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Sauer Braten

A beef roast marinated in vinegar, onion, bay leaf, cloves, pepper, and salt, then baked and served with mushroom gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Sauer Braten

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate

  1. Put the beef fillet in a deep bowl and cover with vinegar seasoned with a sliced onion, a bay leaf, 5 or 6 cloves, salt, and about 8 whole peppers. Cover and let stand for three days.

Cook and serve

  1. Add 3 cups of water to the vinegar, put the mixture in a baking pan with the meat, and cook in the oven for about 3 hours.

  2. Thicken the gravy with browned flour, add one can of button mushrooms, and let it boil up once.

  3. Serve the meat on a platter with the gravy and mushrooms around it.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

62Calories
2 gProtein
1 gFat
14 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef fillet (in the method)
Becomes tender during the long cook, and its firm meat holds its shape when sliced.
Vinegar
Acidity slowly softens the meat's tough fibers during the multi-day marinade.
Browned flour (in the method)
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, body-rich gravy.

The step that matters

Marinate for the full three days. The acid in the vinegar needs time to penetrate and soften the meat's fibers. Cutting the marinating short leaves the beef firmer and less tender after the long braise.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, pepper, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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