Some loyal readers might know that in somewhat recent retro cooking posts, I’ve instituted a new policy of sorts to make not just one, but two recipes from each cookbook I thumb through. When it comes to New Dinner for Two, I’ve technically already done that, but I think you’ll all agree that my decision to fulfill requirements by cooking two Dinners makes sense.
two of them
In my prior post, I mentioned that many of the recipes, whether they were main dishes or sides, were pretty basic. So basic to the point of not really rising to the bar of recipe so much as “open a can and dump it in a serving dish (elegantly)” But there are a few Complicated Deals throughout.
Watch out Daffy – it’s Brittany Duck Season
None of these struck me as particularly strange or out of place, except for one – Sauerbraten.
Okay, I lied, the hell is Glorified Egg Shortcake
Aah, so it’s like that, huh. I understand Sauerbraten now
I had personally never heard of sauerbraten, even though I feel like I should have – part of my family food history includes stuff possibly prefixed with sauer, like pickled pigs feet. But my unfamiliarity wasn’t the issue, so much as the fact this is a three day marinade. Granted, cooking big roasts like this inherently comes with a lot of downtime, but usually not 72+ hours of it.
It even has its own entry in the glossary, and yes, I did take psychic damage from those pronunciation guides
Ah yes, Little Dinners, like a four pound roast you marinated three days ahead of time
I was so mystified as to how this very specific sauer- serving got into this cookbook, that I felt I had to cook it. The ingredients were normal enough…well, except for the juniper berries. And I had heard of putting ginger snaps in gravy before. The real decider though, was the fact it involved what still remains a relatively cheap cut of meat. Pressure’s off (although in hindsight, this would have prolly turned out better in a pressure cooker.)
Is it GREAT ON THE GRILL though? Like, how much time you got
In terms of sides, we always have potatoes in the house, and because of our prodigious lemon tree outside, I decided to attempt the schaum tortes as well. A big Sunday Dinner for Two.
The first hurdle was, predictably, the juniper berries. Yes, yes, it says ‘if desired’, but if I’m spending three whole days soaking a hunk of meat, I’m going to do it as the Pickling Pros intended. Some cursory googling led to a lot of unhelpful advice, but also the knowledge that a spice brand I routinely see in grocery stores here did offer juniper berries. That being said, I was highly pessimistic the man of the house was going to find it out marketing, and indeed, he returned home empty-handed.
Here starts my rant about the absolute waste of space and energy ‘specialty/health grocery stores’ are. You know the ones, they often have a big aisle of a bunch of homeopathic nonsense in addition to a claim that their produce is Superior to anyone else, despite the fact they never come close to your average 99 Ranch in that regard (hashtag not sponsored). There’s three of these stores close enough I don’t mind driving to them to source ingredients, and none of them, not one, had juniper berries.
For any invisible defenders out there saying “well, it was a long shot”, no! No it was not! Because all three of them did have juniper berry products. Just not actual juniper berries. And no, I don’t mean gin, I mean nonsense like essential oils, or supplement pills, or juniper berry flavored kombucha. The satire writes itself.
Anyways. I easily ordered a small bag of juniper berries from the jungle for a very reasonable price instead. May each and every one of those stores get replaced by an ‘ethnic’ grocery store instead. We know the quality of the produce will improve.
Yes, there is a different brand called Spice World. I do not know if the latter has ever collaborated with the Spice Girls.
Sunday Sauerbraten Schedule
I broke out my trusty Dutch oven and got my meat marinating days in advance. I also followed the advice of planning out the relative timeline, especially since I did commit to making the lemon dessert at the same time.
You know you’re a copy editor when you glance at this photo and immediately think “oh, I forgot the n in meringues”
What I didn’t do successfully, was separate four eggs first try (you can see I got there in the end)…oh, and read the recipe ingredients carefully. In my defense, the schaum tortes have kind of a wonky format, so I see why I missed putting heavy cream on my initial grocery list. But that did mean I had to go back out marketing myself in the midst of meal prep.
