Red Wine Short Ribs
Meat that falls apart under a fork in a dark, glossy sauce is the most impressive thing a person can put on a table — and it is the most forgiving thing in this entire library, because the oven does three hours of work while you are asleep. Make it Thursday. Friday is just reheating and pouring.
- Cost for two
- $33
- Active time
- 40 min
- Done ahead
- 98%
- 4 hr 35 min before 7:30
- Hands off at
- 7:05
- T-25
Allergens: Milk (refrigerated mashed potatoes contain butter and milk) · Wine is fined with various agents; sulfites present·Serves: 2, with leftovers that are better on Sunday·Oven: 325°F Thursday, 300°F Friday
Gear: A heavy pot with a lid that can go in the oven (a Dutch oven — an enameled one is $40 at Target and this recipe alone justifies it). Fallback: any heavy pot with a lid on the stovetop at the lowest possible flame, checked once an hour; or a deep baking dish covered tightly with two layers of foil. Tongs. Probe thermometer (not really needed here — see doneness).
Start at 8:00. Hands off from 7:05. Stove mode follows the clock while you cook.
The 7:30 Timeline
Read it bottom-up if you like; cook it top-down.
Done before she arrives
Aisle order
Shopping list
Produce
Yellow onion
1
Carrots
2
Garlic
you use 4 cloves
1 head
Meat & Seafood
Boneless beef short ribs
or 1½ lb chuck roast cut into 4 fist-sized pieces — ask the counter to do it
1½ lb
Dairy & Cheese
Refrigerated mashed potatoes
24 oz, Bob Evans or the Safeway brand — near the refrigerated sides
1 tub
Pantry & Canned
Tomato paste
you use 2 tablespoons
1 small can or tube
Beef broth
32 oz; you use 2 cups
1 carton
Wine & Beer
Dry red wine, the cheapest Cabernet or Merlot on the shelf
Bogle, about $9. You use 2 cups. Do not cook with anything you would not drink; do not cook with anything over $12.
1 bottle
Pantry (you probably have these)
Salt, pepper, olive oil
At the stove
Method
- 1
Turn the oven to 325°F.
- 2
Pat the beef dry with paper towels. Salt all sides — about 1 teaspoon per pound, which looks like too much and is not.
- 3
Cut the onion into rough chunks, the carrots into 1-inch pieces, and smash 4 garlic cloves with the side of a knife. Nothing needs to be neat; it all cooks into sauce.
- 4
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in the pot over medium-high until it shimmers and just starts to smoke.
- 5
Lay the beef in without crowding. Leave it alone for 3–4 minutes until the underside is deep brown. Turn with tongs. Repeat on the other sides. Work in batches if needed.
- 6
Move the beef to a plate. Add the onion, carrot, and garlic to the pot and stir for 5 minutes until the onion softens.
- 7
Add 2 tablespoons tomato paste and stir 1 minute; it darkens slightly.
- 8
Pour in 2 cups of the wine. Scrape the bottom of the pot hard with a wooden spoon until nothing is stuck. Let it boil for 3 minutes.
- 9
Add 2 cups broth and return the beef and its juices. The liquid should reach about halfway up the meat; add broth if it doesn't.
- 10
Lid on. Into the oven on the middle rack. 2½ hours.
- 11
Check with a fork (see doneness). If not there, 30 more minutes and check again. Repeat until it gives.
- 12
Cool 30 minutes on the stove with the lid off, then refrigerate the whole pot overnight with the lid on.
- 13
Friday at 6:30, lift the solid fat cap off the top with a spoon and discard it.
- 14
At 7:05, put the pot, lid on, into a 300°F oven for 60 minutes.
- 15
Warm the mashed potatoes in the microwave following the package.
- 16
Serve the beef over the potatoes with the sauce and vegetables spooned over.
Is it done?
The check that needs no experience
The fork test: push a fork straight into the biggest piece and twist. Done means the meat separates into strands with no resistance and the fork comes out clean. If the fork bounces or the meat holds together, it needs more time. Safety is not the question here. Beef reaches 160°F within the first 45 minutes of a 325°F braise; you are cooking for tenderness, not safety, which is why this recipe has no way to hurt anyone. If you want the number: it will read 200°F+ when tender.
The #1 way to screw it up
At the 2½-hour check the meat is still tough and chewy, and you panic and pull it because "it has been in there forever."
Recovery
Tough means not enough time, never too much. Put the lid back on and give it 30 more minutes, then 30 more. Short ribs decide when they are done; you are just the person who checks. On Friday, if it somehow still fights you at 8:05, turn the oven to 350°F, give it 20 minutes, pour her another spritz, and serve at 8:30. A braise waits better than any other food.
- Sauce is thin and soupy
- spoon it over anyway; the potatoes soak it up and nobody has ever complained. If you want it thicker, Thursday night after the beef comes out, simmer the sauce on the stove uncovered for 10 minutes.
- Liquid boiled away and the bottom is scorched
- add a cup of broth, scrape gently, and do not scrape up the black layer. Use a lower oven next time.
The reveal
Plating
Spoon a wide bed of mashed potatoes into each shallow bowl and push a well into the middle with the back of the spoon. Set one or two pieces of beef in the well with tongs — whole, not shredded; the shape is the drama — and ladle sauce, carrots and onion over and around them until it pools at the edges. Wipe the rim of the bowl with a paper towel, grind black pepper over the top, and bring it out while the sauce is still moving.
Vegetarian swap
Four large portobello caps, cut into quarters, plus a drained can of cannellini beans, browned hard in the pot and braised in the same wine, broth, onion, carrot and tomato paste for 45 minutes instead of three hours. Same potatoes, same bowl. Make it Friday at 6:00; it does not need the night.
What to pour
- Wine
- the same Cabernet you cooked with, or one step up — Josh Cellars Cabernet, about $13. Open it at 7:00 so it loses its edge.
- Beer
- a stout — Guinness, or a local porter.
- No alcohol
- tart cherry juice cut half-and-half with sparkling water, over ice. Dark, dry-ish, holds up to the sauce.
Take this to the supermarket.
The First Bulletproof Dinner as a PDF, with the timelines. Free.