Sauerbraten (German sour beef roast)

Alton Brown had the easiest recipe I could find for making Sauerbraten. It requires several days advance prep time, since the roast needs to be "pickled" in the refrigerator for three days before cooking.

I differed from Alton's recipe by not browning the meat before pickling/marinading. I simply placed the raw bottom round roast in the pickling spice marinade in an enameled Dutch oven. Make sure to turn the roast every day if the marinade does not cover the entire thing, as infusion of the meat with the sour vinegary goodness is important!

Before cooking, I squeezed out the roast and dried it as best as I could. I then salted it and browned it in vegetable oil. Once browned on all sides, I simply replaced the marinade and cooked in the covered Dutch oven at 325 degrees F. Alton recommended four hours cooking time for a 3.5 - 4 pound roast. I probably let it go to 4.5 hours, which was fine. At this point the meat was falling apart, which makes it harder to slice, but it was tender and delicious.

I forgot to thicken the braising liquid with ginger snaps to make the gravy (although I might've added some powdered ginger), but it was still wonderful. I simply thickened with Wondra Quick-Mixing Flour and adjusted the tartness with brown sugar to the correct sweet-sour balance.