Venison Sauerbraten

Ingredients

• 3-4 pound roast of venison, or beef chuck
• 1/4 cup melted butter or extra virgin olive oil
• 8 gingersnap cookies
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp flour
• Salt
• 1 bottle of red wine
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 cups water
• 1 Tbsp black peppercorns
• 1 Tbsp juniper berries
• 1 Tbsp mustard seed
• 6-8 cloves
• 3-5 bay leaves
• 1 Tbsp dried thyme
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped

Directions

1. For the marinade, add the wine, red wine vinegar, water, peppercorns, juniper berries, mustard seed, cloves, bay leaves, thyme, celery, carrots, and onion to a pot, then bring the mixture to a boil.
2. Take the pot off the heat and let the marinade come down to room temperature.
3. Nestle the venison into the cooled marinade and refrigerate it for at least 24 hours, or as long as 5 days. 3 days is a nice middle ground.
4. When it is time to cook, lift the roast out of the marinade and season the entire surface with salt. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes or so. Heat your oven to 275 degrees F. If you have the day for it, 225 degrees F gives you an even gentler cook, though the roast may need up to 8 hours at that temperature. At 275 degrees F, plan on about 5 hours. You can raise the heat to 300 degrees F, and a typical venison roast will be done in 3 1/2 hours, but the meat will be gray rather than pink. Still tasty, just a different result.
5. At this point, you may brown the venison in butter or oil, or skip it. Browning gives you deeper color on the outside, but it also creates a gray border once the roast is sliced. If you keep the cooking very low and do not sear first, the meat can stay pink from edge to edge. Either choice is perfectly fine.
6. Pour the marinade into a Dutch oven, or another oven-safe pot with a lid, and bring it to a boil. Place the venison in the pot, cover it, and move it to the oven.
7. If the liquid does not cover the venison, flip the roast every hour. That little check-in also tells you how it is doing; you are aiming for meat that is almost tender enough to fall apart.
8. The cooking time will run from 3 1/2 to 8 hours, depending on the oven temperature. At 275 degrees F, expect it to need about 5 hours.
9. Once the roast is completely tender, remove it from the pot and brush it with some of the 1/4 cup olive oil or melted butter. Save the remaining oil or butter. Wrap the roast in foil.
10. For the sauce, set a fine-meshed sieve over a bowl and strain the cooking liquid through it.
11. Put the 8 gingersnap cookies in a blender and grind them until they look like coarse flour or rough meal.
12. In a medium-sized pot over medium-high heat, melt 3 tablespoons butter. Once it is fully melted and foaming, whisk in 2 tablespoons flour. Cook the roux, stirring often, until it turns a pale coffee-with-cream color.
13. Add the strained cooking liquid slowly, whisking in 1 cup at a time. It will tighten up into a thick paste at first, then relax into a smooth sauce as you keep going.
14. Taste and season with salt as needed; it will probably want some.
15. Whisk in 4 tablespoons of the ground gingersnaps. They may look a little stubborn at first, but keep stirring and they will blend into the sauce.
16. Taste again. If you want more body or sweetness, add 1 tablespoon more gingersnaps, or stir in 1 tablespoon sugar.
17. The finished sauce should be tart, warmly spiced, a little bright, and lightly sweet.
18. To serve, cut the roast into 1/4 inch thick slices. Venison can be dry because it has zero fat, so you can brush each slice with melted butter before serving; you will need about 1/2 stick melted butter for that. Serve with plenty of sauce, braised onions, and either mashed potatoes, egg noodles, or spaetzle. A hearty red wine works beautifully here, and so does a dark, malty beer.