Tonight I am cooking a cut of beef that is not terribly highly prized: shin of beef.
The trick with these lesser, tougher cuts of meat is slow cooking and so I am making a daube. This is a meat stew with beef, bacon, carrots and celery cooked in wine and beef stock with some thyme, bay leaves and orange zest in it. In order to make sure the meat is tender it has to be cooked for a long time. Ideally it would be left overnight and re-heated the following day. Slow cooking uses the minimum temperature possible to ensure the meat is cooked. In this case I will simmer the daube on the lowest heat possible, so the surface of the stew just quivers with heat. Given enough time this reduces the tough cut of meat into melting tenderness. I’ll be very un-traditional and serve it with gnocchi. If its any good I’ll post a picture.