Beef meets beer goggles: Beer-braised Beef Short Ribs

Short ribs braised in stout get extra flavor from garlic, shallots, carrots, mushrooms and chestnuts. Recipe below.

Beer and I don’t have a happy history. I love wine. I love cocktails. But I’ve never acquired a taste for the suds. When my brother was living in England, I visited him for a month once, during which we drank in approximately all the pubs in England, Scotland and Wales. Also during which I suffered through countless pints of stuff that was not only beer, but was thick, dark and room temperature—you could actually taste it fermenting in your mouth. My brother, of course, was in heaven.

Many of the pubs we visited were in tiny villages, where the local brewery ruled the taps, and beer was seriously the only game in town. But one night in a bar in Oxford—I’m figuring major university town, a bigger world view—I asked for a rum and Coke. The bartender replied, straight-faced, “Wot’s in it?”

Then we spent a week in France, and the tables were deliciously turned. Wherever we went, the most modest vin de table was stellar. Meanwhile, my brother could get nothing but the palest mass-produced lagers, served in tiny glasses.

As much as I don’t drink the stuff, cooking with beer is another matter. Those pale lagers can add a delicate sweetness to sauces, batters and breads. Heavier, darker beers can deliver a pleasantly bitter note that gets muted in long, slow braises like this one.

Beef short ribs are popular in cuisines pretty much around the world. Korean cooks slice them thin, then marinate and quickly grill them (as we did last summer with the help of Chris at The Butcher & Larder). Most often, though, they are braised for hours. The result is tender/chewy meat with big, beefy flavor.

For this version, a robust braising liquid of stout, beef broth and tomato paste is further amped up with shallots, thyme, oregano and a generous dose of garlic. Carrots, roasted chestnuts and crimini mushrooms bring a sweet earthiness to the dish. Mostly, the ingredients all blend together, as ingredients often do in a slow braise. The mushrooms, in particular, disappeared into it. The carrots and the chestnuts held onto their sweet and nutty/sweet identities respectively, providing nice flavor bursts in this umami-rich meal.

Beer-braised Beef Short Ribs
Serves 4

8 bone-in beef short ribs cut into 2-inch pieces, about 2 to 2-1/2 pounds
salt and freshly ground black pepper
flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium shallots, sliced (or 2 small yellow onions)
3 to 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into large pieces
2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
4 to 5 large cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 pint stout (see Kitchen Notes)
1 cup reduced-sodium beef broth
2 bay leaves
8 ounces crimini mushrooms, halved or quartered
1 cup roasted chestnuts (see Kitchen Notes)

pasta, egg noodles, mashed potatoes or puréed cauliflower to serve alongside

Preheat oven to 300ºF. Season short ribs with salt and pepper on all sides. Dredge in flour, shaking off excess. Heat olive oil in a heavy bottomed Dutch oven (I used our lovely French La Cocotte) over a medium-high flame. When the pot is good and hot, brown the short ribs on all sides in batches, about 8 minutes per batch. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

Reduce heat to medium. Drain all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pot. Add shallots, carrots and celery to pot and sauté, stirring frequently, until shallots are just translucent, about 3 minutes. Add garlic, oregano and thyme to pot. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Clear a space in the middle of the pot and add tomato paste. Cook until slightly browned, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes.

Add stout, broth and bay leaves to pot. Bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Nestle short ribs among vegetables—liquid should come at least 2/3 of the way up the sides of the ribs. Add more broth, if necessary. Cover pot with aluminum foil and then the lid. Transfer to oven and braise. Check at 45 minutes and again at 90 minutes to make sure you still have enough liquid (some pots allow too much to evaporate, but the foil should help prevent this). After another 45 minutes, add the mushrooms and the chestnuts. Continue cooking until the meat is very tender, a total of 3 to 3-1/2 hours.

Gently transfer ribs to a platter and tent with foil you’ve been using as a lid supplement. With a slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to a bowl and cover. Skim fat from the top of the braising liquid. Some recipes say to reduce the remaining liquid. In my own experience, the liquid had reduced on its own at the end.

Plate the short ribs. Spoon pasta, egg noodles or other side, if you’re using one, to shallow bowls. Top with short ribs and spoon vegetables and sauce around ribs. Serve.

Kitchen Notes

Picking your beer. As recipes say about cooking with wine, don’t cook with a beer you wouldn’t drink (unless, like me, you wouldn’t drink any beer). But the message is the same—choose a good beer. After telling a beer guy at one of our go-to liquor stores what I wanted to do with it, we decided on Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout. Guinness is generally well regarded. Also feel free to experiment with other kinds of beer, based on your own preferences. As Marion says, it won’t be the same, but it will be different. Volumes are also approximate. My bottle was almost three ounces over the pint I stated in the recipe. I used it all. If you can only find 12-ounce bottles, use two and reduce the broth accordingly.

Finding chestnuts. For whatever reason, many stores consider the convenient vacuum-packed roasted chestnuts a seasonal (read Thanksgiving to Christmas—plus Passover) item. Asian markets do not. But don’t mistakenly buy water chestnuts—a whole different thing. You can also order chestnuts at Amazon.