Stewed Beef is a traditional Elizabethan recipe for beef stewed with red wine and served with cabbage and a cheese sauce. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Elizabethan version of Stewed Beef.
(click this button to prevent the screen from sleeping so Cook Mode is 'ON')
Original Recipe
To Stew a Rump of Beef (from Sir Kenelm Digby The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight, Opened)
Take a rump of Beef, break all the bones; season it with Pepper and Salt to
your liking; Take three or four Nutmegs, and a quantity of Mace, beat them
grossly; Then take a bunch of very good sweet herbs, and one good Onion cut in
quarters, or Garlike, as you like it. Put in half a pint of White-wine Vinegar,
and one pint of good Claret, one handful of Sugar; and a piece or two of beef
suet or Butter; shred some cabbage under and over, and scrape in a pound of
good old cheese. Put all these into an earthen pot, and let it stand in an
oven with brown bread four or five hours; but let the pot be covered close with
paste.
Modern Redaction
Ingredients:
1.2–1.5kg piece of boned rump
¼ tsp each of ground nutmeg and ground mace
50g each of parsley, marjoram, winter savory, chicory and 1 tsp pennyroyal (but substitute lesser calamint to be safe) (add basil if one of these is missing)
4 or 5 sage leaves
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
3 cloves of garlic
300ml white wine vinegar
600ml red wine (preferably a Bordeaux [ie a Claret])
100g butter or beef suet
100g sugar
150g cheese (a hard cheddar for preference)
450g shredded cabbage
350g flour
water
Method:
Trim the beef and brown on all sides in a frying pan. Meanwhile layer half the cabbage on the bottom of a heavy casserole dish. Add the onion and garlic on top of this. Place the meat on top, add the liquid ingredients, along with the butter/suet, the cheese and the herbs and spices and cover with the remaining cabbage.
Tip the flour into a bowl and add just enough water to this to form a dense but pliable dough. Use this dough to line the rim of the casserole dish and place the lid firmly on top of the dough, pressing gently into place (this will allow the casserole to simmer gently in the oven for many hours without drying out. Pre heat an oven to 130°C and place in the oven and leave for about five and a half hours. About half an hour before you need to serve the dish increase the temperature to 160°C (Gas Mark 3, 320°F). Take the dish out of the oven, remove the pastry rim, take out the beef and shred it.
Place the sauce and the cabbage in a dish and cover with the shredded beef. Serve immediately.
