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Daube Provencal  Recipe - America's Test Kitchen

Serve this French beef stew with egg noodles or boiled potatoes. If niçoise olives are not available, kalamata olives, though not authentic, can be substituted. Cabernet Sauvignon is our favorite wine for this recipe, but Côtes du Rhône and Zinfandel also work. Our favorite cut of beef for this recipe is chuck-eye roast, but any boneless roast from the chuck will work. Because the tomatoes are added just before serving, it is preferable to use canned whole tomatoes and dice them yourself--uncooked, they are more tender than canned diced tomatoes. Once the salt pork, thyme, and bay leaves are removed in step 4, the daube can be cooled and refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Before reheating, skim the hardened fat from the surface, then continue with the recipe.

Daube Provencal

Serves 4 to 6

Daube Provençal, also known as daube Niçoise, should have all the complex flavors of the south of France, but too often it's a one-note wonder, like "beef stew with olives" or "beef stew with oranges."

We wanted to blend tender pieces of beef, a luxurious sauce, and the complex flavors of Provence--olive oil, olives, garlic, wine, herbs, oranges, tomatoes, mushrooms, and anchovies--to make a robust but cohesive stew.

We started with the test kitchen's reliable set of techniques to turn tough but flavorful beef into a tender stew: Brown the beef; add the aromatics; sprinkle some flour in the pan to thicken the braising liquid; deglaze with the predominant cooking liquid; add the meat back to the pot; and finally, cover and cook slowly in a low to medium oven until tender. Technique established, we concentrated on selecting and managing the complex blend of ingredients that define a daube Niçoise. We chose earthy cèpes, briny Niçoise olives, bright tomatoes, floral orange peel, and the regional herbs of thyme and bay. A few anchovies added complexity without a fishy taste, and salt pork contributed rich body. A whole bottle of wine added bold flavor and needed just a little cooking to lose its raw bite. Finally, to keep the meat from drying out during the long braising time required to create a complex-tasting sauce, we cut the chuck into relatively large 2-inch pieces.

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