Dinner · 240 min · french

Pot-au-Feu

A French dinner built around beef chuck roast and marrow bones — on the table in 240 minutes.

Ingredients

• 2.5 lb Beef chuck roast
• 2 lb Marrow bones
• 6 Carrots
• 3 Leeks
• 3 Turnips
• 1.5 lb Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1 Bouquet garni
• 0.5 cup Cornichons

Steps

1. Start with cold water — always. Put the chuck, marrow bones, and a halved onion studded with nothing but patience into your largest pot, cover with cold water by 2 inches, and bring slowly to the barest simmer. Skim the gray foam diligently for the first 20 minutes; a clear broth is a point of pride here.
2. Tuck in the bouquet garni and half the carrots and leeks. Keep the heat so low the surface barely trembles, and cook 2 hours. Boiling makes broth cloudy and meat stringy; a lazy simmer makes it silky.
3. Lift out the meat and set aside. Strain the broth through cheesecloth back into the pot — discard the spent vegetables, they have given everything. Return the meat with the remaining fresh carrots, leeks, turnips, and potatoes, and simmer 30 to 40 minutes more until tender.
4. Slice the beef against the grain and arrange it on a platter with the vegetables. Serve the broth first as a soup with a little of the vegetables, then the meat with coarse salt, Dijon, and cornichons. Two courses from one pot — that is the quiet genius of pot-au-feu.
5. Leftovers are the real prize: the broth gels overnight and the meat slices beautifully cold the next day.

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