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Braised Beef Maitre Menan

A beef chuck roast marinated in red wine, then braised with vegetables, veal stock, and a bouquet garni, and served with boiled potatoes.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,091 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven400° F
Timeabout 3 hours

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, peanut (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

  • --- BOUQUET GARNI

Directions

Marinate and prepare

  1. Bind all ingredients together with kitchen string.

  2. Place the beef in a large ceramic or stainless steel bowl. Add the carrots, onions, thyme, marjoram, and garlic. Pour in the red wine. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 48 hours, turning meat occasionally.

  3. Preheat oven to 400° F. Put veal knuckles in a roasting pan and roast, turning to brown on all sides, about 30 minutes.

Brown and braise

  1. Remove beef from marinade, pat dry with paper towels, and season liberally with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot equipped with a cover over medium-high heat. Add the beef and brown on all sides, turning as it browns, about 15 minutes. Remove beef from pot and reduce heat to medium. Add the drained, marinated vegetables, except the garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until caramelized, about 15 minutes.

  2. Return beef to the pot with vegetables. Add veal knuckles, wine marinade, garlic, veal stock, tomato paste, and bouquet garni. (Liquid should cover meat by 1 or 2 inches.) Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to low, cover pot and simmer, turning beef occasionally, until meat is easily pierced with a fork, about 3 hours.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Remove beef and set aside. Increase heat to medium and simmer broth to concentrate flavors and reduce volume, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove and discard veal knuckles, garlic and bouquet garni. Strain broth through a fine sieve into a bowl and skim off fat; then return liquid to rinsed pot. Stir in sherry vinegar and butter to balance flavors. Taste sauce, and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and add cornstarch mixture, stirring until it thickens, about 30 seconds. Remove strings from beef, cut meat into thick pieces and return to sauce to heat through. Serve with boiled potatoes and garnish with parsley.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Carrot + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Marjoram + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef chuck roast
Long braising breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and moist.
Cabernet sauvignon wine
Acidity and tannins in the marinade tenderize the meat and add deep flavor.
Veal knuckles
Collagen-rich bones enrich the stock, giving the sauce body and a silky texture.
Tomato paste
Concentrated tomato adds savory depth and browning to the braising liquid.
Cornstarch
Starch thickens the strained braising liquid into a glossy sauce.
Butter
Fat added at the end rounds out the sauce and gives it a smooth finish.

The step that matters

Browning the beef and vegetables. Deep browning through the Maillard reaction and caramelization builds the flavor base of the sauce. Pale, steamed meat or vegetables leave the braise tasting flat.

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, onion, thyme, marjoram, veal, pepper):

  1. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  2. Sagebetter flavor fit
  3. Rosemarybetter flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, thyme, marjoram, veal, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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