Renate’S Unique Buttermilk Marinated Sauerbraten

Marinate Roast in buttermilk marinade as follows:
Buttermilk enough to COVER whole roast.
Add to buttermilk:
12 whole pepper corns.
2 bay leaves, crushed and broken.
2 large onions, sliced.
Place roast and marinade covered in refrigerator for 3-5 days. Let marinade work and flavor the meat all that time.
At end of 3-5 days, remove meat from buttermilk marinade.
Discard marinade and rinse meat.
In a dutch oven, brown roast on all sides.
When meat is finished browning, make a new fresh batch of almost identical buttermilk marinade, but which will now serve as the cooking sauce.
1 1/2 cups raisins.
12 peppercorns.
2 bay leaves.
4 cups of water.
2 cups fresh buttermilk.
Mix sauce ingredients together and place around toast.
Place roast and sauce in covered dutch oven or casserole pan with tin foil to cover/.
In oven heated to 275-300 degrees, slow cook the roast until it is done and tender.
Once during cooking (about 2 -3 hours, remove cover and turn roast over so that the other half of the roast rests in the sauce. Re-cover and continue to bake.
When meat is done, remove from pan to a platter and slice into slices.
Take pan drippings (buttermilk sauce) and thicken with enough corn starch to make sauce the consistency of thick gravy (start with 1/3 cup corn starch dissolved in 2/3 cup water).
Pour gravy over the meat slices on a serving platter. Serve accompanied by your favorite German side dishes, such as potato pancakes and sweet and sour cabbage.