The encyclopaedia of gravy
German roast gravy — Bratensoße — is a close relative of British gravy, sometimes thickened with bread or gingerbread and often given a sweet-sour edge.
Bratensoße — literally "roast sauce" — is made much as British gravy is: from the juices in the roasting tin, thickened, and served in quantity. Central European cooking then adds a few things British cooking does not.
Distinctive features¶
Bread and gingerbread as thickeners. In Rhineland Sauerbraten, the braising liquid is traditionally thickened with crushed Lebkuchen (spiced gingerbread) or dark rye bread, which adds spice, sweetness and body at once. It is one of the oldest thickening methods in European cookery, predating roux.
Sweet-sour balance. Sauerbraten is marinated in vinegar for days, and its sauce balances that with raisins, sugar or gingerbread. The same sweet-sour instinct appears across Franconian and Bavarian cooking.
Cream and soured cream. Common in Austrian and Bohemian sauces, as in the Nordic tradition.
Served with something to soak it up. Dumplings (Knödel), Spätzle or potato dumplings, all engineered for sauce absorption in the way a Yorkshire pudding is.
Sauerbraten sauce in outline¶
- Marinate beef in red wine vinegar, water, onion and spices for 3–5 days.
- Brown the meat hard, then braise in the strained marinade for 3 hours.
- Lift out the meat; strain the liquid.
- Thicken with crushed gingerbread, or a roux, plus a spoon of raisins.
- Balance: sugar if too sharp, vinegar if too sweet.
Elsewhere in central Europe¶
- Austria: Bratensaft, lighter, often with a velouté influence from the imperial kitchen.
- Poland: Sos pieczeniowy, brown roast sauce, often with mushrooms or soured cream.
- Czechia: svíčková — a famously thick, sieved root-vegetable and cream sauce for beef sirloin, served with dumplings, cranberry and a swirl of cream. Barely a gravy, unarguably a relative.