Braised Beef Short Ribs

Updated 2021 and 2022 with refinements over the years.

I have been refining my version of BBS for quite some time.  The infatuation started a few years ago when Olives Café in Edmonds regularly had short ribs on their menu and that is all Jeannine would ever order (for good reason).  As is true of all cooking, starting with good ingredients is essential for for the end result.  Good meat is really important.  Slow cooked low quality meat in cheap wine will taste like slow cooked low quality meat in cheap wine,.

After doing my requisite research I settled on this recipe.  I have to say that the picture had a lot to do with it, showing the syrupy nature of the reduction sauce.  I have made a number of refinements over the years, and logistical clarifications from that original recipe for my personal preferences.

Be forewarned that the aroma that fills the house for hours as you brown, braise and reduce is quite tantalizing.  Serves 4-6, or half the recipe for 2 people plus awesome leftovers.

Ingredients:

• 12 beef short ribs, bone-in, 3” meaty, about 3 – 4 lbs.
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup high temp oil like avocado or grapeseed
• 1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
• 2-3 stalks celery, chopped
• 2-3 carrots, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tsp anchovy paste
• 1 750-ml bottle good full bodied red wine.
• 6 +/- cups beef stock and/or veal stock if you can find it - preferably low salt (see notes on quantity)
• Gelatin packet
• 1/8 cup dried porcini mushrooms (optional)
• 1-2 packets of Savory Choice Beef Broth concentrate (optional)
• A couple cloves chopped garlic (optional)
• 1 slice of smoked bacon chopped (optional)

Directions:

Season ribs with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large, heavy bottomed ovenproof pot over medium high heat (read Le Creuset). Add ribs and brown on all sides. Work in batches so that the ribs don't get crowded  and start to stew.  Regulate heat so fond doesn’t burn.  Take it slow so much of the fat renders. Transfer ribs to a plate or bowl. Pour off the excess fat to only what is necessary for sautéing the vegetables.

At this point start the oven preheating to 285.  Lower heat on pan and add the onions, celery, and carrots to the pan and sauté slowly, stirring often, until soft and lightly browned, about 15-20 minutes.  If your are using the optional bacon, add it with the veggies or to the pot right before the veggies go in.  A little bacon goes a long way and can overpower everything, err on the side of less is more.  If you are using the optional garlic, add it at the very end and only sauté it for about 30-45 seconds before adding the wine.

Turn heat back up and add the wine to the vegetables.  If the moisture from sautéing the veggies didn’t deglaze the pan, then deglaze and scrape off any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Reduce the wine to about 1/4 its original volume until thick and almost syrupy, not smelling like alcohol anymore, about 15 - 20 minutes.

Add the stock, anchovy paste, bay leaf, dried porcinis, and broth concentrate if using, mix well, then add back the short ribs in a single layer and bring to a simmer. Cover with the lid, and place in the oven. Braise, cooking in the 285 degree oven, until the meat is fall apart tender, 3+ hours. 

Pull the pot from the oven and allow it to cool a bit, then remove the ribs to a plate, and strain the liquid into a separate container, discarding the vegetables, return the ribs to the pot, and add back the strained liquid.  By this time the meat has probably separated from the bones.  Don’t be tempted to discard the bones, they contain collagen that will help thicken and flavor the sauce in the next phase.  I put the bones on the bottom of the pot with the meat on top to prevent any possible scorching.

Medium simmer on the cooktop uncovered until the liquid has reduced to about 1/4 of its original volume, while spooning the sauce over the ribs basting every ~5 minutes, until the sauce is thick and ribs are glazed. Yes this takes constant attention for about 1 hour.

(If the liquid doesn’t thicken, even after reducing, you can add unflavored gelatin as required to thicken.)

Serve with mashed potatoes or pasta or rice. The meat and sauce can be held covered in a 200 degree oven for an hour or more until ready to serve.

In the original pictures below, I made a mash of boiled red potatoes, roasted carrots, parsnips and garlic. 

Footnotes and Tips:

• To eliminate having to scrub the inside of the lid clean later, put foil on the bottom of the lid before putting the lid on.
• The optional dried porcinis add a nice umami to the broth, complimenting the anchovy paste
• Technically, for a braise, the braising liquid should not completely cover the meat.  If so it is a stew. So adjust the liquid quantity appropriately.  It will cook down, even covered though, so don’t skimp.
• Braising time can be 3-4 hours.  3 hours usually is sufficient. Figure an hour for browning the meat, chopping the veggies, sautéing, etc. before putting it in the oven.  And an hour for reducing and glazing.  So allow 5 hours.
• You can also do this in two days, by taking it to the end of the braise and strain and then wrapping the meat tightly and the broth separate in a container and refrigerating over night.  This does two things:  The fat will separate and you can easily take it off solidified; and now you only have 1 hour total cooking time before you eat.
• I used to add some tomato paste to the broth, but it seemed to make the final sauce cloudy, and added a little too much acidity for what I was going for.
• Make sure to NOT use California Bay Leaves.  They have a much stronger and in my opinion bitter taste.  There is also some debate on whether bay leaves do anything, which I haven’t signed up for.  But feel free to leave them out.
• Since the veggies are being strained out, I roughly chop them, and I never peel the carrots.
• If you have ever gone to a restaurant and had sub-par BBS, tough, dry, not flavorful, etc., most likely they were held too long and dried out and/or the beef was not optimal and didn’t have enough fat.
• Go easy on the salt.  With all the reduction of the sauce, it intensifies the salt ratio.

