Thüringer Zwiebelsoße

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide heavy frying pan or sauté pan, 28cm
• •Wooden spoon or flat spatula
• •Small whisk

Instructions

1. 1

   Slice the onions

   Halve the onions through the root, peel them, and slice them thinly from pole to pole. Long slices hold their shape in the sauce and soften evenly; chopped onion throws off water too quickly and gives you a muddy gravy before it has time to brown.

2. 2

   Soften slowly

   Warm the dripping and oil in a wide heavy pan over medium heat, then add the onions with only a small pinch of the salt. Stir to coat them and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, turning often. The oil keeps the dripping from scorching, and the small amount of salt helps the onions give up water without pulling so much out that they stew pale.

3. 3

   Brown them deep

   Lower the heat to medium-low and keep cooking until the onions are soft, reduced, and deep golden brown at the edges, another 15 minutes. Runter mit der Temperatur. If the pan gets too hot, the onion sugars burn before the onion flesh collapses, and bitterness is not tradition, it's a mistake.

   If the pan dries out before the onions are soft, add one spoon of stock and scrape. That loosens the browned onion without washing the flavour away.
4. 4

   Toast the flour

   Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir for 2 minutes, until it smells nutty and no dry patches remain. Flour thrown straight into liquid gives lumps and a raw taste; flour toasted in fat binds the sauce cleanly and gives it the quiet body a Klöße sauce needs.

5. 5

   Deglaze the pan

   Pour in the beer and scrape the bottom of the pan until the browned layer dissolves. Let it bubble down by half. Beer goes in before the stock because its malt sweetness and slight bitterness need a minute against the hot pan; added late, it sits on top like a bad idea.

6. 6

   Simmer the sauce

   Whisk in the hot stock a ladle at a time, then add the mustard, bay leaf, marjoram, caraway, and the remaining salt. Simmer gently for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce coats a spoon and the onions are sweet all the way through. Hot stock keeps the sauce moving; cold stock shocks the roux and makes it clump.

7. 7

   Finish and serve

   Remove the bay leaf, grind in black pepper, and sharpen the sauce with the vinegar a few drops at a time. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss: taste at the end because stock, beer, and onion all concentrate as they simmer. Spoon it over Thüringer Klöße, roast pork, boiled potatoes, or a good bratwurst. Schön ist, was schmeckt.

Chef Tips

• •Use a wide pan, not a narrow saucepan. Onions need room for their water to leave; crowd them and they boil in their own juice before they ever brown.
• •Dripping matters here. Pork or beef fat carries the roast flavour that makes this a proper table sauce, not onion soup with flour in it.
• •Use hot stock and taste before salting hard. Homemade stock from bones and rind can be salty after reduction, and Weggeworfen wird nichts, those bones are why the sauce tastes like a meal.
• •For a lighter weekday version, use roasted vegetable stock and clarified butter. Don't pretend it is the same as roast dripping, but it will still belong with potatoes and Klöße.
• •If the sauce gets too thick, loosen it with a splash of hot stock. If it is too thin, simmer it uncovered. Don't fix a thin sauce with a fistful of flour at the end.

Advance Preparation

• •The sauce can be made 2 days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator; reheat it gently with a splash of stock because flour-thickened sauces tighten when cold.
• •The onions can be sliced up to 1 day ahead and refrigerated in a covered container, but brown them fresh if you want the cleanest sweetness.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 150g)