Bratensaft (Austrian Roast Pork Jus)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Roasting pan (from the Schweinsbraten)
• •Wooden spoon for deglazing
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Small saucepan
• •Warm Sauciere or serving jug

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the roasting pan

   Once your Schweinsbraten comes out of the oven, transfer the roast to a cutting board and tent it loosely with foil. Turn your attention to the roasting pan. This is where the Bratensaft lives. You'll see rendered pork fat, dark caramelized bits stuck to the bottom, maybe some charred onion from the roast. Pour off most of the liquid fat into a heatproof bowl, but leave about two tablespoons in the pan along with all those dark sticky bits. That's your Bratensatz. Every minute of roasting built that flavor. Don't waste a speck of it.

   Save the pork fat you pour off. Strained and refrigerated, it keeps for weeks and is spectacular for roasting potatoes or frying eggs.
2. 2

   Brown the aromatics

   Set the roasting pan across two burners on medium heat. Add the thick onion wedges and let them brown in the residual fat, turning once, about three minutes. Thick wedges brown. Fine pieces burn. That's a rule I learned young and it hasn't failed me yet. Add the crushed garlic and whole caraway seeds. Stir them through the fat for thirty seconds until the caraway smells warm and toasty and the garlic just starts to color. Add the tomato paste and cook it for another minute, stirring it into the drippings. The paste needs direct heat to lose its tinny raw edge and deepen into something sweet and concentrated.

3. 3

   Deglaze the pan

   Pour in the wine or beer. It will hiss and bubble up, and that's exactly what you want. Use a wooden spoon to scrape every dark bit off the bottom of the pan. Work the corners. Work the edges. Everything that's stuck there is concentrated flavor, and the liquid is dissolving it back into something you can pour. Let the wine reduce by about half, two to three minutes, until the sharp alcohol smell cooks off and what's left smells round and savoury.

   A light Austrian beer like a Märzen works beautifully here if you don't have wine open. It gives the jus a slightly malty depth that pairs especially well with caraway. Use what you'd drink alongside the meal.
4. 4

   Add stock and simmer

   Pour in the stock. Drop in the bay leaves and peppercorns. Bring everything to a steady simmer, not a rolling boil. You want lazy bubbles breaking the surface every few seconds. Let it cook for fifteen to twenty minutes, uncovered, until the liquid reduces by roughly half. The jus will darken and the flavor will concentrate. Taste it after ten minutes. If it tastes thin and watery, it needs more time. When it tastes like it could stand on its own, coating the back of a spoon in a thin, glossy layer, you're close.

5. 5

   Strain and finish

   Set a fine-mesh sieve over a small saucepan. Pour the jus through, pressing the onions gently with the back of a spoon to extract their liquid, then discard the solids. You should have about 300 to 350 milliliters of clear, dark, intensely flavoured jus. Taste it. Adjust the salt. If you want a touch of richness and shine, swirl in a teaspoon of cold butter off the heat. It rounds everything out without making it heavy. The jus should be thin enough to pour freely, not thick like a gravy. Austrians want Saft, not Sauce. There's a difference.

   If your jus still tastes a little flat after straining, return it to the heat and reduce it by another few tablespoons. Concentration is the only thickener this sauce needs.
6. 6

   Serve the Bratensaft

   Pour the hot Bratensaft into a warm Sauciere or small jug and bring it to the table. Let people pour their own over sliced Schweinsbraten, Semmelknödel or Erdäpfelknödel, and Sauerkraut. The jus should pool around the Knödel, soaking into the bread as it sits. That first bite of Knödel saturated with Bratensaft is one of the great pleasures of Austrian cooking, and it costs you nothing but twenty minutes and a dirty roasting pan. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •The entire success of this jus depends on your Bratensatz, those dark caramelized drippings in the roasting pan. If your pork didn't brown well during roasting, your jus will be pale and thin. Make sure your Schweinsbraten gets proper colour in the oven. High heat at the start or a blast at the end.
• •Use homemade stock if you possibly can. A jus this simple has nowhere to hide. If your stock came from a cube, the jus will taste like a cube dressed up in pork fat. Even a quickly made stock from pork bones simmered for an hour will give you something worth pouring.
• •Don't be tempted to thicken this with flour or cornstarch. Austrian Bratensaft is thin, clear, and pourable. Its body comes from reduction and good stock, not from starch. If it seems too thin, you haven't reduced it enough. Put it back on the heat.
• •Caraway is not optional. Kümmel and pork are inseparable in Austrian cooking. If you leave it out, you've made a perfectly fine jus, but you haven't made an Austrian one.

Advance Preparation

• •Bratensaft can be made up to two days ahead. Cool it completely, then refrigerate. Any fat will solidify on the surface, making it easy to lift off before reheating. Warm it gently in a small pan and adjust seasoning before serving.
• •If you're making Schweinsbraten for a dinner party, roast the pork an hour early, make the jus while the meat rests, then reheat both together. The pork benefits from the extended rest and the jus only gets better with a gentle rewarm.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 88g)