German · Authentic-ish German
Schweinebraten
471 kcal a serving, against 1045 for the traditional version. That is 574 kcal off, or 55%, with 54.1g of protein. Serves 6. 2 hours.
What the traditional version is
Schweinebraten is a classic Bavarian dish: a hefty, boned pork shoulder, skin scored, rubbed with salt, mustard and caraway, roasted and basted until the meat is falling-apart tender and the fat has gone crisp. The gravy is built from the pan juices, onions, and often a pint of malty dark beer for richness.
What changed, and what each change costs
1,800g pork shoulder (lean and fat) to 1,500g lean pork shoulder
Most of the calories come from the thick fat cap on a pork shoulder. Trim nearly all of it away before roasting. The lean muscle is still flavourful if you don't overcook it.
What it costs you. You lose that melting, jellied layer under the crackling. The pork dries out much faster without all the internal fat, so you need to watch it like a hawk and slice it thinner.
Drop 60g butter for 15g olive oil
The butter in the gravy is mostly there for shine. Olive oil does the job in a pinch and keeps some of the gloss.
What it costs you. Butter is impossible to replace completely. You lose a little roundness and a bit of the aroma. Nobody is fooled, but the gravy gets by.
Dark beer to beef stock, and flour thickener to none
The beer and flour make the gravy heavy and rich, but they also stack up carbs and push the calories up for surprisingly little actual protein. Beef stock and the onions give it body without any starch at all. The caraway and mustard seed pick up some of the slack.
What it costs you. You'll miss the sweetness of the beer and the thickness from all that flour. The sauce is thinner, and the grown-up, faintly bitter kick isn't there. It's not the same, but you still get something you can pour generously.
360g white bread dumplings to 500g roasted cabbage
Dumplings are the third pillar of this dish, but they are just bread, milk and butter rolled up and poached. I roast cabbage wedges with caraway and salt until they're browned around the edges. It's not a dumpling, but it gives you bulk and a proper vehicle for the gravy.
What it costs you. Nobody has ever asked for extra cabbage instead of bread dumplings. There's no competition. But it does a job, and you can actually eat an entire plate and not feel like you need a nap and a priest afterwards.
The numbers
| Per serving | Traditional | Lightened |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 1045 | 471 |
| Protein | 60.6g | 54.1g |
| Fat | 65.3g | 21.5g |
| Saturated fat | 24.4g | 6.7g |
| Carbohydrate | 45.1g | 14g |
| Protein per 100 kcal | 5.8g | 11.5g |
Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish German prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked.
Allergens. mustard, gluten.
The method is in the book
You do lose the wobbly fat and the cloud of bread in the middle. That's the deal. But the pork still tastes like pork if you don't take it too far, and the onions and caraway keep the memory of the original alive. I can't claim roasted cabbage is as good as a dumpling - it isn't. Still, you get a full plate, gallons of gravy and a roast dinner that won't have you dozing on the tram home.
The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish German, along with 54 more. It is not out yet. The swap kit is free in the meantime.