Daube

{{Short description|French stew of beef braised in wine and garlic}} {{Other uses of|Daub(e)|Daub (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox prepared food | name = Daube | image = Daube de boeuf.JPG | image_size = 260px | caption = | alternate_name = | country = France | region = Provence | creator = | course = | type = Stew | served = | main_ingredient = Beef, wine, vegetables | variations = | calories = | other = }} '''Daube''' ({{IPA|fr|dob|audio=LL-Q150 (fra)-Lepticed7-daube.wav}}, {{Langx|oc|adòba}} or {{Lang|oc|adobo}}) is a French slow-cooked stew, usually of beef, but other meat is sometimes used. The best-known is the {{lang|fr|bœuf en daube à la provençale}}, a Provençal stew made with cheaper cuts of beef braised in wine, with vegetables, garlic and herbs, and traditionally cooked in a ''daubière''–a braising pot.

==Terminology and history== The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines a daube as "A braised meat (usually beef) stew with wine, spices, etc".<ref>{{Cite OED|daube}}</ref> In ''The Oxford Companion to Food'', Philip and Mary Hyman note that the word is a French culinary term indicating both a method of cooking and a type of dish. The ''Dictionnaire de l'Académie française'' dates the word to the 16th century, and says that it derives from the Occitan {{lang|it|dobba}}, a marinade.<ref>[https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9D0125 "daube"], ''Dictionnaire de l'Académie française''. Retrieved 29 August 2023</ref>

In the 18th century, daubes were a specialty of the French town of Saint-Malo. The Hymans comment that there were many different types: "artichokes {{lang|fr|en daube}}, celery, pork cutlets, goose— all these and many other foodstuffs besides were prepared {{lang|fr|en daube}}".<ref name="h245" /> Most were made to be eaten cold.<ref>Montagné, p. 341</ref> Daubes remained popular in 19th-century France, but by then, they were nearly always meat dishes, usually beef, eaten hot. By the end of the 20th century, the term was largely confined to {{lang|fr|bœuf en daube}}. The dish came to be seen as rustic and old-fashioned, and the copper pots—daubières—in which it was traditionally cooked became "a curiosity in antique markets".<ref name="h245">Hyman, p. 245</ref>

==Description== ===Meat=== Cooks differ widely regarding which meat should be used for a daube. There is common consent that it should have a long marinade before cooking, but some say it should be cooked as a whole piece, others that it should be cubed or sliced. In their ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking'', Simone Beck and Julia Child describe {{lang|fr|bœuf en daube à la provençale}} as a braised pot roast of beef with wine, tomatoes, and provençal flavourings: {{blockindent|This is a large, whole piece of braising beef larded with strips of ham, marinated in red wine and herbs, and slowly simmered in a lightly thickened mixture of the marinade liquid, beef stock, and tomatoes, which turns into a rich ready-made sauce at the end of the cooking.<ref name="mta">Beck and Child, p. 229</ref>|}} Their insistence that the dish contains a whole piece of beef is not shared by some other cooks. Elizabeth David writes in ''French Provincial Cooking'': {{blockindent|There must be scores of different recipes for daubes in Provence alone, as well as all those which have been borrowed from Provence by other regions, for a daube of beef is essentially a country housewife's dish. In some daubes the meat is cut up, in others it is cooked in the piece; what goes in apart from the meat is largely a matter of what is available, and the way it is served is again a question of local taste.<ref name="ed">David (2008), p. 315</ref>|}} The recommended cuts of meat for a daube vary. David favours top rump (also called thick flank);<ref name="ed" /> Beck and Child's preference is for topside;<ref name="mta" /> Auguste Escoffier, referring to French butchers' cuts, specifies ''paleron'' or ''gîte'';<ref>Escoffier, p. 236</ref> Prosper Montagné favours the more expensive rump;<ref name="lg" /> Paula Wolfert opts for short rib; Joël Robuchon recommends ox cheeks (and notes that in Provence a daube is sometimes made with beef from the Camargue bull or with lamb shoulder);<ref name="jr">[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/09/50-best-cookbooks-joel-robuchon "The Complete Robuchon"], ''The Guardian'', 9 August 2010</ref> and Patricia Wells advises using at least three cuts of beef from different parts of the animal, arguing that some – such as ''plats de cétes'' – enhance flavour with their cartilaginous bones, others – such as ''tende de tranche'' – provide purer meat with little muscle separation, and others – such as {{lang|fr|paleron}} add both meat and muscle for added texture.<ref name="pw1">Wells, p. 253</ref>{{refn|The three French cuts approximate to short ribs, topside and chuck.<ref name="pw1" />|group=n}}

===Cooking pot=== thumb|upright|A daubière There is, similarly, no unanimity about what a daube is cooked in. In ''Larousse Gastronomique'' Prosper Montagné specifies a daubière, a traditional cooking pot, which may be made of stoneware, earthenware or tinned copper.<ref name="lg">Montagné, pp. 125 and 342</ref> Wells and Wolfert opt for earthenware. In her 2009 book ''Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking'' Wolfert calls the daubière "instantly recognizable by its tall, potbellied shape and distinctive lid … designed so that the ingredients can be packed inside with only a small amount of liquid and then set over low heat to braise". Daubières slowly convey heat up from the bottom, causing the tough connective tissues in the meat to transform into gelatine.<ref name="pw">Wolfert, pp. 149–151</ref> According to Robuchon a daubière or other clay casserole is ideal, but he suggests as alternatives a cast-iron casserole or other heavy pan.<ref name="jr" />

David writes that the cooking pot may be earthenware, cast iron, copper or aluminium, "wide rather than deep";<ref name="ed" /> Beck and Child call for a heavy, covered casserole, without specifying what it is made of.<ref name="mta" />

