Today’s post holds a very special place in my heart. My mother often made this meal on Sundays when I was growing up. It was my favorite meal and it still is to this day! She learned how to make this recipe at a cooking school she attended in Nuremberg, Germany when she was a young girl. She always let the meat braise over low heat on the stove for 3 to 4 hours until the meat was so tender it fell off the bone. Now that she is gone I wish I had paid more attention and learned how to make more of her recipes. I’m so thankful I learned this recipe from her! She was such a wonderful cook, baker and gardener.
When I was a working mom I converted the recipe so I could make it in my slow cooker. Most of us just don’t have the time to babysit something on the stovetop for 3-4 hours. Considering the basic ingredients used in this recipe it is amazing how tasty this meal is! I make it often. Especially when the weather turns cooler and pork shoulder or pork butt roasts go on sale; I know what I will be making.
This meal is easy to prepare, smells amazing as it cooks, uses basic ingredients so you won’t need to purchase any exotic spices or special ingredients to make it, and it warms your belly on a cold night!
To start, rinse pork roast under cold water, and pat dry with paper towels. Season roast liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.
TIP: For best flavor purchase a bone-in roast.
Heat vegetable oil in a large pot. I like to use my enameled cast iron pot for this. It produces a nice even heat and works beautifully for browning the roast.
Brown the roast over medium heat until lightly golden brown on all sides.
You aren’t cooking the roast all the way through, you just want a nice golden brown char on the outside. This will up the flavor profile!
Remove roast from the pot and place it in a slow cooker.
Sweat diced onions in the same pot you used to brown the roast until they are soft and translucent.
Did you know: Sweating onions gently cooks them to soften their texture, increases their sweetness and reduces the sulfur content, which gives them a milder taste. Sweating onions for dishes, such as soups, stews and braised meats is where the layers of flavor begin.
As the onions cook be sure to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot, there’s a lot of flavor in those browned bits! As the onions release their moisture it will make it easy to scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pot.
When the onions are soft add them to the roast in the slow cooker.
STOVETOP OPTION: If you are cooking the roast on the stovetop return the roast to the pot and continue with the recipe.
Add cloves, bay leaves and enough chicken broth to cover the roast.
Cook on low for 8-9 hours in the slow cooker. Simmer, covered, over low heat if cooking on the stovetop. If cooking on the stovetop, simmer over low heat, covered for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally.
TIP: Browning the meat, sweating the onions and using a good broth helps create layers of flavor that are further enhanced when braised over low heat for several hours.
Carefully remove roast from the slow cooker or the pot and set aside. It will be very tender and will most likely fall off the bone. That’s good thing! It means the meat is soft and juicy and tender 👍🏻
Fish out the bay leaves and cloves and discard them. They have imparted their flavor to the sauce and served their purpose, and are no longer needed.
In a small bowl, whisk together sour cream and flour until lumps are gone. Add a little bit of the broth from the pot to thin out and temper the mixture. Adding a bit of the broth will also help with stirring out the lumps.
Good to know: To temper is a process where hot liquid is added to foods that need to be incorporated into a hot sauce or soup. It raises the temperature so it can be added into the hot mixture without curdling.
Add the sour cream/flour mixture to the gravy. Stir well to incorporate.
Substitution: You can substitute corn starch in place of the flour to thicken the sauce. Just dilute it in a little cold water and add it to the sauce. Just be sure to temper the sour cream before adding to the sauce so it doesn’t curdle.
My mother served the sauce just like this but my guys prefer a smoother, creamier sauce so I added an additional step. Using an emersion blender, I puree the sauce until creamy and smooth.
Taste and season with additional salt if needed.
A shout out to my neighbor Debby who gave me one of her emersion blenders; she had three. I’m not a kitchen gadget kind of girl, but this is one kitchen gadget that I use all the time! Thank you Debby!
I would never attempt to puree hot sauces or hot soups in a blender. I know me, and blending hot liquids in a blender would be a burn accident waiting to happen. I prefer sitting down to this hot meal to enjoy rather than making a trip to the emergency room. LOL!
You can use a regular blender if you do not have an emersion blender, but please, please, please, promise me you will be extremely careful when doing so! Go slowly, blend small batches at a time, and be sure to hold the lid on the blender in place with a dish towel while blending.
Once you have pureed the sauce, return the roast to the slow cooker and cook until the sauce thickens, about 15-20 minutes.
