Daube Provençal
Daube Provençal
Region: France, Provence
Category: Stews
Season: Any
Difficulty: Easy but long cooking time

Daube is Provence's most famous meat stew. It has crossed the borders of provincial France and is found in other regions, too, such as the Savoy, where cooks would add the liqueur known as Marc, and Gascony, where they would use Armagnac. A daube is certainly famous enough to be included in Miriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as an English word. The origin of a daube seems to be related to the Italian addobbo (which also gives us the Mexican adobo), meaning seasoning or dressing. It is likely that the French incorporated this Italian concept into their cooking sometime before the seventeenth century. A daube is made of beef, although in Avignon they make it with lamb, and in Nice it is made without as many spices as the daube Provençal. A daube is traditionally cooked in a stewpot called a daubière and is eaten with la macaronade, flat macaroni cooked with a sauce made from the juices of the daube, along with some mushrooms and a little white wine. The sauce is reduced and tossed with the pasta along with some parmigiano cheese and a fresh grating of nutmeg. Some cooks insist that the beef come from two different parts of the cow, say, rump and shoulder. Once the daube has cooled down after its long cooking, it can be reheated--and many people think it is even better that way--and it is then called by the Provençal a nougat de boeuf, beef nougat.

[photos: Clifford A. Wright]

Yield: Makes 6 servings
Preparation Time: 8 1/2 hours

2 ounces slab bacon, cut in 2 slices and then diced

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves

5 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3/4 cup diced lean salt pork (about 2 ounces)

3 medium-size onions, 2 quartered and 1 studded with 4 cloves

2 small carrots, peeled and quartered

2 1/2 pounds boneless beef bottom round or chuck, cut into the size of a child?s fist

3 pounds beef short ribs or flanken

1 beef or veal foot (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried summer savory

2 ripe tomatoes, peeled and quartered

2 shallots, chopped coarsely

2 sprigs fresh parsley

1/2 celery stalk, chopped

2 cups dry red wine

One long piece of orange peel without any white pith

1/2 stick cinnamon

10 black peppercorns

Salt to taste

1. Dredge the bacon in the parsley and garlic. In a stew pot or casserole, heat the olive oil with the salt pork over medium-high heat and when it starts to sizzle vigorously, brown the beef on all sides, about 12 minutes. Add the bacon and cook 5 minutes, stirring and turning the meat. Add the quartered onions, the clove-studded onion, the carrots, beef or veal foot, bay leaf, thyme, and savory and toss well so everything is mixed then cook for 3 minutes.

2. Add the tomatoes, shallots, parsley, and celery and stir to mix well. Cook until blended in, about 3 minutes. Pour in the wine, orange peel, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, and season with salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to very low, using a heat diffuser if necessary, cover, and seal with a rope made of flour and water and cook for 8 hours. Break the seal and uncover. Remove however much broth you would like to use on any accompanying pasta. Serve immediately.

Posted: 06/03/2008