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.
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Jachtschotel (Dutch Hunter's Casserole)
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The name means hunter's dish, but the secret is household thrift: beef, onion, apple, and potato turning yesterday's braise into a brown-topped winter supper.
Soups & Stews
Dutch
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
Special Occasion
35 min
Active Time
2 hr 15 min cook•2 hr 50 min total
Yield6 servings
In my grandmother's second notebook, jachtschotel lived in the useful pages, not the festive ones. That tells you something. The dish had enough dignity for company and enough sense for Monday, which is a very Dutch kind of elegance. You took the meat left from Sunday, stretched it with onion, sharpened it with apple, covered it with potato, and let the oven do the polite finishing.
The name already tells you where it wants to stand: jacht is hunt, schotel is dish. Once, that might have meant game from the field, hare or venison under a roof of potato. In ordinary Dutch kitchens it became beef, because ordinary Dutch kitchens have always been better at survival than theatre. But let me tell you a secret: the apple is not decoration. It is the hinge. Its tartness cuts the richness of the meat and keeps the casserole from becoming merely brown on brown, which is a danger in our national palette (culinary and otherwise).
There is a cousin called filosoof, philosopher, often made when the apple is left out. Why a philosopher should be denied fruit, I leave to the philosophers. For jachtschotel, keep the apple. Braise the beef until it gives way, cook the onions until sweet, and mash the potatoes plainly with butter and milk. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple. A dish like this doesn't ask you to impress it. It asks you to remember what a household can do with what is already there.
Jachtschotel appears in Dutch household cooking as a practical casserole for leftover roast or braised meat, with its name pointing back to game dishes from the hunt while its everyday form settled into beef, onion, apple, and potato. The related dish filosoof is recorded in Dutch cookery as a similar layered casserole, commonly distinguished by the absence of apple. Its place is the autumn and winter table, when stored potatoes, onions, and tart apples made thrift taste deliberate rather than poor.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
stewing beef
Quantity
800g
cut into 3 cm pieces
butter
Quantity
2 tablespoons
neutral oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons
onions
Quantity
3 large
thinly sliced
bay leaves
Quantity
2
cloves
Quantity
3
freshly grated nutmeg
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
beef stock
Quantity
250ml
red wine vinegar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
tart apples
Quantity
2
peeled, cored, and sliced
floury potatoes
Quantity
1.2kg
peeled and cut into chunks
milk
Quantity
75ml
warmed
butter for mash
Quantity
50g
plus extra for dotting
fine breadcrumbs
Quantity
2 tablespoons
salt and black pepper
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| stewing beefcut into 3 cm pieces | 800g |
| butter | 2 tablespoons |
| neutral oil | 2 tablespoons |
| onionsthinly sliced | 3 large |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| cloves | 3 |
| freshly grated nutmeg | 1/4 teaspoon |
| beef stock | 250ml |
| red wine vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
| tart applespeeled, cored, and sliced | 2 |
| floury potatoespeeled and cut into chunks | 1.2kg |
| milkwarmed | 75ml |
| butter for mashplus extra for dotting | 50g |
| fine breadcrumbs | 2 tablespoons |
| salt and black pepper | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy braadpan or Dutch oven, 4-liter capacity
- •2-liter baking dish
- •Potato masher
Instructions
- 1
Brown the beef
Pat the beef dry and season it with salt and pepper. Heat the butter and oil in a heavy braadpan, a Dutch casserole pot, and brown the meat in batches until each piece has a dark edge. Do not crowd the pan; grey meat has started the evening badly.
- 2
Soften the onions
Lift the beef to a plate and add the onions to the same pot. Cook them slowly for 15 minutes, scraping up the brown bits as they soften. They should turn golden and sweet, not scorched. This is where the casserole gets its depth, and no packet of anything can do it for you.
- 3
Braise until tender
Return the beef to the pot with the bay leaves, cloves, nutmeg, stock, and vinegar. Bring it to a low simmer, cover, and cook gently for 1 hour 30 minutes, until the meat yields when pressed with a spoon. If the pot looks dry, add a splash of water; you want a thick, glossy gravy, not soup.
If you already have leftover hachee or Sunday roast with gravy, use about 700g of cooked meat and onions and skip straight to layering. Jachtschotel has always understood leftovers. - 4
Make the mash
While the beef braises, boil the potatoes in salted water until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain them well and let them stand in the hot pan for a minute so excess moisture disappears. Mash with the warm milk and 50g butter until smooth but not whipped. Potato should cover the dish, not behave like cream.
- 5
Layer the dish
Heat the oven to 200C. Remove the bay leaves and cloves from the beef. Spoon the meat and onion mixture into a buttered baking dish, then lay the sliced tart apples over it in an even layer. Spread the mashed potato on top, roughing the surface with a fork so it catches brown in the oven.
- 6
Bake until browned
Scatter the breadcrumbs over the potato and dot with a little butter. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is browned at the ridges and the gravy is bubbling at the edges. Let it rest for 10 minutes before serving. A jachtschotel cut too soon slumps, and while I admire generosity, collapse is not generosity.
Chef Tips
- •Use tart apples such as Goudreinet, Elstar, or Braeburn. A sweet apple disappears into the gravy and contributes only sugar; a tart one gives the dish its necessary lift.
- •Leftover braised beef, hachee, or roast meat is not a compromise here. It is the old logic of the dish. Chop the meat, moisten it with its gravy, and layer it under the apple and potato.
- •Make the mash slightly firmer than you would for a bowl at the table. It needs enough body to sit as a lid over the meat and brown properly.
- •Serve with red cabbage or simply a sharp pickle alongside. The casserole is rich and brown; the plate needs something bright to answer it.
Advance Preparation
- •The beef filling can be braised up to two days ahead and kept refrigerated. Reheat it gently before layering so the casserole bakes evenly.
- •The whole assembled dish can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours before baking. Add 10 to 15 minutes to the oven time if baking from cold.
- •Leftovers keep three days covered in the refrigerator and reheat best in a moderate oven, covered at first, then uncovered to restore the browned top.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 455g)
Calories
630 calories
Total Fat
33 g
Saturated Fat
15 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
18 g
Cholesterol
125 mg
Sodium
840 mg
Total Carbohydrates
51 g
Dietary Fiber
6 g
Sugars
11 g
Protein
33 g
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