Chef Thomas
Beef Olives
Thin slices of beef rolled around a stuffing of sausage meat and herbs, browned in butter, and braised for two patient hours until the meat yields and the gravy turns dark and rich and worth mopping up with bread.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Beef and Ale Stew
Created by Chef Thomas
Braising steak surrendered to dark ale and slow time, with onions and mushrooms, until the gravy turns thick and malty and the kitchen smells like the kind of evening you want to stay in for.
Soups & Stews
British
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
30 min
Active Time
2 hr 30 min cook•3 hr total
Yield4 servings
The first cold week of the year arrived and I knew what I was making before I'd even looked in the fridge. Some meals belong to certain evenings the way certain songs belong to certain drives. This is a dark-sky, drawn-curtains, nowhere-to-be sort of supper.
I bought the beef on Saturday. Chuck steak, deeply marbled, from the butcher who doesn't rush you. A bottle of porter from the shop on the corner. Onions, mushrooms, carrots, the usual suspects. Nothing remarkable on its own. But put them in a heavy pot with enough time and patience and they become something more than the sum of their parts. The ale does the quiet work: it gives the gravy a malty depth, almost sweet, with a bitterness that hums underneath like a bass note.
You brown the beef properly. You soften the onions slowly. You pour in the ale and let the whole thing tick away in a low oven for a couple of hours while you do something else. Read the paper. Walk the dog. Sit in a chair and do nothing at all. When you come back, the kitchen smells like a pub that's also somehow your grandmother's house, and the gravy has gone dark and thick and impossibly good.
I wrote it down in the notebook: beef, ale, Tuesday, rain. It's better the next day. It's always better the next day. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract, so adjust to what you've got. More mushrooms if you like them, a parsnip instead of a carrot, a different ale. Your kitchen, your rules.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
braising steak (chuck or shin)
Quantity
800g
cut into generous chunks
beef dripping or olive oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons
onions
Quantity
2 large
halved and sliced
garlic
Quantity
3 cloves
crushed
chestnut mushrooms
Quantity
250g
halved or quartered depending on size
plain flour
Quantity
2 tablespoons
dark ale
Quantity
500ml
good beef stock
Quantity
250ml
tomato purée
Quantity
2 tablespoons
bay leaves
Quantity
2
thyme
Quantity
a few sprigs
Worcestershire sauce
Quantity
1 tablespoon
carrots
Quantity
2 large
peeled and cut into thick rounds
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
flat-leaf parsley (optional)
Quantity
a handful
roughly chopped
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| braising steak (chuck or shin)cut into generous chunks | 800g |
| beef dripping or olive oil | 2 tablespoons |
| onionshalved and sliced | 2 large |
| garliccrushed | 3 cloves |
| chestnut mushroomshalved or quartered depending on size | 250g |
| plain flour | 2 tablespoons |
| dark ale | 500ml |
| good beef stock | 250ml |
| tomato purée | 2 tablespoons |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| thyme | a few sprigs |
| Worcestershire sauce | 1 tablespoon |
| carrotspeeled and cut into thick rounds | 2 large |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
| flat-leaf parsley (optional)roughly chopped | a handful |
Equipment Needed
- •Large cast iron casserole pot with lid
- •Wooden spoon
- •Kitchen paper
Instructions
- 1
Brown the beef
Pat the beef dry with kitchen paper. This matters. Wet meat steams instead of browning, and the brown crust is where half the flavour lives. Season the chunks generously with salt and pepper. Get a heavy casserole pot properly hot with a tablespoon of dripping or oil, then brown the beef in batches. Don't crowd the pan. Each piece needs contact with the hot surface, and you want a deep, dark crust on at least two sides. It should sizzle the moment it hits the pan. If it doesn't, the pan isn't ready. Set the browned beef aside on a plate.
Chuck is reliable and forgiving. Shin takes longer but gives you a deeper, more gelatinous gravy that clings to everything. Either will do you well. - 2
Soften the onions
Turn the heat down. Add a little more dripping if the pan looks dry, then put the sliced onions in with a pinch of salt. Let them cook gently for eight to ten minutes, stirring now and then, scraping up the dark, sticky bits the beef left behind. Those bits are gold. The onions should go soft and sweet, starting to turn amber at the edges. Add the garlic and stir it through for a minute, just until the kitchen smells warm and savoury.
- 3
Build the base
Add the mushrooms and let them cook for a few minutes until they've given up their moisture and started to colour. Scatter the flour over the vegetables and stir it in. Let it cook for a minute or two so it loses its raw, pasty taste. Stir in the tomato purée. It deepens the colour and gives the gravy a quiet backbone that you won't identify on the plate but you'd miss if it weren't there.
- 4
Add the ale and stock
Pour in the ale. It will hiss and bubble and the kitchen will smell like a good pub on a wet afternoon. Stir well, loosening anything stuck to the bottom, then add the stock, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, and thyme. Return the beef and any juices from the plate. The liquid should come most of the way up the meat but doesn't need to cover it entirely. Bring it to a gentle simmer.
Choose an ale you'd actually drink. A dark porter or stout gives the richest, maltiest gravy. Avoid anything too bitter or hoppy, as that bitterness concentrates during cooking and can overwhelm everything else. - 5
Slow cook the stew
Put the lid on, slightly ajar so steam can escape, and either keep it on the hob at the barest simmer or transfer to an oven at 160C/140C fan. The oven is more forgiving and more even. Add the carrots after the first hour so they don't dissolve. Then leave it alone. Two to two and a half hours total. You'll know it's ready when the beef yields to a fork without resistance and the gravy has thickened into something dark and glossy that coats the back of a spoon.
If the gravy is still thin when the beef is tender, fish out the meat and vegetables, then simmer the liquid on the hob uncovered until it reduces to the consistency you want. Stir the meat back through. - 6
Season and serve
Fish out the bay leaves and thyme stalks. Season and taste. Then taste again. It will probably want more salt than you think, and a few good grinds of black pepper. Ladle it into warm bowls, scatter a little parsley over the top if you have some, and put it on the table with whatever you've got: mashed potatoes, crusty bread, a pile of something green. There are few better feelings than putting a warm plate in front of someone on a cold evening.
Chef Tips
- •Brown the beef in small batches and don't move the pieces until they release from the pan on their own. If you have to tug, they're not ready. That deep crust is where the stew's flavour is built, and there is no shortcut to it.
- •The stew improves overnight. Make it on a Sunday and eat it on Monday. The flavours settle and deepen, the gravy thickens further, and everything tastes more like itself. It keeps in the fridge for three days and reheats without complaint.
- •Serve it with mashed potatoes if you want comfort, or with a torn hunk of crusty bread if you want simplicity. Both are correct. A heap of buttered greens on the side is the right call, something to cut through the richness: cabbage, kale, whatever looks good.
- •If you don't drink alcohol, replace the ale with more stock and add a tablespoon of dark treacle for the malty sweetness the ale would have given. It won't be the same, but it will be good in its own way.
Advance Preparation
- •The stew is better made a day ahead. Cool, refrigerate, and reheat gently on the hob or in a low oven. The flavours will have deepened and the gravy will be thicker.
- •Freezes well for up to three months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat thoroughly. The texture of the carrots may soften a little, but the rest holds up beautifully.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 420g)
Calories
570 calories
Total Fat
31 g
Saturated Fat
14 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
17 g
Cholesterol
145 mg
Sodium
895 mg
Total Carbohydrates
25 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
8 g
Protein
44 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from British Stews & Braises
Browse the full collection
Chef Thomas
Beef Stew with Suet Dumplings
Chuck beef braised until it gives way, root vegetables gone soft and sweet in a dark, glossy gravy, with suet dumplings steamed on top until they puff into something pillowy and golden. The kind of pot you carry to the table with both hands.
Chef Thomas
Braised Lamb Shanks
Lamb shanks surrendered to red wine and rosemary for three slow hours, until the bone slides clean and the sauce is dark and sticky and worth every minute of the wait.
Chef Thomas
Braised Ox Cheeks
Ox cheeks braised long and slow in a bottle of red wine until the meat yields to a spoon and the collagen turns the sauce to silk, the kind of dish that fills the house with a smell that says stay.