===Wine and other ingredients=== The wine in a daube is usually red, but for the {{lang|fr|bœuf en daube à la provençale}} Montagné and Wolfert specify white. David, Escoffier, Robuchon and Wells use red, as do Beck and Child, who recommend a complete bottle of strong young red such as Mâcon or Beaujolais.<ref name="ingredients">Beck and Child, pp. 229–231; David (2008), p. 315; Escoffier, p. 236; Montagné, p. 342; Wells, p. 253; and Wolfert, pp. 149–151</ref> Tomatoes, onions, herbs, garlic, salt and pepper are common to most daubes. Some cooks add other ingredients, which may include anchovies, carrots, cloves, marrow bones, mushrooms, nutmeg, olives, pancetta, orange peel, pork rind, salt pork, tomato purée, and wine vinegar.<ref name="ingredients" /> Some recipes include a small amount of flour to thicken the braising liquid.<ref name="ingredients" />

==Other daubes== Other beef daubes include: *{{lang|fr|À l'albigeoise}} – a pig's trotter and a calf's foot are added to the cooking liquid along with diced beef.<ref name="m125" /> *{{lang|fr|À l'ancienne}} – a whole piece of rump, marinated and cooked in white wine and brandy.<ref name="m125">Montagné, p. 125</ref> *{{lang|fr|À la béarnaise}} – diced rump, marinated in red wine and brandy and cooked in the marinade with added beef stock.<ref name="m125" /> *{{lang|fr|À la corsoise}} – a whole piece of rolled rib of beef, slowly cooked without wine (fresh tomatoes add sufficient liquid); new potatoes cooked in oil or butter are added along with mushrooms as the dish nears the end of its cooking time.<ref>David (1999), p. 500</ref> *{{lang|fr|À la créole}} – a New Orleans recipe, in which rum takes the place of wine in the cooking liquid. David comments that few people would detect the difference in the alcoholic ingredient or could say in what precise way the stew differs from the French original.<ref>David (2008), p. 317</ref> *{{lang|fr|À la languedocienne}} – to the usual beef, red wine, onions and tomatoes are added leeks, smoked pork sausage and haricot beans.<ref>Floyd, p. 172</ref> *{{lang|fr|À la niçoise}} – raw ham, celery and lemon peel are added to slices of beef in the marinade and cooking liquid.<ref>Bickel, p. 409</ref> Montagné mentions daubes of chicken, turkey and pheasant,<ref>Montagné, p. 341</ref> and David prints a recipe for {{lang|fr|daube à la avignonnaise}}, in which mutton or lamb is used, rather than beef. Tomatoes are not used, but otherwise the ingredients are the same as for a typical {{lang|fr|bœuf en daube à la provençale}}.<ref>David (1999), p. 305</ref>

<gallery caption="{{lang|fr|Bœuf en daube à la provençale}}" widths="260px" heights="260px" class="center"> File:Bistro Jeanty - January 2019 - Sarah Stierch.jpg|With buttered carrots and peas File:Daube de boeuf carottes.jpg|With lardons, carrots, and button mushrooms, served on parsnip purée File:Daube provençale 03.jpg|With potatoes and carrots </gallery>

==Notes, references and sources==

===Notes===

===References===

===Sources=== *{{cite book | last = Beck | first = Simone |authorlink=Simone Beck| author2 = Julia Child | title = Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two | date = 1978 | orig-date = 1970 | location = London | publisher = Penguin | isbn =978-0-14-046221-0}} *{{cite book | last = David | first = Elizabeth | authorlink=Elizabeth David| title=Elizabeth David Classics| year=1999 |orig-year=1980| location=London | publisher= Grub Street | isbn=978-1-902304-27-4}} * {{cite book | last = David | first = Elizabeth | title = French Provincial Cooking | date = 2008 | orig-date = 1960 | location = London | publisher = Folio Society | oclc = 809349711}} *{{cite book | last = Escoffier | first = Auguste | authorlink=Auguste Escoffier| title = Ma Cuisine | date = 1934 | location = Paris| publisher = Flamarion | url= https://archive.org/details/AugusteEscoffier1934FlamarionMaCuisineINDEXP677/page/n235/mode/2up|oclc =981486233 }} *{{cite book | last =Floyd | first =Keith |authorlink=Keith Floyd | title = Floyd on France| date =1987 | location = London| publisher = BBC| url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780806514291/mode/2up| isbn = 978-0-56-320519-7}} * {{cite book | last=Hyman | first= Philip| author2 = Mary Hyman| chapter =Daube | editor=Alan Davidson| title=The Oxford Companion to Food | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1999 | isbn=978-0-19-211579-9 }} * {{cite book | last = Montagné | first = Prosper | authorlink = Prosper Montagné | title = Larousse Gastronomique | date = 1976 | location = London | publisher = Hamlyn | url = https://archive.org/details/laroussegastrono0000mont_w7s3/page/904/mode/2up | oclc = 1285641881 }} *{{cite book | last = Wells | first = Patricia | title = Patricia Wells at Home in Provence |authorlink=Patricia Wells| date = 1997| location = London| publisher = Kyle Cathie| isbn = 978-1-85-626192-0}} *{{cite book | last = Wolfert | first = Paula | authorlink=Paula Wolfert|title =Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking | date = 2009| location =Hoboken | publisher = John Wiley | url= https://archive.org/details/mediterraneancla00wolf_0/page/148/mode/2up|isbn =978-0-76-457633-1}}

==See also== {{portal|Food}} * {{annotated link|Adobo}} * {{annotated link|Boeuf bourgignon}} * {{annotated link|Carne de vinha d'alhos}} * {{annotated link|Pot-au-feu}} * List of stews

Category:Cuisine of Provence Category:French stews