SC - German feast

[Valoise Armstrong]

> Leanna said:
> > 4.  Third serving: Vision of Sauerbrauten with sauce and buttered noodles,
> > need to research a bit, and would change to roast beef with some period
> > sauce.  Also need a veggie to go with.  3 oz cooked meat, 1/2 cup sauce and
> > 1/2 cup vegetable. 1 cup cooked noodles per serving.
>

Stefan asked:

> Ok, what is "Saurbrauten"? Is there reason to believe it is period?

There are a lot of regional variations to Sauerbraten, but at its heart it is beef
marinated for several days in wine and spices, often juniper berries, then roasted
and the pan juices often thickened with gingersnaps (in English-language versions of
the recipe) sometimes sour cream is added to the sauce. Sometimes the roast is
cooked with raisins.

About twelve years ago I had a laurel that I respected for many other artistic
endeavours say that of course Sauerbraten was period, it was eaten by Charlemagne.
There is absolutely no evidence to support that. I did see a completely
unsubstantiated claim in an unrelable cookbook to that effect, but nothing more. I
also read a claim that Sauerbraten originated in the Pennsylvannia Dutch country of
the US and then found its way back to Germany. Once again, completely
unsubstantiated.

It has been about  6  years since I last looked at Sauerbraten and tried to document
it. I did find marinated meat, juniper berries, and sauces thickened with lebkuchen
(which would be a lot like gingersnaps in flavor) but no one recipe that contained
all the elements of Sauerbraten. There are a lot more German cookbooks out there
now. Anyone seen Sauerbraten?

Thomas, what do the etymological sources say about the word?

Valoise