I’m sorta obsessed with German food lately, can you tell?  I don’t really know why.  I don’t even know what Sauerbraten means, but I can now tell you that it’s basically a roast.

We split 1/4 of a buffalo with Adam’s brother about a month ago, so we have a freezer full of bison meat.  Buffalo aren’t quite as domesticated as cows, so they can’t survive in a feedlot situation — they must be raised on grass, with some room to roam.  So if you buy buffalo meat you know the animal was at least allowed to live the life that it evolved to live.  I honestly can’t really tell the difference in flavor between buffalo and beef, but we eat grass-fed beef so that might be part of the reason.

Buffalo Sauerbraten (crockpot style)
Around 6-8 servings

1 buffalo (or beef) roast (round rump roast), 2-3 lbs.
1 1/2 c. red wine
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. dry mustard
A pinch of ground cloves or 3-4 whole cloves
1-3 cloves garlic, minced
5 carrots
1 onion
1 c. broth (beef or chicken)
About 1 c. canned or fresh tomato, chopped
1/4 c. raisins
1/3 c. gingersnaps, crushed

1. Combine the wine, red wine vinegar, mustard, cloves, garlic, and salt & pepper in a gallon-size plastic bag.  Place the roast in the bag and marinate for 24 hours in the ‘fridge, turning occasionally.

2. Chop the carrots and onion and place in your crockpot.  Sprinkle the raisins over top.

3. Remove your roast from the marinade bag (save the marinade juices), and brown each side of it for a minute or so in a hot oiled frying pan:

Note: if your roast had butcher strings around it, leave them on.  I took them off and my roast kinda fell apart.  Oh well.  Place the roast on top of the vegetables.

4. Combine the leftover marinade juices with the broth and the tomatoes, and pour it over your meat and veggies:

5. Put the cover on and cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for 9-10 hours.

6. Remove the meat and veggies from the crockpot.  Now you will make a quick gravy with the juices.  I used whole cloves, so I strained the juices to get them out at this point:

7. Put the juices in a small frying pan or sauce pan, stir in the crushed gingersnaps, and bring to a boil over med. heat.  When it gets all thick and bubbly it’s done.  It took about 2-3 minutes:

For authentic German-style, serve it over spaetzle with a dollop of sauerrüben on the side:

Adam made the spaetzle while I was making the gravy.  Spaetzle is ridiculously easy, though a little messy.  If you’ve never made your own pasta, it’s a fun one to try.  Holler if you’d like me to post that recipe as well.

Does this look like a huge portion or what?  It’s not, I’m not that big of a glutton.  It’s a salad-size plate.  We eat most of our meals on them to try and control ourselves a little bit.

This was not a huge effort, but it was spread out here and there over 2 days.  So it takes a little planning.  Basically, it’s a roast, and tasted like a roast, but had more interesting flavors than roasts I’ve made before.

If you’re not up for making spaetzle, I think this would be good over mashed potatoes, or even just on its own with a piece of bread to mop up the extra gravy.