Chef Klaus
Bratensoße (Dunkle Bratensauce)
A proper Bratensoße begins with the brown bits in the pan, not a packet: bones roasted dark, wine scraped clean, stock reduced until it coats the spoon.
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Preiselbeersoße
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A ruby spoonful for dark meat and crisp cutlets: lingonberries cooked just until they burst, sharp enough to cut fat and sweet enough to belong on the holiday table.
Sauces & Condiments
German
Christmas
Special Occasion
Holiday
10 min
Active Time
15 min cook•25 min total
YieldAbout 300ml, enough for 6 servings
Preiselbeersoße belongs to the cold months, when game is on the table, goose is in the oven, and a dark roast needs something bright beside it. In Bavaria and Austria it turns up with Wiener Schnitzel as much as with venison; farther north, cooks keep it sharper and more often spoon it beside Wild, game, or roast poultry. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. Good. One country, many tables.
I cook it as a sauce, not a jam. That is the whole decision. The berries go into sugar and red wine only long enough to burst and give their juice, because the skins carry their own pectin and the sauce thickens more as it cools. Boil it hard and you get sticky preserves with tough skins. That belongs on bread, not beside a saddle of venison.
Use real Preiselbeeren, lingonberries, fresh or frozen if you can get them. If the season is shut, the freezer is honest larder work; the jar is not the same thing. Nicht aus dem Glas. The sauce should taste sweet, sour, and a little bitter at the edge, so the fat on the plate has somewhere to go.
Watch the pan, not the clock. When the berries collapse, the syrup glosses the spoon, and the wine has lost its raw edge, stop. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss: the final pinch of salt and lemon go in after the boil, where they wake the fruit instead of flattening it.
Preiselbeeren, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, grow wild across northern and Alpine Europe, and German-speaking cooks preserved them for winter because their natural benzoic acid and pectin made them unusually good keeping fruit before modern refrigeration. By the 19th century, when refined beet sugar became cheaper in central Europe after Andreas Sigismund Marggraf identified sugar in beets in 1747 and Franz Karl Achard opened the first beet-sugar factory in Silesia in 1801, tart forest berries moved from scarce sweetmeat to practical household preserve. The regional split remains clear: Alpine and Austrian tables pair the sweet-sharp berries with Schnitzel and game, while northern and central German kitchens keep the sauce leaner and sharper beside venison, goose, and dark roasts.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
Preiselbeeren (lingonberries)
Quantity
300g
fresh or frozen
sugar
Quantity
120g
dry red wine
Quantity
100ml
red wine vinegar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
orange zest
Quantity
1 strip
peeled thin, no white pith
cinnamon stick
Quantity
1 small
juniper berries
Quantity
3
lightly crushed
fine salt
Quantity
1 pinch
lemon juice
Quantity
1 teaspoon
or to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Preiselbeeren (lingonberries)fresh or frozen | 300g |
| sugar | 120g |
| dry red wine | 100ml |
| red wine vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
| orange zestpeeled thin, no white pith | 1 strip |
| cinnamon stick | 1 small |
| juniper berrieslightly crushed | 3 |
| fine salt | 1 pinch |
| lemon juiceor to taste | 1 teaspoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Small heavy saucepan
- •Wooden spoon
- •Fine peeler for citrus zest
Instructions
- 1
Sort the berries
Pick over the Preiselbeeren and rinse them briefly, then drain them well. Leaves and soft berries turn bitter in a small sauce because there is nowhere for the fault to hide.
- 2
Start the syrup
Put the sugar, red wine, vinegar, orange zest, cinnamon, and juniper into a small saucepan and bring it to a quiet boil. Let it bubble for two minutes so the wine loses its raw edge and the spices open into the syrup before the berries go in.
Use a small, heavy saucepan. A wide pan boils the syrup away too fast, and then the berries scorch before they have time to burst. - 3
Cook the berries
Add the berries and lower the heat to a steady simmer. Stir gently for 8 to 10 minutes, just until most of the skins pop and the liquid turns ruby and glossy. Do not boil it hard; lingonberries carry pectin, and the sauce will thicken as it cools. Push it too far now and you have jam.
- 4
Finish sharp
Pull out the orange zest, cinnamon, and juniper. Stir in the pinch of salt and the lemon juice off the heat, then taste. The salt makes the fruit taste more like itself, and the lemon keeps the sweetness from getting lazy.
- 5
Rest and serve
Let the sauce stand 10 minutes before serving warm, or chill it for a cleaner, firmer spoonful. It should mound softly, not sit stiff. Serve it with game, roast goose, venison, baked Camembert, or Wiener Schnitzel. Schön ist, was schmeckt.
Chef Tips
- •Frozen lingonberries are fine. They are the larder doing its job. Add them straight from frozen and give the pan two extra minutes.
- •If you cannot get lingonberries, use unsweetened cranberries and add 1 extra tablespoon of sugar. It will be sharper and less forest-bitter, but it will sit honestly beside game.
- •Do not thicken this with starch. The berry skins do the work, and starch gives you a cloudy red gravy. Not everything needs a spoonful of flour.
- •For a pan-sauce finish, whisk 2 tablespoons of the warm Preiselbeersoße into the rested juices from venison or goose. Keep it off a hard boil, or the fruit goes flat.
Advance Preparation
- •Make the sauce up to 5 days ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator. The fruit settles and the spice rounds out overnight.
- •Warm it gently with a spoon of water or red wine if it has set too firmly. Runter mit der Temperatur, low heat, because a hard boil turns the gloss sticky.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 58g)
Calories
115 calories
Total Fat
1 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
1 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
20 mg
Total Carbohydrates
27 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
24 g
Protein
0 g
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