Venison Sauerbraten Recipes

VENISON SAUERBRATEN

Steps:

• Place venison roast in a glass or earthenware bowl or baking dish with onions, bay leaves, peppercorns, berries, cloves, vinegar, boiling water, and salt.
• Cover tightly and refrigerate, turning venison twice a day for at least 3 days.
• Never pierce the meat when turning.
• Remove venison from marinade and reserve the marinade.
• Cook venison in the shortening in a heavy skillet until brown on all sides.
• Add the marinade mixture.
• Heat to boiling; reduce heat.
• Cover and simmer until venison is tender, 3 to 3 1/2 hrs.
• (Crockpot on high all day.... works) Remove venison and onions from skillet and keep warm.
• Strain and measure liquid in skillet.
• Add enough water to liquid to measure 2 1/2 cups.
• Pour liquid into skillet.
• Cover and simmer 10 minutes.
• Stir gingersnaps and sugar into liquid.
• Cover and simmer 3 minutes.
• Serve venison with onions and gravy.

VENISON SAUERBRATEN

Steps:

• Marinate the venison: Put marinade ingredients (wine, vinegar, water, peppercorns, juniper, mustard, cloves, bay leaves, thyme, celery, carrots and onion) in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and allow the marinade to cool. Submerge the venison in the marinade and refrigerate for at least 24 hours, and up to 5 days. Three days is a good length of time for this. When you are ready to cook, remove the roast from the marinade and sprinkle it all over with salt. Set it aside for 15-20 minutes or so.
• Preheat the oven to 275°F: Actually, 225°F is a better temperature, but the roast can take up to 8 hours to properly cook then; this is what I do at home on weekends. At 275°F, the roast will probably take about 5 hours to cook. You can go up to 300°F - a typical venison roast will be ready in 3 1/2 hours at this temperature - but you will get gray, not pink, meat. It will still taste good, though.
• Brown venison in butter or oil (optional): Now you have an optional step: You can, if you choose, brown the venison in butter or oil. I chose not to because if you then simmer the venison at a low enough temperature, it will remain pink all the way through. If you brown the outside, you will get a gray ring around the edge of the venison when you cut into it. Either way is fine.
• Cook the venison in the marinade: Pour the marinade into a Dutch oven or other lidded, oven-proof pot and bring it to a boil. Add the venison to the pot. Cover and put in the oven. If the venison is not submerged by the marinade, turn the roast over every hour. This is also a good way to test for doneness - you want the roast to almost be falling apart. The roast should take between 3 1/2 to 8 hours to cook, depending on the oven temperature. At 275°F, it should take about 5 hours to cook.
• Remove roast from oven and coat with oil or melted butter: When the roast is done (completely tender), take it out of the pot and coat it with some of the 1/4 cup olive oil or melted butter. Reserve the rest of the oil or butter for later. Wrap it in foil.
• Make the sauerbraten sauce: Sauerbraten is all about the sauce. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine-meshed sieve into a bowl. Take the 8 gingersnap cookies and pulverize them in a blender. You want it to look like a rough meal or coarse flour. In a medium-sized pot, melt 3 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat. When it is frothing and totally melted, whisk in 2 tablespoons flour. Cook the roux until it is the color of coffee-and-cream, stirring often. Slowly whisk in the strained cooking liquid, one cup at a time. The mixture will turn to clay at first, then loosen into a silky sauce. Taste for salt - it will probably need it - and add enough to your taste. Whisk in 4 tablespoons of the pulverized gingersnaps. They will not dissolve completely at first, but keep stirring and they will disappear. Taste the sauce. Add another tablespoon of gingersnaps if you want, or add a tablespoon of sugar. The sauce should taste sour, warm (a pumpkin pie sort of spicy warm) and a little zippy and sweet.
• To serve, slice the roast into 1/4 inch thick slices: Venison can be dry - it has zero fat - so one trick I do is to coat each slice in melted butter before I serve it. You'll need about 1/2 stick melted to do this trick. Serve with lots of sauce, some braised onions, and either mashed potatoes, egg noodles, or spaetzle. A hearty red wine would be an ideal match here, as would a dark, malty beer. Links: More Venison Recipes - from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook Beef Sauerbraten with Raisins - from Steffen's Dinners Beef Short Ribs Sauerbraten - from Chef John of Food Wishes

VENISON SAUERBRATEN

Steps:

• Place roast in a glass dish or bowl. Cover with onions, water, wine, vinegar, brown sugar, cloves, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Refrigerate for 24 hours.Remove meat from marinade and wipe dry. Reserve marinade. In a Dutch oven over medium heat brown meat in oil. Add marinade and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low cover and simmer for 3 hours or until meat is tender, turning roast from time to time. Cool. Transfer to a glass dish or bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 1 to 2 days to flavor meat.To serve, reheat meat in sauce. Remove meat and slice set aside. Add gingersnaps to sauce and bring to a boil cook and stir over medium heat until thickened. Return sliced meat to sauce and heat through.Serve with noodles.