Ingredients:

for the sauce/marinade:
1 3/four cups red wine vinegar
1/ii cup apple cider vinegar
two onions, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon whole allspice
ane teaspoon mustard seeds
3 whole cloves
ii tablespoons black peppercorns
1 tablespoon saccharide
1 tablespoon salt

for the dumplings:
four cups plainly well-mashed potatoes made from peeled red potatoes
flour
three/4 teaspoon blistering pulverization
i egg
table salt

other:
3 1/2 lb beef circular, cutting into 1 1/ii in thick slices or left whole (encounter notes)
1 tablespoon canola oil
eight gingersnaps, broken into pieces

Directions:
WARNING: This part has to be done the day before you desire to serve. Stir together all of the marinade ingredients in a nonreactive bowl. Place the roast in a nonreactive container (or large ziplock bag) and marinate overnight. The day earlier is also a skillful fourth dimension to make the gingersnaps if, similar me, you are using homemade.

The next mean solar day: Remove the meat and pour the marinade in the slow cooker. In a big skillet, quickly brown all sides of the meat in the canola oil. Add the meat into the wearisome cooker and turn on depression for half dozen hours.

During the final hour or and then of cooking time: Kickoff to make the dumplings. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. In a large basin, combine the cooled mashed potatoes and table salt and the egg. Stir in the baking pulverisation and add the flour in 1/ii cup increments until the it resembles a dough and the mixture holds its shape when molded (roughly three cups). Class into 2 to 4 inch balls. They should be able to hold their shape but not exist as well floury. Drib them into the water. They should sink, then rise to the surface when cooked through. Set aside.

During the final 1/2 hour of cooking time: Skim off whatsoever visible fat that may have risen to the top and so add the gingersnaps and turn the heat to high.

After the time is up, shred the meat a bit with a fork or break it into pieces. Serve hot, with dumplings on the side.

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My thoughts:

My grandpop loves sour beef and in turn and then practice I. Baltimore has strong German roots and some of the old food traditions continue today.

As a kid my female parent and I would sweet talk the ticket takers at the yearly German language festival at Carroll Park to permit us in (for free) just long plenty to option upward a large order from our favorite stand to take dwelling. At present you can purchase bottles of Mrs. Minnicks' sauce at the grocery store only freshly made is e'er all-time. Until I made this, I had never made sour beef before but afterward a year of watching beef prices* I finally institute a good deal on some meat suitable for cooking for a long time and decided to take the plunge.

Here in Baltimore, it is traditional to make the sour beef with gingersnaps. I know some people sneer at the use of cookies, and I acknowledge it is a little retro sounding simply they really add some flavor and thicken upwardly the gravy without having to add cornstarch or flour. Plus I constitute an quondam High german recipe (equally opposed to just German-American) that calls for lebkuchen, a spicy cookie somewhat similar to American gingersnaps so I feel some what vindicated in my determination. It is also very "Baltimore" to serve sauerbraten with very large, fluffy irish potato dumplings. Many restaurants that serve the dish offer extra dumplings every bit a side forth with sweetness and sour cabbage.

Some notes:
I bought the traditional beefiness roast simply cutting it into large (roughly 2 inch wide) chunks/thick slices then the marinade would penetrate ameliorate and more chop-chop. In deference to the extremely hot conditions we are having, I used the slow cooker just you could also follow the same instructions simply utilize a dutch oven and roast information technology for virtually 4 hours at 350 or until thoroughly cooked and fork tender. While I but marinated the meat overnight (or more accurately, about twenty hours) you tin marinate information technology up to three days if you would rather apply the whole roast. Also, some people add juniper berries to their sour beefiness but I sort of call back I am allergic to them so I left them out. I besides don't think they are entirely necessary, season-wise, at least not for the kind of sour beefiness we eat here in Charm City.

*I just tin can't bring myself to pay $13 (or more!) per pound for meat that is going to cook for hours. When did cheap cuts of meat get so expensive? Doesn't anyone brand stew anymore?