Beuschel

The organs go in whole and are only sliced after cooking, and the sour broth becomes the sauce.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb, veal.

Ingredients

• 600 g calf lung, or lamb lights
• 300 g calf heart
• 1.5 litres water
• 150 ml white wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 onions, halved
• 40 g butter
• 40 g plain flour
• 100 ml soured cream
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

Method

1. THE ORGANS GO IN WHOLE AND ARE ONLY SLICED AFTER COOKING, AND THE SOUR BROTH BECOMES THE SAUCE. The article's sequence is unusual enough to be the page: the lungs and other organs are SIMMERED IN A SOUR BROTH MADE FROM WATER, VINEGAR, SUGAR, SALT, PEPPERCORNS, BAY LEAF, AND ONIONS; AFTERWARD, THE SEASONINGS ARE STRAINED OUT, AND THE MEAT IS SLICED INTO FINE SLICES OR STRIPS; THE BROTH IS THICKENED WITH A BROWN ROUX.
2. SO THE CUTTING IS THE LAST STEP, NOT THE FIRST. Lung is spongy and tears when raw; cooked through and cooled a little it slices into clean strips. Cut it first and you get shreds.
3. ASK THE BUTCHER FOR LIGHTS OR A PLUCK. Lights is the butcher's word for lungs and a pluck is the lungs, heart and liver together. They are sold here -- faggots and haggis both use them, which is why the American ban on sheep lung keeps British haggis out of the United States.
4. THE SOURNESS IS NOT A GARNISH, IT IS THE METHOD. Upper Franconia calls the dish SAURE LUNGE MIT HERZ -- sour lung with heart -- and the article says why: BECAUSE IT IS PREPARED WITH VINEGAR OR WINE. A dish whose name is its own cooking liquid.
5. RINSE THE LUNG UNDER COLD WATER UNTIL IT RUNS CLEAR, squeezing it like a sponge, which is what it is.
6. KEEP IT UNDER THE SURFACE WITH A PLATE. Lung floats, and the part above the water stays raw and grey.
7. NINETY MINUTES AT A BARE SIMMER, NOT A BOIL. Boiled, it goes rubbery and the broth clouds.
8. LET IT COOL IN THE BROTH BEFORE SLICING, then strain the broth and keep it. Everything below is made with it.
9. THE ROUX IS BROWNED, WHICH THE ARTICLE SPECIFIES. Butter and flour cooked to the colour of a hazelnut before the broth goes in, a ladle at a time.
10. THE SOURED CREAM GOES IN OFF THE HEAT. Boiled, it splits. Lemon zest and parsley at the end, with bread dumplings beside it -- semmelknödel, as on its own page, is what the article names first.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes