Sour meat is a Limburg regional (Netherlands) dish that resembles stew. It is prepared with meat marinated in vinegar; hence the name, but the taste is sweet, the acidity of the vinegar is more than offset by the addition of gingerbread and syrup. Sour meat is eaten in both Dutch and Belgian Limburg and in the German Rhineland, often with fries or mashed potatoes. At the snack bar or chip shop in Dutch and Belgian Limburg you can usually get a fries with sour meat, and also in many restaurants and eateries.
Preperation: 30 minutes + 26 hours wait
Quantity: 4 persons
Ingredients:
500 g beef chops
300 ml water
300 ml vinegar
3 dried bay leaves
2 cloves
30 g unsalted butter
2 large onions
3 slices of gingerbread
3 tbsp apple syrup
Preperation:
Cut the meat into cubes of about 3 cm and put them in a bowl. Mix the water with the vinegar and add the bay leaf and cloves. Season with (freshly ground) pepper and salt. Pour the marinade over the meat and let it marinate in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Remove the meat from the marinade, drain well and pat it dry with kitchen paper. Save the marinade.
Bake the meat in a few minutes brown in 2/3 of the butter. Deglaze by pouring the marinade over it. Cut onion into large pieces. Fry onion in the rest of the butter. When they are nicely browned, add them to the meat. Simmer the meat over low heat in the marinade for about 2 hours. From time to time, scoop off the foam.
Crumble the gingerbread. Add this when the meat is cooked and stir until a smooth sauce is formed. The gingerbread binds the sauce. Add the apple syrup and stir into the sauce. Season with (freshly ground) pepper and salt. Add some syrup to your taste.
Enjoy your meal!
The book below is highly recommended for more Dutch recipes.
Instructional video of this recipe on youtube: