SMART’s newly formed RISE Committee (Representation, Integrity, Support, Empowerment) is working to create our union’s first-ever cookbook — Cooking SMART: From Tools to the Table. The purpose of Cooking SMART is to support union solidarity and highlight the ways that food can be used as a tool to bring members together and strengthen our union.
View the first recipe, submitted by 41-year SMART member and International Organizer Thomas Kelm, below:
Thomas Kelm’s Sauerbraten
Ingredients
- 1 cup vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 12 peppercorns
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 4 bay leaves
- 3 small onions
- 12 whole cloves
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 2 tsp salt
- 4lbs bottom round or rump roast
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground pepper
- 4 tbsp oil
- 6 ginger snap cookies
Directions:
2-6 days before serving, combine first 9 ingredients and bring to a boil. Put meat in deep bowl and pour hot vinegar marinade over meat. When cool, cover with saran wrap and refrigerate. Turn once a day. When ready to cook, remove meat from marinade and dry on paper towel. Strain pickling marinade and pour over browned meat. Cut up one more onion and also sliced carrots and add to meat. Add ginger snaps, cover and simmer 2 ½ to 3 hours until meat is tender. If gravy is a little thin, add flour. It is best to cook this the day before you want to serve it. When it is cooled, slice it and put it in a casserole dish, pour gravy over and heat in oven. Serve with egg noodles, mashed potatoes or spaetzle.
Thomas’s story:
“My family came to the USA after World War 2 from Germany. They lived in the Black Forest, the southern part of Germany, where hearty food was cooked. My mom always did the cooking, and as a kid we had lots of German dishes. When I got older, I asked her to make me a cookbook of her dishes, with many being very good.
“Her Sauerbraten was my favorite, and I keep the tradition going every fall in September by making many of her dishes and inviting the family over to reminisce about us all growing up and eating together. I always tell my kids, memories I don’t forget, because a family that sticks together stays together, and her cookbook will be shared with my kids. Thats how it relates to my family: A union that sticks together will always stay together.”