Daube

Beef marinated raw in wine and orange peel then layered into the pot unbrowned, with the wine going in exactly as it came off the meat.

Pork, Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, pork.

Ingredients

For the marinade

• 1.5 kg beef shin, in large pieces
• 1 bottle red wine
• 2 onions, sliced
• 3 carrots, in thick rounds
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 strips dried orange peel
• 2 bay leaves
• a few thyme sprigs
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 2 cloves

For the pot

• 150 g streaky bacon, in strips
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon tomato purée
• 150 g black olives, stoned
• salt

Method

1. THE WINE IS NOT REDUCED AND THE MEAT IS NOT BROWNED, which is the opposite of both decisions on the beef bourguignon page here, and it is deliberate. Browning builds a roasted flavour that dominates; left raw and cooked for five hours, the beef tastes of beef and wine and the orange peel comes through, which it cannot do against a browned crust. The wine goes in exactly as it came off the meat, because the overnight marinade has already done what reducing would do. Say plainly: this is this page's method and the reason, not a rule about what anyone else does.
2. SO IT NEEDS FIVE HOURS, NOT THREE. Without the head start browning gives, the only thing that develops this is time at a very low temperature. It should barely move in the pot.
3. THE DRIED ORANGE PEEL IS THE DISH. Not zest, not fresh peel -- dried, so it gives bitterness and perfume rather than sourness. Pare strips off an orange and leave them on a radiator for a day, or buy them.
4. AND IT IS LAYERED, NOT STIRRED TOGETHER. Bacon on the bottom, then meat and vegetables in alternating layers. Nothing is stirred at any point during cooking: the layers hold their shape and the bacon fat works upwards through everything.
5. Beef, wine, onions, carrots, garlic, orange peel, bay, thyme, peppercorns and cloves combined in a bowl, covered, and left in the fridge OVERNIGHT, at least 12 hours.
6. The meat lifted out and PATTED DRY -- not to brown it, but so it does not cool the pot. The marinade kept, vegetables and liquid separated.
7. Oil in a heavy casserole. The bacon strips laid over the base.
8. The beef laid on top in one layer, UNBROWNED. Then the marinade vegetables. Then any remaining meat, then the rest of the vegetables.
9. The tomato purée stirred into the reserved wine and poured over. It should just cover; topped up with water if not.
10. Brought to the barest simmer on the hob, lid on, then into a 140C oven for 4 HOURS.
11. The olives scattered in and the lid back on for a further 1 HOUR. Not stirred.
12. Lifted out of the oven and the fat spooned off the surface.
13. Tasted and salted NOW, at the end -- the bacon and olives have been salting it for five hours and salt added at the start would be far too much.
14. Rested 20 minutes, or cooled and reheated the next day, which is better. Served with the broad noodles or boiled potatoes that will take the sauce.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes