Home › The World's Kitchen › Beef, Rotterdam
Beef, Rotterdam
Have a nice, tender four pounds of beef from the rump with all fat on one side. Season with teaspoon salt, half teaspoon pepper and saltspoon grated nutmeg, place in a saucepan with an ounce butter, add four medium sound carrots, four white onions, all cut lengthwise in quarters, two cloves, two nutmeg leaves (foelie), one branch celery, cut in small pieces, and three medium ripe tomatoes, cut in quarters. Pour in sufficient water to cover the beef entirely, place lid on, and as soon as it comes to a boil add two ounces semolina, and then slowly cook in oven two hours. Ten minutes before serving add a quarter pint Rhine wine. Remove from oven, place beef on a dish and garnish all around with contents of the pan and serve.
A Dutch pot roast in all but name, braised in the oven under a full cover of liquid and thickened at the last with semolina. A few of the terms need translating before you start.
- Foelie is mace, not leaves"Nutmeg leaves (foelie)" is the Dutch word for mace, the lacy red aril that surrounds the nutmeg seed. Two blades of whole mace is what is meant; a scant quarter teaspoon of ground mace will do if blades are unavailable.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. So the seasoning works out to 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg for four pounds of meat, which is modest -- expect to correct the broth at the end.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given; the recipe says only to cook slowly. A slow oven, 300-325F, is right here: the pot should barely tremble, not boil, or the rump will tighten and go stringy.
- Two hours is optimisticFour pounds of rump submerged in liquid at a bare simmer generally wants three to three and a half hours before it slices tenderly. Test with a fork rather than a clock and give it the extra time if it resists.
- The semolinaTwo ounces of semolina (about 1/3 cup) stirred in at the boil is the thickener -- there is no flour or roux in the dish. Add it in a slow stream with the liquid moving or it will set in lumps on the bottom of the pan, and stir the pot once or twice during the braise for the same reason.
- Fat side up"All fat on one side" matters: set that side uppermost so it bastes the meat as it renders. Skim the surface before adding the wine, since a fully covered braise will not reduce and the fat has nowhere to go.
- Rhine wineA quarter pint is half a cup. Rhine wine meant white wine from the German Rhine, most often Riesling and not necessarily dry; a dry or off-dry Riesling or similar unoaked white works. Added ten minutes before serving it stays bright rather than cooking down.
- Yield and carvingFour pounds of rump serves eight generously. Let the meat rest ten minutes before slicing across the grain, then spoon the vegetables and thickened broth around it as directed.
The International Cook Book collected dishes from many places, and this one carries Rotterdam's name partly because of foelie, mace, and partly because of the Rhine wine, shipped down the river to the Dutch ports in enormous quantity. The dish itself is a large cut of beef cooked slowly under a lid with root vegetables and served surrounded by its own garnish. The semolina is the interesting part: thickening a braise with a grain rather than flour or a roux gives a broth with body but no pastiness. The insistence on covering the beef entirely with water sets it apart from a modern braise, where cooks now use far less liquid to concentrate flavour.