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Some of the seasoned ribs waiting to be browned:

Ribs starting to brown:

Browned ribs set aside:

Sautéing vegetables:

Combined ingredients after braising:

Ribs and sauce reducing after straining

Plated goodness:

Shepherd’s Pie

I’ll start off with a disclaimer.  My goal was to end up with a dish that tasted like beef pot pie (of the genre of my chicken pot pie), but was topped with mashed potatoes instead of pastry.  It didn’t turn out that way, but it was critically acclaimed by the eaters and I continue to make it again and again.

Note that this is pot and pan intensive. I usually try to limit dirty dishes to as minimalist as possible, but there really isn’t a decent way to cut corners on this dish. All I can say is, it’s worth it. (*see note below for shortcut version)

Serves 6+

Takes close to 2 hours from clean counter start to getting it in the oven if cooking at a “measured pace”.  So allow ~3 hours after baking and resting until eating. (*see note below for shortcut version)

[Updated 12/2023 and 3/2024 and 11/2025]

Ingredients:

• 1+ lbs ground lamb (my preference) <OR> about 1.5 lbs of lamb or beef stew meat trimmed well and 3/4” cubed
• 1 qt beef broth
• 2 celery stalks chopped
• 1 medium onion roughly chopped
• 2 carrots cut into 1/2” pieces
• 3/4 cup of green beans cut into 1” pieces (frozen peas could be substituted)
• 1/2 medium parsnip cut into 1/2” pieces
• 1/3 rutabega cut up into 1/2” pieces
• 3 large russet potatoes
• ~ 6 cremini mushrooms chopped
• 5-6 cloves of garlic - 3 chopped for vegetable mix and 2 for mashed potatoes
• salt and pepper
• thyme
• curry
• cayenne pepper
• butter
• milk
• flour ** See below for GF method
• corn starch
• olive or avacado oil
• Panko (regular or GF)
• grated parmesan

In a heavy bottom dutch oven like a le creuset, brown cubed meat salt and peppered in batches in light oil .  Keep heat high enough not to stew but not high enough to burn fond.  <OR> if using ground meat, don’t brown, just cook and fully render fat. Remove meat to a plate or bowl with paper towels to absorb grease.

Remove excess grease from pot, and sauté onions and celery.  Add garlic at end for about 30 seconds.

Add back meat and any juices, add other vegetables (except for potatoes).  Add enough broth to just cover.  Add seasonings to taste *.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and simmer uncovered for about 1 hour or until vegetables are soft.  (* I don’t usually measure seasonings since they are so variable to the underlying food and to individual taste.  I’ll add what feels like maybe 75% of what will be needed, then taste several times as it cooks, adding more if necessary.)

Meanwhile, peel potatoes and cut for boiling.  Boil with a couple cloves of garlic, and mash* and reserve in covered pot to stay warm.  (A normal mash, with butter and salt and pepper and milk to taste, etc.)

Prepare a roux of flour and butter**, about 3 TBs each when meat and vegetables are done simmering.  Strain broth into a sauce pan and bring to a simmer.  Reserve beef and vegetable mixture in baking dish or Dutch oven and keep warm in oven.  Separately whisk together 1TBs cornstarch and 1/4 cup of milk.

Pour hot broth slowly into roux and whisk into a gravy.  Be judicious as to how much of the broth you use, you may not need all of it.  Simmer to thicken about 10 minutes while stirring.  Add cornstarch mixture slowly while whisking until consistency is pretty thick. (Note I use both thickening techniques to get it as thick as needed so the end result is not soupy.)

Preheat oven to 325.  Pour gravy over beef and vegetable mix in a baking pan.  Add mashed potatoes to top in a thick layer.  Sprinkle some Panko and then some grated Parmesan over the top and some fresh ground pepper.  Bake in oven until bubbling and Panko is lightly browned - about 30 minutes (turn on broiler last couple minutes to brown if needed)

Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes then serve.

* Shortcut, GF, and fewer pan version:

While I like the end result of the original method above, you can cut off an hour, and multiple pans by doing it a little differently.  Use a very large cast iron skillet to brown the meat, sauté aromatics, and simmer vegetables and meat in broth. Instead of making a roux and using cornstarch, add potato starch slowly to simmering mixture (after it has cooked) while stirring to mix until consistency is correct.  Put mashed potatoes, panko and parmeson directly on top of mixture in the skillet and bake in oven per above.

Shortcut version pictures: