Recipe Daube de boeuf (Provençal beef stew)

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

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Long slow cooking is essential to achieve the deep flavour of a classic French beef daube. The cheapest cut of beef is transformed into a luxurious dish. Dark chocolate adds a complex flavour and gloss to the sauce with no sweetness. It may not be strictly traditional to add chocolate but you can find French recipes which do use it.

There are many recipes for beef daube and some seem rather complicated. This one is really quite straightforward, I think. Ideally, you need a medium sized cast iron pot with a lid to cook this, but any large saucepan will suffice. Whole pieces of beef are much better suited to this dish than beef chopped into cubes. The slow cooking will naturally break down the meat somewhat, so if you use ready diced beef you could end up with shredded bits. In fact, you could use one whole piece of beef, which is quite traditional for this dish.

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Ingredients (serves 3 to 4)
100g chopped bacon or lardons
4 or 5 fat cloves of garlic, sliced thickly
500g beef shin (preferably in whole pieces, not ready diced)
Oil to fry
250ml red wine
150ml beef stock
A small bunch of thyme and rosemary, tied together
2 bay leaves
10 black peppercorns
1 heaped tsp tomato paste
Peel from half an orange
Juice of half an orange
5 shallots (peeled and left whole)
9 black olives
2 medium carrots
20g dark chocolate (minimum 70%)
Salt to taste. Chopped parsley to scatter.

Method
  1. Fry the bacon or lardons with the garlic for several minutes. Set the garlic and bacon aside and add a little oil to the pan.
  2. Pat the beef shin pieces dry and fry until browned on both sides.
  3. Add the garlic and bacon back into the pan with the beef. Pour the red wine and beef stock over and heat until simmering
  4. Add the thyme, rosemary, peppercorns and bay leaves. Stir the tomato paste through until dissolved.
  5. Simmer on the hob, covered, for 2 hours. If you prefer you can cook in the oven at 160C. or in a slow cooker.
  6. Add the orange peel, orange juice, shallots, carrots and olives. Continue to cook for a further 40 minutes or until the beef is completely tender.
  7. Add the chocolate and stir until melted through. Add salt to taste. Scatter chopped parsley over before serving.

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This is the meat I used.
Z-Cook said:
Love a daube - this looks super!
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Gone Hiking said:
That looks fantastic... another stew I'll have to try! The dark chocolate is an interesting twist. I'd have never thought to use it in a stew.
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Thanks.

This was the meat I used. It cost £6.50 ($8.50) for 500g (approximately 1lb). Don't know if that is good value in the USA but it is here.

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Pretty much the same - I usually calculate local buying power at £=$=€.
Beef has shot up in price - that would have been have been under $5/lb last year when last bought if I recall correctly.
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Z-Cook said:
Pretty much the same - I usually calculate local buying power at £=$=€.
Beef has shot up in price - that would have been have been under $5/lb last year when last bought if I recall correctly.
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I can’t even get beef shank at my local Kroger. I have to go to a specialty or larger shop for that.
 
That screengrab is from Safeway - we have two - they have an ok but not huge meat selection. Chuck is my usual for stews - cheaper cuts the better for longer cooking time similar to shin/shank - as they go down the leg.
 
From Google:

Good alternatives to beef shin include chuck roast, short ribs, brisket, and oxtail. These cuts are also good for slow-cooking and have a similar rich flavor due to their connective tissues. For braising or stewing, chuck roast is often a budget-friendly choice. Oxtail can be more expensive and harder to find, but offers a high level of collagen and a rich flavor, while brisket and short ribs are also excellent, flavorful options.

Google Search
 
I used to use a lot of shin as it was more or less considered dog food, or maybe just good enough for soup :)
Not anymore unfortunately
I like it, because it does really become velvetty
These days I pay la bit less than half of what MG quoted
 
badjak said:
I used to use a lot of shin as it was more or less considered dog food, or maybe just good enough for soup :)
Not anymore unfortunately
I like it, because it does really become velvetty
These days I pay la bit less than half of what MG quoted
Click to expand...
Didn't want to say 😅 - same when i was growing up but I really 💖 those cuts.
 
I don't think I've ever seen boneless beef shin meat for sale in the US, and it's rare to even see whole beef shins. (I guess that's typically ground into burger. ??) I often substitute chuck roast for such things, but I've been rethinking that, as chuck roast is $8.99 to $9.99/lb everywhere, while USDA Prime brisket can be bought at Costco for only $6.49/lb, or Choice grade for about a dollar less. They're huge, but I could easily freeze one and just lop off what I need for stews and thaw it as needed.
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I hate where the price of beef has gone. A very poor solution some local grocery chains have adopted is to cut pricier steaks, like T-bones and porterhouses ridiculously thin to lower the end price. But that ruins the whole steak, since no one wants a 1/2" thick porterhouse! I haven't been into hunting as much as I was in years' past when I was killing at least one deer every year, but with the current beef prices, I should really get a little more serious this season and try to put one or two in the freezer.
 
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