Sauerbraten – German Pot Roast

Sauerbraten – Authentic German Pot Roast Recipe

I have gotten another perfect authentic German recipe added to my kitchen arsenal. This traditional and popular Sauerbraten is an amazingly unique dinner entree. You can compare this dish to a German-style pot roast. Just like its counterpart, it is served with a brown gravy slow-cooked with carrots, onions, and potatoes. The gravy is made with apple cider vinegar and brown sugar. And yes that is where the two pot roast differs. The vinegar and sugar give this recipe the traditional balance of sour and sweet.

My sauerbraten, as you can guess, has a unique taste that matches like no other. I can remember having it with meine Oma’s Mittagessen. Typically German lunches would consist of a heavy meal, much like dinner in the United States. My Oma would make a spaetzle or potato dumpling called Kartoffelknodel. When I made this recipe for the blog, I used my frozen and homemade potato and onion pierogi.

Another reason I love my Sauerbraten, it is a perfect slow cooker recipe. You can easily set this meal the morning of and let it cook.

As for the gravy, you can adjust the amount of sour taste as you like. The recipe below is quite mild. I was afraid the traditional sour gravy would be too sour for my kiddos. If you like more of a sour taste, then reduce the amount of brown sugar and increase the apple cider vinegar. You can also play with reducing the amount of water added. The sauce in the slow cooker becomes diluted because of the meat juices coming out as it cooks.

Cost of this recipe.

Calculating the cost of a meat main entree can be a bit difficult. But for this sauerbraten, I came up with the costing roughly $10.71 or about $1.34 per serving. This cost does not include any side dishes, which can increase the total cost of this dinner meal. We only have a family of four, so this dinner always has a large number of leftovers.

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This recipe is an original recipe from One Acre Vintage Homestead – Pumpkin Patch Mountain Homestead, all images and text are original to this website. Please visit our disclaimer page for more information on our recipe sharing policies.