Schweinebraten is traditionally served with German potato dumplings. They are sticky and gooey and pair wonderfully with this pork roast topped with the delicious gravy. If you don’t want to make dumplings this meal is equally delicious served over mashed potatoes or even egg noodles. We love this meal with either dumplings or a heaping mound of mashed potatoes, those are our personal favorites.
Learn How To Make Traditional German Potato Dumplings (Gekochte Kartoffelklosse). They are the traditional side to the roast pork and absolutely delicious smothered in the delectable gravy.
Serve meat with potato dumplings, cooked noodles or mashed potatoes topped with a generous helping of the delicious gravy. This meal pairs well with a side of buttered corn or asparagus spears.
This meal is total comfort food for me. It was my favorite meal growing up and always brings back wonderful memories of my parents and Sunday dinners spent together around the table.
I hope you give this recipe a try, it really is delicious and very easy to prepare. Your house will smell divine as it cooks! By converting it to a slow cooker meal you can make it even on a weeknight. Just get the roast going in the slow cooker before heading out the door in the morning. When you get home, it only takes about 30 minutes to thicken the gravy giving you plenty of time to make some mashed potatoes, or noodles, and cook up your favorite veggies to serve with it.
Nothing brings a smile to my face more than walking into the house after a long day and being greeted to the smell of this tasty meal cooking away in my slow cooker! Just think about how impressed your family will be when you serve up this delicious full course, authentic homemade German meal! It’s totally do-able!
Bayrischer Schweinebraten; Nuschi’s Bavarian Pork Roast
Equipment
- Slow cooker or Dutch oven
- immersion blender
Ingredients
- 2-4 lb bone-in pork shoulder roast
- salt & pepper
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 3-4 cups water or chicken broth
- 4 whole cloves
- 2-3 bay leaves
- ¼ cup flour
- 8 oz sour cream
Instructions
- Rinse pork roast under cold water, pat dry with paper towels.
- Heat oil in a large pan. Brown roast on all sides, until golden brown. Remove roast from the pot. Transfer to slow cooker if not braising on the stove, otherwise set roast aside while onions cook.
- Cook onions in the same pan until translucent, scraping up all the browned bits in the pan.
- If continuing in the slow cooker add onions to the slow cooker. Otherwisde retrun roast to the pan.
- Add whole cloves, bay leaves and either water, Chicken or Vegetable Broth so that the liquid covers the pork roast.
- Slow cooker method: Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 4-5 hours; until the meat is tender and falling off the bone.
- Stovetop method: Cover and cook for 2-2½ hours over low heat, stiring occasionally. Cook until meat is tender and falling off the bone.
- When meat is tender, remove roast and discard bone. You probably won't even need to slice the meat, just use a fork to gently pull it apart into large chunks.
- Fish out and remove bay leaves and cloves from the juices in the slow cooker.
- In a small bowl mix together flour and sour cream until all the lumps are gone. Add a bit of the broth to thin the flour/sour cream mixture and temper it.
- Add the sour cream/flour mixture to the juices in the slow cooker and stir to combine. Add salt to taste.
- Optional: puree gravy until smooth and creamy using an emersion blender.
- Serve with potato dumplings, mashed potatoes or buttered noodles.
This post was originally published November 2019 and republished with updated photos, recipe notes, and new content November 2024.
Did You Make This?
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Made this tonight, it was excellent.
Kathleen, I’m so glad you liked it. It’s one of my favorites!
I did this today and followed the recipe exactly, For the whole duration of cooking it smelt amazing but when coming to eat it it was very bland and somewhat tasteless. Seasoning etc was fine but the end result was very poor sadly.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not having a go at the person who posted the recipe I’m just wondering if it’s something I did that caused the problem, Any tips?
Rob, I’m so sorry this recipe wasn’t what you were hoping for, but traditional German foods are rarely heavily seasoned or very spicy. You could play around with the recipe and try adding some of the more traditional spices used in German cooking to add more flavor. Maybe try adding Marjoram, caraway seeds or some fresh parsley? Make the recipe work for you and what you enjoy. Let me know if you try it again and what spices you decided to add. I think sliced mushrooms would be a delicious addition but they wouldn’t add all that much flavor, I just love them and add them to a lot of recipes. Thanks for your feed back!
Looks like a delicious recipe to try.
Vicky, I hope you decide to give it a try. I think you will really love it.