with gingerbread. At the end, you add the raisins which swell up to grape berries again in the sauce.
The founder of French cuisine, La Varenne, abandoned the medieval cooking style and introduced modern cuisine. So, he finished the sweet-and-sour sauces, the ample use of spices and thickening the sauces with breadcrumbs. However, in Germany, with its many small principalities, the medieval Sauerbraten survived.
Originally, Sauerbraten was a dish for nobility which was made with venison. For poorer folks, beef became a substitute for venison. And horsemeat is another substitute. Sauerbraten is an excellent way to prepare horsemeat because it complements the slightly acidious taste of horsemeat.
Sauerbraten, Rhineland-style with horsemeat and raisins
BTW, another medieval dish that survived in Germany is Pfefferpotthast, a beef stew with exotic spices.
EDIT:
I was asked for a recipe for Sauerbraten. Here it is:
Ingredients:
1 carrot, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 piece of celery, diced
1 heaped teaspoon cloves
1 level tablespoon peppercorns
3 bay leaves
1 heaped tablespoon dried juniper berries
1.5 kg beef (or horse or venison), e.g. brisket
0.75 l red wine (preferably a full-bodied red wine, e.g. Cabernet Sauvignon)
0.2 l vinegar (preferably balsamic)
Ingredients for the sauce:
additional red wine, as needed
100 g raisins
crumbed gingerbread, as needed
pepper, cloves, cardamon to taste
1 piece dark chocolate
Method:
Brown the vegetables in a little fat (preferably lard), add the spices, stir once, and deglaze with a splash of red wine. Simmer until the vegetables are tender. Then let it cool and add the remaining wine and vinegar. Marinate the meat for 3 to 8 days, refrigerate, and turn occasionally.
At the end of the marinating time, strain the marinade. Puree the vegetables and spices. Dry the meat, season with salt, and brown it all over in fat (preferably lard) in an ovenproof casserole dish or goose roasting pan. Pour in the marinade and the vegetable and spice purée. The meat should be about half submerged in the marinade; add more red wine if needed. Cover and braise in the oven at 140°C (top and bottom heat is better than fan-assisted) for at least three, preferably five hours. Turn the meat occasionally.
One hour before the end of the cooking time, add the raisins, gingerbread, and chocolate. When the meat begins to fall apart, remove the pan from the oven. Stir the sauce well – it should be very creamy (add more gingerbread if necessary) – and season to taste with the spices. Finally, stir in the cream.
This dish goes well with pasta, spaetzle, dumplings, or potatoes, as well as baked fruit (apple sauce, halved pears, cranberries) and cruciferous vegetables (e.g., red cabbage, pointed cabbage, etc.).