Not pictured: the stiff peak this did make, I swear. This ain’t my first meringue matinee.
I started my morning making the meringue (and a bit of a racket). When I initially read the instructions, I couldn’t really visualize what the heck they wanted me to make, and searching online for anything cooking related is a bit of an SEO nightmare, and it’s only gotten worse for the same reason I’ve held off on upgrading my RAM. I do sometimes get lucky in finding instructional materials (textbooks, videos, etc) for culinary schools, and while I did stumble across some demos for bakers, it wasn’t the type of meringue shell detailed in the instructions I had. I was about to give up and just wing it when I saw a thumbnail for an episode of Martha Stewart Living where she very clearly was making a Drop Shell.
So with Martha’s baggy button-up blessings, you succeeded, right? Nope. Usually when I make meringues, I’m folding them into something, so I don’t need super stiff peaks. Relatedly, I’ve read quite a lot of advice from patissiers against overworking a meringue. None of that advice I think is really applicable to making these shells. As a result, my dropped meringue formed pools instead of puffs, and at that point I couldn’t really fix the problem. I decided I would just bake them as-is, and figure out a way to incorporate them into what was a really simple dessert anyways.
Nice and glossy, at least
To add insult to injury..or..more insult? There weren’t really any injuries…anyways, when I went to pull off the beaters to put them in the sink, a stream of white sticky stuff went onto my pant leg and across the kitchen floor. (Beavis and Butthead, make your jokes now.) While my meringues were baking low and low, I made my lemon curd and then headed off to pick up the missing heavy cream armed with a clean pair of lounge pants so I could finish assembly and chill.
Heh heh, heh heh, hey Beavis…
For the potato balls, I opted to just cook the potatoes in the microwave, as at that point I didn’t really need more “wait an hour” type stuff to deal with. For anyone thinking “ah, relying on modern convenience”, I’m sorry to disappoint you.
Do you have a food mill? I know other people do, but it’s rare. It’s also a workout. After milling the potatoes, I formed the balls, all while being pretty suspicious of what purpose the bread crumbs in the middle served.
Heh heh, hey Beavis…Balls, heh heh
The recipe wants you to finish these off by boiling them, but reader, I just couldn’t do it, and not just because the pot I would normally use to do so was full of juniper berry ‘n juice. I baked them in the oven instead to give them what I thought was the best chance of being successful.
As for the meat, I probably should have altered some instructions there too. Unsurprisingly, I could have cooked it longer – that’s par for the course with these cuts. But also, I really don’t think the resulting gravy needed additional thickening beyond the ginger snaps. First off, it’s already been reducing for quite a while, and second, at that point, the onions have kind of melted. I tried straining it and it wasn’t happening, so I just kind of used it as a dip instead.
Aforementioned melted onions pictured right
The verdict from my father was more or less “this is way too much work for what it is”. You won’t be shocked to hear the sauerbraten was sour, but I would say in a good way. The lemon schaum tortes I actually never got a chance to fully taste, but that’s because it did get fully consumed, so lemon curd plus whipped cream is, unsurprisingly, successful. My dad liked the failed shells meringue cookies the most, which was good, cuz I ended up with quite a few extra after pivoting my dessert design. I personally felt that it didn’t really rise to the level of “dessert” – Martha was making pavlovas with hers, and I do feel like the addition of fresh fruit would have really helped. The potato balls were…well as I predicted, the bread in the middle isn’t successful. Otherwise, it’s molded mashed potatoes. Really the epitome of “why did we overcomplicate this”.
The mystery of why this is listed in New Dinner for Two remains unsolved. My running theory is one of the editors was stubborn on slapping sauerbraten onto the social section. But who knows? Maybe sauerbraten was having a moment at the time. While the socialites were out savoring the Swinging Sixties, the small-home-maker was supping on sauerbraten, or something.
kelp 