I finally finished my daube and it turned out fantastically! I also got all of my pictures uploaded, so I can take you on the same journey that I took these ribs on this week.

Here’s a picture of my shiny new ribs on Monday evening:

The first thing I did was to marinate them in wine and port for two days while I waited for my saucier (I didn’t have an appropriate vessel in which to cook these bitches. I will never again buy a piece of cookware that is not both oven and stovetop safe). Here is what short ribs and vegetables look like after 48 hours in wine (can you see the sliced head of garlic?):

Next, Artisanal asked me to dredge the ribs and fry them for three minutes on each side. It smelled so good I could’ve just eaten them right then:

Then I put them in the strained marinade liquid along with some orange peel and a leek-herb bundle and brought it all to a simmer:

After it reached a simmer, I covered the pot and put the whole thing in the oven for two hours, at which point the meat was appropriately “pulling away from the bone.” At this point, it was bedtime, so I put it in the fridge (liquid and beef separated).

Tonight, I reheated the liquid and ribs together on the stovetop, made some orange-cumin carrots as the recipe recommended, a couple of boiled red potatoes, and served it:

It came out well. The sauce was intensely flavorful, which is to be expected after reducing a magnum of wine, a cup of port, and four cups of beef broth to about three cups of sauce. My only complaint was the slightly unpleasant fattiness of the beef, but that certainly wasn’t my fault.

I’m hoping to do several more of these long braising recipes this winter. If anyone is interested in helping with or eating one, find a recipe and let’s go to Western Beef! Tom Colicchio’s pork belly is next on my list.