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Sauerbraten

A German pot roast marinated in vinegar, cooked with bacon, carrots, onions, and spices, then simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Sauerbraten

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate and prepare

  1. Place the beef in a shallow dish and pour the vinegar over it.

  2. Marinate for 2-3 days, turning occasionally.

  3. Drain the beef and dry it with a clean cloth.

  4. Season the bacon strips with pounded cloves, salt, and pepper.

  5. Insert the bacon strips into holes bored in the beef.

Braise

  1. Heat butter in an iron saucepan.

  2. Add the beef and dredge it with flour.

  3. Brown the beef on all sides.

  4. Add the carrots, onion, bay leaves, lemon rind, peppercorns, mace, and salt to the pan.

  5. Pour in the cold water, cover, and steam for about 2.5 hours, adding more water if it becomes too dry.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the beef and place it on a hot dish.

  2. Arrange the carrots around it.

  3. Skim the cooking liquid.

  4. Thicken the liquid with flour.

  5. Adjust the taste with lemon or vinegar.

  6. Boil and serve with the beef.

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.

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. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main structure, which becomes tender during long, slow steaming.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade softens the beef and adds a tangy flavour.
Bacon fat strips
Melt during cooking to add moisture and richness to the lean beef.
Flour
Browns on the beef surface and later thickens the cooking liquid into a sauce.
Butter
Fat for browning the beef, adding richness and flavour to the pan.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the cooking liquid as they soften.

The step that matters

Marinate for 2-3 days, turning occasionally. The vinegar must reach the whole piece of beef to tenderise it and add tang. Turning keeps the surface evenly exposed, so the marinade penetrates more uniformly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, vinegar, pepper, butter, flour, carrot, onion):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, vinegar, pepper, butter, flour, carrot, onion. 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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