This book was purchased many years ago and has really only been used as a starting point for developing my own version of Sauerbraten, which is unlike any other Sauerbraten I’ve tried. (My recipe is a combination of a few different recipes and many trials. It has never been written down because it is altered slightly each time, depending on the selection of vinegar available.)
With some trepidation the Beef Rolls and Potato Dumplings were selected. At one stage the accompaniment was Hot Potato Salad, but dumplings are dumplings. I like dumplings, as does Lindsay.
I used the pre-flattened Beef Schnitzel and once all the ingredients were sliced and placed on the pieces of beef, I convince Lindsay to hold them while they were tied with string. This is usually a two person job, especially when it comes to securing them.
They browned quickly and evenly and once the stock etc., was added it was time to let them simmer and work on the potato dumplings.
As limited potatoes were available due to reasons all the ones which remained were used which was substantially less than the 6 required for the recipe. This meant only half of the ingredients were used.
Potatoes do not grate effectively when they are already cooked and it is not fun to have burning hands while trying to grate them. Giving upon the grating, the potatoes were mashed with a fork. After adding the other required ingredients, I tried to make a dumpling. It was too sticky so more flour was added. If you use this recipe my advice is keep adding flour until they are no longer sticky. Trying to put the hot breadcrumbs into the still hot dough was nearly impossible, so the breadcrumbs were put aside to sprinkle on the finished dumplings.
After the allotted time for the Beef Rolls had elapsed, they were removed and cornflour added to the gravy. It didn’t thicken enough, so more cornflour was added, and then some more. It depends on how thick you like gravy.
The dumplings were added to the stock and cooked in far less than the 10 minutes indicated.
The Result
Do you ever worry about presenting a new meal to family and friends? The little niggle of doubt that even though you followed the recipe, it was flawed in a way that would make the meal inedible? Recipes can fail or slight inconsistencies in the ingredients can change flavours just that smidgen to sadden those who eat it.
Yes, we had bread and other things to eat, but for some reason this meal worried me. The recipes looked good, the smell was enticing and I was apologising before anyone had taken a bite.
Watching while the others ate, I reluctantly cut into the Beef Roll, expecting it to be tough and flavourless. It wasn’t. The sauce which I thought would be thin and watery was excellent. Then my biggest fear: the potato dumplings. The mashed potato had some lumps in it and they didn’t contain the bread crumbs. To my surprise they were light and fluffy and everything worked together.
As for the taste testers? Requests for the meal to be made on a fortnightly basis might indicate they like it?
Reject/Remain
German Cooking, you will remain. Since the original experiment, the Apple Strudel Recipe from the same book has been used with success. It may be a thin book and some of the recipes are not to my taste, but the ones I’ve tried so far make this one book that will remain.
This experiment at culling books does not appear to be a success, yet.
Clean the Plate 