This is Maria's recipe for Schweinebraten (Roast Pork) cooked in a Römertopf ("Roman-top" clay pot), compliments of Herr Ros5e.
Here's the raw roast. 1 Kg = 2.2 lbs, pork roast from the neck. Tic-Tac box is there for scale.
Maria has rubbed salt and pepper all over the roast, and is now putting slices of garlic on and around it. It would be better to slice up the garlic toes (that's what they're called over here), stick the point of the knife into the roast, and stuff a slice of garlic into the hole. Do that all over the roast for all the garlic toes you want to use; 4 or 5, maybe. Toss pieces of onion into the Topf around the roast.
M didn't soak the bottom of the R-Topf ... it's been used for so long, the pores of the clay have filled with fat and grease, which is a Good Thing. She did soak the lid, though.
Römertopf in the cold oven.
Maria looking through her cookbook trying to remember what the roasting temperature should be.
Whoops! Maria forgot that she wanted to put some sliced apples around the roast. Topf out of the cold oven, lid off, apples washed and sliced and distributed, lid back on, and Topf back into the cold oven.
Ha! Cookbook said to roast it at 225C = 437F. Oven turned on, and away she goes!
Here she is after about 100 minutes. Look at the roast, and if you think it should be a little browner, slowly pour some dark beer onto the center of the meat. Don't let the beer go directly anywhere onto the pot or the pot will crack. Put in 1/2 - 3/4 cups. Increase oven temperature about 25F, and put Topf, uncovered, back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes. This one you play by eye.
After taking the roast out of the oven, transfer it to glass tray, and let it rest for about 10 minutes. Then slice it up. Pour and scrape the liquids from the Topf and the glass tray, through a sieve, into a pan. Take 1/4 cup of these juices, put into a jelly-jar, add a teaspoonful of flour, put the lid tightly onto the jar, and shake the snot out of it. This will evenly distribute the flour in the liquid so you won't get lumps. Pour this mixture back into the pan, put on the stove, and bring to a light boil, then reduce heat to a simmer stirring all the while. Continue stirring until it's the thickness that you like. Taste for seasonings, and fix what is needed.
And there you have it! Pork roast with boiled, peeled potatoes (or fixed any other way you like ... or pasta, Rice? Maybe but probably not.), red cabbage out of a jar - hotted up, and a high quality beer - in this case, Augustiner Edelstoff (try to find it). It's the last remaining private brewery in München, and it's been in operation since 1328.
Thank you, Maria, for this lovely recipe!
And thank you, Herr Ros5e, for the fine photography and detailed documentation.
