Although we've suddenly had unseasonably warm temperatures, the Christmas delights of Deutschland already populate the grocery shelves. There are stollens and star shaped cookies, and a recent flyer from Aldi with a Christmas tree and greenery promised "Einfach alles fuer ein schoenes Fest!" Which translates to: Just everything for nice party ... the global discount supermarket, that was founded 20 minutes from where we now live, clearly likes to play it low key.
One of my favorite finds at Christmastime in Germany has been the Aachner Printen cookie, a local NRW favorite with rich history and a protected status. National Geographic describes them here. (Really, go read this article, and then if you ever come to Germany make sure you add the Aachner Dom to your itinerary.)
This Plain Jane, denim skirt of a cookie hardly has the flair that one typically thinks of a Christmas cookie, and that's fair, because they were made to be durable and long lasting, but they do not compromise flavor. So imagine my delight when I was traveling with my adult field trip group last season for a walking tour of Aachen, and learned that the protected Printen has made its way into a regional fall and winter dish ... Sauerbraten.
Sauerbraten is literally the word sauer (sour) and braten (roast). But because Germans area the original hash-taggers, they love to squish several words together that then becomes one stand alone noun, for example in English we could create Sundaypotroast.
I googled several Sauerbraten mit Printen recipes and was trying to piece together which ingredients and directions seemed the simplest (everything I found was in Deutsch).
I decided on this one.
I read through the German version three times before I realized it called for a kilo of horse meat! I had mistakenly thought Sauerbraten was simply a vinegary German version of roast beef, but Wikipedia set me straight. Sauerbraten is a German pot roast that can be prepared with a variety of meats - most often beef and TRADITIONALLY, HORSE. (Caps and bold mine, Wiki doesn't shout.) Before cooking, the cut of meat is marinated for several days (recipes vary from three to ten days) in a mixture of vinegar or wine, water, herbs, spices and seasonings ...
Dear Jesus, who's swaddling cloth is probably not actually among the relics at the Aachner Dom (go back and read the Nat Geo article) please don't let me have been stewing two pounds of horse meat for the last 90 minutes!
Imagine my relief when I saw that ever practical Aldi, who sells pre-marinated Sauerbraten, so I don't have to spend THREE TO TEN DAYS doing it myself, went the "most often" Sauerbraten route and mercifully not the "traditional" one.
When I arrived at my recycling bin and removed dutifully rinsed Sauerbraten packaging that had been dependably placed in the correct recycling receptacle (we have four: packaging/paper/bio/refuse, in addition to the various bottle sorting categories!) I saw the friendly image of a mournful cow and was monumentally grateful.
