Kassler in dark beer sauce

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 kg of boneless smoked pork or about 30 – 50% more with bones
• 1 bottle of dark beer (e.g. Köstritzer, Guinness or Schwarzer Abt from Neuzelle)
• 150 ml red wine, strong (Dornfelder or Bordeaux)
• 2 onions
• 1 pack of soup vegetables (carrots, celery, leeks)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 3 carnations
• Clarified butter or oil for frying
• Sugar
• Salt and pepper or chili powder

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 3 hours; Total time approx. 3 hours 30 minutes

Clean and chop the vegetables. Heat a little clarified butter in a pot or roasting pan and add the cloves. Stir several times until they crackle and their aroma is absorbed into the fat, then remove the cloves. Sauté the carrots and celery from the soup vegetables until they take on some color and develop a roasted aroma. Add the onions and leeks from the soup vegetables and fry them as well. Shortly before the end, add the tomato paste and fry with the vegetables; this will reduce the acidity and ensure the sauce becomes creamy. Don’t let it burn, however, or it will become bitter. Deglaze with beer and add the smoked pork in one piece. Pour in the wine and add the remaining beer so that the smoked pork is almost covered. Bring to a boil briefly, then cover and simmer for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally, until the meat can be easily shredded with two forks. If too much liquid evaporates during cooking, add a little water. Finally, season to taste – with or without sugar, depending on the type of beer. Be careful with the salt. Kassler usually releases enough salt into the sauce. If the Kassler was used on the bone, remove the bones. I recommend bread dumplings as a side dish. Caution: The dark beer must not become bitter during cooking. The varieties listed in the ingredients list have been tested. If you don’t know this: Heat approx. 100 ml of beer in a small saucepan and reduce the liquid by half. Taste to see if it has become bitter. Tip: If you want something quick and easy, you can omit the soup vegetables (sauté the carrots and celery) and the cloves and use twice as many onions instead; preparation then only takes a few minutes.