Carbonade flamande

Ingredients

• Beef shoulder — in large pieces1.2 kg
• Onions — sliced800 g
• Dark Belgian beer500 ml
• Slice of bread2 slice
• Mustard2 tbsp
• Apple or dark syrup1 tbsp
• Wine vinegar1 tbsp
• Thyme and bay4 sprig
• Butter60 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Dry the meat and brown it in butter in batches until dark. Set it aside.

   15 min

2. 2

   In the same fat sweat the onion for twenty minutes until soft and gold: it gives the sauce its sweetness and body.

   20 min

3. 3

   Return the meat, pour in the beer and add the syrup, vinegar, thyme and bay. The liquid should nearly cover the meat.

   5 min

4. 4

   Spread the bread with mustard and lay it mustard side down on top of the meat. Do not stir it in.

   3 min

5. 5

   Cover and cook three hours on the lowest heat or at 150 °C in the oven. The bread dissolves on its own.

   180 min

6. 6

   Stir the sauce, check the balance of sweet and sour and serve with chips.

   5 min

About the dish

The mustard-spread bread goes on top of the meat and is not stirred in. Over three hours it dissolves completely, thickening the sauce and giving it a mustard sharpness — it replaces both flour and vinegar.

The beer should be a dark abbey ale or a dubbel, not a stout: stout brings a bitterness that only intensifies over three hours.

Sugar or syrup is compulsory — a spoon of dark or apple syrup. It balances the bitterness of the beer, and without it the carbonade comes out harsh.

Worth knowing

• — There should be nearly as much onion by weight as meat. It dissolves and becomes the substance of the sauce rather than an addition.
• — Taste the beer before cooking. If it is bitter in the glass it will be more so in the pot; choose another.
• — Carbonade is markedly better on the second day. It is deliberately made the night before.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

640 kcal

Protein

48 g

Fat

30 g

Carbs

32 g

More from Belgian cuisine

• Moules marinières — Mussels steamed in white wine with celery and onion. Five minutes under a lid, no longer.