Thüringer Rostbrätel

Thüringer Rostbrätel belongs to the Thuringian garden grill: May holidays, village fairs, and a Sunday when the charcoal is worth lighting. It isn't a sausage and it isn't a Bavarian beer-tent steak. Das ist kein Bierzelt. You take pork neck, the marbled cut that stays juicy over coals, and give it the night in dark beer, mustard, and onion.

Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. The Saarland has Schwenkbraten, a cousin swung over the fire with its own onion marinade; Saxony and Thuringia argue over seasoning and how dark the onions should go. For this plate I keep the Thuringian line: sharp mustard on the meat first, onions packed against it, dark beer around it, bread or potato salad at the table.

The one move that decides it is this: scrape the onion off before the steak hits the grate. Onion sugar burns before pork neck renders its fat, so onion left clinging gives you black bitterness while the middle is still waiting. Grill the meat clean, not dry, and cook the onions separately until sweet and brown. The marinade has done its work by then.

Buy neck, not lean loin. Cheap cut, good result, enough fat to take the fire. Das braucht seine Zeit, but only the night before; after that it's weeknight work if the coals are ready.