Sauerbraten

Based on the recipe from The Peasant Coookbook

2 cups beef stock
1 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon (or more) dried tarragon
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
salt
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
2 Tablespoons dry mustard
3 pound/1.5 kg lump of beef (bottom round is good)
garlic
3 Tablespoons butter or margarine or plain oil
6 Tablespoons flour
1 cup sour cream

Heat but do not boil stock, vinegar and seasonings. Put the meat in a heavy enamalled casserole that will take it snugly, allowing the marinade to come up about halfway or more. We use the same casserole for eventually cooking the meat in the marinade on the stove. Add the marinade mixture. It should come to about half the height of the meat. Turn the meat once a day. Let it stand at least 3 days but, if you are lucky, anything up to 8 to 10. (It is possible to let it go too long: when it does, the meat will have rotted and you will be able to tell by smell: we usually make 5 days the limit).

Remove the meat from the marinade. Reserve the marinade. Rub the meat with garlic and dredge with flour.

Heat the butter/oil in a heavy skillet big enough to brown the lump in. Brown the meat on all sides. This is definitely a messy, sticky business if you use butter or margarine, and is hard to do without sticking even when you use oil, because the meat is so supersaturated with moisture from the marinade.

Reheat the marinade gently while this is going on.

Put the browned meat back into the enamalled casserole in which it marinaded (or some other pot you can use on the stove top that is just big enough for meat and marinade). Add the reheated marinade to the browned meat lump.

(Actually, you don't have to reheat the marinade: it just makes the beginning of the actual cooking happen a little more quickly).

Cover the pan with the meat and marinade tightly and cook over low heat. Simmer very slowly for 2 or 3 hours.

When the meat is tender, remove it from the pot and thicken juices with the flour mixed with enough water to make a thin paste. Cook until smooth. Add the sour cream, heat until warm but do not let boil. Serve with the roast and potatoes. Serves 4 with leftovers for the next day's pasta casserole.