Braised Beef
Take a piece weighing about 5 pounds from any lean cut, such as cross rib, lower part of round, neck, etc. Bone it if possible. Heat a dry frying-pan very hot, lay in it the meat and quickly sear on each side, giving it a nice color.
Place in the braising kettle. Add I 1/2 pints of good brown stock, an onion stuck with 3 cloves and a high seasoning of salt and pepper. Cover closely, place in a moderate oven and allow forty minutes for each pound. If kept closely covered until entirely cold it makes a good relish when sliced and served with horseradish for lunch or supper.
A straightforward pot roast, written for a coal range and a heavy covered kettle. Everything here translates cleanly to a Dutch oven, but the oven temperature and the liquid level are worth thinking about before you start.
- The hinge: keep it sealedThe whole method depends on the lid trapping steam around a piece of meat that is only partly submerged. If your lid is loose, lay a sheet of foil over the pot before setting the lid on, and resist opening it to check. Liquid lost to evaporation is heat that never reaches the middle of the joint.
- Moderate ovenRead this as somewhere in the 325-350F range. A true 350F will work for a 5 lb piece but the exterior tightens more than it needs to; 300-325F gives a more even result over three hours.
- TimingForty minutes per pound puts a 5 lb joint at about 3 hours 20 minutes, which is in the right range for collagen-heavy cuts. Judge by feel rather than the clock: the meat is done when a fork slides in and twists with no resistance. Lean cuts of this kind are unpleasant if pulled early, and forgiving if left a little longer.
- 1 1/2 pints of stockThree cups. That is not enough to cover a 5 lb joint, and it is not meant to be; the meat braises in steam as much as liquid. Turn the joint once at the halfway point so both faces spend time in the stock.
- Brown stockA period kitchen made this from roasted bones and trimmings. Good beef stock or a decent low-sodium broth works, but roast a handful of bones or brown some trimmings alongside the sear if you want the darker, gelatinous body the recipe assumes.
- CutsCross rib is chuck; "lower part of round" is roughly bottom round or rump. Neck is excellent for this and rarely sold whole now, so ask. Boneless chuck is the easiest modern substitute and the most reliable.
- The dry panSearing in a genuinely dry hot pan works with a well-marbled cut and a cast-iron surface. With today's leaner beef, a thin film of oil is more dependable and does not change the outcome.
- Yield and the cold serviceFive pounds feeds eight to ten hot. The second half of the recipe is the real point: cooled entirely in its covered pot, the joint sets in its own jellied stock, slices thin without crumbling, and eats well with horseradish. Cool it to room temperature no longer than two hours, then refrigerate.
Braising was a mainstay of economical cookery, because it turned the cuts nobody wanted into a dish that could be served twice. The name comes from the French braise, embers, and originally described a lidded pot set among coals with more coals heaped on the lid, so heat came from every side; the "braising kettle" called for here is the descendant of that vessel, and a heavy Dutch oven is the same idea. The onion stuck with cloves is an old European aromatic convention. What dates the recipe most clearly is the closing line: a household economizing on meat expected one long cooking to yield both a hot dinner and a cold sliced supper, and horseradish was a common partner to plain cold beef through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth.