Chef Joost
Babi Ketjap
Pork, sweet soy, ginger, and patience: the Indo-Dutch braise that carried the colonial table into Dutch kitchens and made rice feel like Sunday dinner.
Culinary Explorer
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Hachee (Dutch Beef and Onion Stew)
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The name comes from French hacher, to chop, but the soul is Dutch patience: beef hidden under onions, vinegar keeping it awake, clove proving the spice ships reached the weeknight pot.
Soups & Stews
Dutch
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
Weeknight
20 min
Active Time
2 hr 30 min cook•2 hr 50 min total
Yield4 to 6 servings
In my grandmother's second notebook, hachee is written without ceremony, which is how you know a dish is important. The page has no flourish, only beef, onions, vinegar, bay, clove, and a small instruction in her slanted hand: laten sudderen, let it simmer. A person who had rebuilt a recipe book from memory after de Ramp, the Flood, did not waste ink on things the family already understood. Hachee belonged to the table the way the bread knife did.
The name already tells you something. Hachee comes from the French hacher, to chop, and in older kitchens it meant chopped meat cooked again into usefulness. But let me tell you a secret: this is not a leftover dish pretending to be noble. It is Dutch thrift doing what Dutch thrift does best, taking a tough cut, burying it under onions, sharpening it with vinegar, and letting time do the expensive work.
And then there is the clove. One small nail of spice in a brown stew is the whole Dutch seventeenth century, quietly present in a weeknight pan. History and cookery, they cannot be separated. Brown the meat properly, cook the onions until they slacken and sweeten, then give the pot its sourness and leave it alone. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple. Hachee rewards the cook who can wait.
Hachee entered Dutch cookery through the French word hacher, meaning to chop, and belongs to a wider medieval and early modern European family of chopped-meat stews sharpened with acid. Dutch versions became strongly associated with beef, onions, vinegar, bay, and clove, the last a reminder that imported spices from the VOC trade became ordinary household seasonings rather than rare luxuries. By the nineteenth century, hachee was firmly established as a home dish served with potatoes, hutspot, or red cabbage, especially in the colder months.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
beef chuck or stewing beef
Quantity
900g
cut into 3cm pieces
butter
Quantity
3 tablespoons
large onions
Quantity
3
thinly sliced
plain flour
Quantity
2 tablespoons
beef stock
Quantity
500ml
red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
Quantity
3 tablespoons
bay leaves
Quantity
2
whole cloves
Quantity
4
dark brown sugar or appelstroop (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
ontbijtkoek (optional)
Quantity
1 slice
crumbled
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| beef chuck or stewing beefcut into 3cm pieces | 900g |
| butter | 3 tablespoons |
| large onionsthinly sliced | 3 |
| plain flour | 2 tablespoons |
| beef stock | 500ml |
| red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar | 3 tablespoons |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| whole cloves | 4 |
| dark brown sugar or appelstroop (optional) | 1 tablespoon |
| ontbijtkoek (optional)crumbled | 1 slice |
| salt and freshly ground black pepper | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy lidded casserole or braadpan, 4-liter or larger
- •Wooden spoon
- •Tongs
Instructions
- 1
Brown the beef
Pat the beef dry and season it with salt and pepper. Melt half the butter in a heavy casserole over medium-high heat and brown the beef in batches until each piece has a deep brown crust on at least two sides. Do not crowd the pan. Pale meat gives you pale gravy, and hachee is a brown stew with opinions.
- 2
Soften the onions
Lower the heat to medium and add the remaining butter and the sliced onions to the same pan. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom, until the onions are soft, glossy, and beginning to colour. This is the great weight of the dish: onions first sharp, then sweet, then nearly melted into the gravy.
- 3
Build the gravy
Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir for two minutes, until no dry flour shows. Pour in the stock little by little, stirring as you go, then add the vinegar, bay leaves, cloves, and the browned beef with any juices. Add the brown sugar or appelstroop if you want a rounder sour-sweet balance.
Count the cloves going in so you can count them coming out. A hidden clove under the tooth is history making itself too well known. - 4
Braise slowly
Bring the pot just to a simmer, then cover it and lower the heat until the surface barely moves. Cook for about 2 hours, stirring now and then, until the beef yields easily to a fork and the onions have collapsed into a dark, glossy sauce. If the pan gets dry, add a splash of water; if it looks thin, leave the lid slightly ajar for the last 20 minutes.
- 5
Finish and serve
Remove the bay leaves and cloves. Stir in the crumbled ontbijtkoek, if using, and simmer for 5 minutes until it dissolves and thickens the sauce with a quiet spice-cake sweetness. Taste for salt, pepper, and vinegar. Serve with potato mash, hutspot, or red cabbage, with a kuiltje, a little hollow, in the mash for the gravy.
Chef Tips
- •Use beef chuck, shoulder, or another working cut with collagen. Lean steak turns dry before the onions have finished telling their story.
- •The vinegar is not decoration. It cuts the beef's richness and helps the stew stay lively after two hours in the pot; start with three tablespoons and adjust at the end.
- •Ontbijtkoek is optional but very Dutch in the modern home kitchen. It thickens the gravy and echoes the clove, cinnamon, and rye-sweetness already hiding in the dish.
- •Hachee is better the next day. The onions settle into the sauce, the clove stops shouting, and the vinegar becomes part of the gravy rather than a visitor.
Advance Preparation
- •Make up to two days ahead and refrigerate. Reheat gently with a splash of water or stock, stirring along the bottom so the onion-rich sauce does not catch.
- •Freezes well for up to three months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm slowly until the beef is tender again and the gravy loosens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 320g)
Calories
500 calories
Total Fat
30 g
Saturated Fat
13 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
14 g
Cholesterol
135 mg
Sodium
950 mg
Total Carbohydrates
17 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
38 g
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