honey graham sauerbraten(FATHER'S DAY SPECIAL)

I like to do my own thing on this channel and cook whatever the hell I want- except for 2 occasions, my dad's birthday and Father's Day. Because he does so much for me both as a dad and a cameraman for my videos. On those two days, my dad gets to call the shots as for what I have to cook. This year, he told me to make him sauerbraten. My dad's mom was Austrian and German. She made sauerbraten for him and his three brothers when he was a kid. Though she complained about how long it took to make it, which is probably why she only made it on special occasions. He recalls eating sauerbraten with red cabbage and potato dumplings. I used neither of those things in this recipe because a) eating plain red cabbage to me is gross and b) my local supermarket doesn't sell premade potato dumplings and the closest thing to that are knishes.

The last time my dad had homemade sauebraten was at least 40 years ago, when he was a teenager, and he recalled eating the dish at a now-defunct German restaurant 20 years ago. He said this sauerbraten was the best Father's Day gift I have given him! My dad said he went to culinary heaven when he ate this meal. Maybe he said that because of nostalgia but no matter what the intention, I'm flattered.

Apparently I'm not very good at making gravy- the gravy I made was kind of thin but my dad still enjoyed it. The graham cracker crumbs tended to float towards the top. I remember when I made the Pumpkin Spice Gravy last fall, the gravy was also kind of thin. But then again, I don't make gravy very often.

I loved the dish as well but really, this video and post is all about my dad.

You may notice in the video I say "ugly food can be tasty"- well that's because I'm rebranding my channel this summer to focus it on food that doesn't look pretty necessarily but tastes amazing. In other words, it's pretty much what I'm doing now. I'm just trying to appeal to more people than I am now. In the coming weeks, you will see a new channel banner, new music on my videos, and a new channel trailer. That's all I'm going to say for now.

HELPFUL LINK: Juniper Berries: https://www.amazon.com/Spice-Hunter-Juniper-Berries-1-3-Ounce/dp/B004M1BEDA/ref=sr_1_8_s_it?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1466361081&sr=1-8&

Serves 4-5 adults
Inactive time: 2-4 days plus 37-40 minutes

You will need:

For the cooking equipment:

A large saucepot and a cover for it
Paper towels to pat dry the bottom round
A frying pan
2 forks to turn the bottom round over
Aluminum foil
2 lasagna pans
Nonstick cooking spray
A meat thermometer to measure the internal temperature of the bottom round
A large plate
A colander
A large bowl
A medium saucepot
A whisk

For the food:

2 cups of water
1 cup of cider or champagne vinegar
1 cup of red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. of salt
12 juniper berries(see helpful link)
3/4 tsp. of ground up peppercorns or whole mustard seeds
6 cloves or cinnamon
2 bay leaves
8 chopped up baby carrots
3/4 of a large onion
2 lbs. of bottom round
More salt for rubbing into the bottom round
Olive oil for browning the bottom round
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
3-5 ounces of crushed up honey graham crackers(using a food processor or a Ziploc bag and your fists)
Raisins for garnish
Serve with cole slaw or red cabbage; and knishes or potato dumplings

1. Put the first 10 ingredients into a large saucepot. Cover and bring large saucepot to a boil.
2. Once the contents of the large saucepot are boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer. Let contents simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Remove large saucepot from stove and uncover it. Put large saucepot on a cool burner. Let marinade in saucepot cool until you can stick a finger in it without burning yourself. This could take at least 30 minutes.
4. Once the marinade is cool to the touch, pat dry the bottom round with paper towels. Put a little bit of salt on the bottom round and rub it into the meat.
5. Pour olive oil into a frying pan and spread it around the pan. Heat the oil up on the stove.
6. Once the oil is heated up, put the bottom round into the frying pan.
7. Cook the bottom round for 1-2 minutes on each side. Once the meat has browned on a side, turn it over to another side using two forks. Repeat this process until the entire bottom round has be browned. Tip: Brown the larger, thicker sides of the meat for 2 minutes and the thinner, smaller sides for 1 minute.
8. Put the browned bottom round into the marinade that's in the saucepot. The saucepot will warm up at this point, so wait 7-10 minutes until the saucepot is cool to the touch or slightly warm at most.
9. Cover the saucepot with aluminum foil and put it in the fridge. Let the meat marinade for 2-4 days. If the meat isn't fully submerged in the liquid(as with my case), turn it over once a day.
10. After the meat is done marinating, add the granulated sugar to the meat and marinade and mix it in. Don't put all of the sugar on the meat- you don't want sweet meat! Spread some of the sugar off of the meat and into the marinade.
11. Use 2 lasagna pans to fully hold the meat and marinade, stacked on top of each other.
12. Spray top lasagna pan with nonstick cooking spray.
13. Put the meat into the top lasagna pan, then the marinade.
14. Cover the lasagna pans with aluminum foil. Cook in a 325 degree Fahrenheit preheated oven for 4 hours, or until the meat is tender. Using a meat thermometer, make sure the internal temperature of the meat reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
15. Put the meat onto a large plate. In the sink, put a large bowl in it. Then the drain the liquid that's in the lasagna pans through a colander, thereby separating the solids and liquids. Discard of the solids.
16. Pour the remaining liquid into a medium saucepot. Bring medium saucepot to a boil on the stove.
17. Once the liquid in the medium saucepot is boiling, add the crushed honey graham crackers a spoonful at a time. Mix each spoonful into the liquid using a spoon or whisk. Whisk the liquid until it thickens to form a gravy to your liking.
18. Cut the meat up. At this point, it should resemble the texture of something liked pulled pork. Top the meat with gravy and raisins.
19. Serve with cole slaw or red cabbage; and knishes or potato dumplings.
20. Bon appetit!