Authentic German Rheinischer Sauerbraten Recipe

5 from 7 votes

The famous German Sauerbraten Recipe. This is the traditional recipe for Rheinischer Sauerbraten that is made with gingerbread sauce and raisins.

Course Main Course

Cuisine German

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 3

Marinating Time 4

Total Time 4 3 30

Servings people

Calories 723kcal

Peel the onion, carrots and celeriac and chop them into rough ( 2 cm) cubes. Roughly chop the parsley
2 onions, 2 carrots, 3 ½ oz celeriac , ¼ cup parsely
Add the vegetables to a saucepan. Add the sugar, spices (all spice, juniper berries, pepper corns and bay leafs) and our over the red wine. Bring to a boil and leave to simmer on a medium to low heat for 5 minutes. This is to bring the flavors of the vegetables into the marinade.
½ teaspoon all spice, 5 cloves , 1 tablespoon black pepper corns , 6 juniper berries, 2 tablespoon brown sugar , 3 bay leaves
Now leave it to cool down completely to room temperature. Pour in the red wine vinegar and stir. Place the beef into a deep container with a lid. Pour the marinade over the beef. Ideally, the beef should be completely covered by the marinade. You can top it up with a little water if small parts still remain uncovered. If you have the ability to vacuum pack the beef, you can also marinade it that way.
4 tablespoon red wine vinegar , 2 cups dry red wine, 3 lb roast beef
Place the beef in the fridge to marinade for at least 4 days. 7 days is ideal, but 4 days is sufficient. Turn the beef once or twice during that time, to ensure that the marinade is absorbed evenly.

To cook the beef roast, remove it from the marinade. Pat the meat dry with some paper towels. Pour the marinade through a fine sieve. Keep the liquid and set it aside. In a separate bowl set aside the vegetables and spices.
Now season the beef from all sides with salt and pepper. Dust with the flour.
2 tablespoon flour
In a large saucepan heat up the vegetable oil and sear the beef on all sides at a high temperature for about 2 minutes on each side. Remove it from the pot and set it aside.
3 tablespoon vegetable oil
Preheat your oven to 356°F/ 170°C.
Add the drained vegetables and spices to the pot and start frying them for about 2 minutes. Then add the tomato paste and fry it with the vegetables for a further 2 minutes. This will release the roasting flavors of the paste, but also give the sauce a lovely brown color later.
2 tablespoon tomato paste
Deglaze the vegetables with a little marinade juice, just enough to cover the base of the pot. Cook until almost all liquid has evaporated and then repeat the process and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Fill up the pot with the beef stock and the remaining marinade. Place the meat into the dutch oven. Crumble in the lebkuchen or biscoff cookies.
4 cups beef broth, 2 oz lebkuchen or biscoff cookies
Cover the pot with a lid and place it into the oven for about 2 hours. Turn the meat at least once. The meat should end up being really soft when you pick a fork into it.

Remove the meat from the pot, wrap it in some foil, and set aside to rest.
Pass the sauce through a fine sieve. Then place back onto the hob and boil for approximately 5 minutes. Then add the raisins to the sauce and cook for another 10 minutes until the sauce has reduced and is thick.
3 tablespoon raisins
To serve, slice the beef into 1.5 cm thick slices and pour over the sauce. It goes well with red cabbage and potato dumplings or spätzle.

I would suggest checking out the step by step pictures in the main post.