The instructions above leave out a crucial step: adding the liquid/wine. The liquid should be added before sticking the beef and tomato mix into the oven for 2 HRS. Burnt tomato flavor is an unrecoverable mistake.

I've made this twice and both times the meat had no liquid left after being in the oven uncovered. I would reduce that time considerable. Delicious but needed more sauce!

Watched TV show with Tuscan Beef and Black Pepper Stew.... nowhere is garlic mentioned (you can see it in pot for a second)...yet it is in recipe. What gives?

Looking forward to making this one!

I also had the same problem.... No sauce. The recipe says to "pour the meat juices into the strainer". Then after that, discard the solids. The fact is, there are absolutely NO meat juices. What I did was to leave all the solids in the pan, add the wine and deglaze and after it had thickened a bit, strain. Maybe I'll try adding beef broth as someone else suggested..
Milk Street-- please clarify. The recipe has got to be wrong....

Hi Milk Street Team, I hear what you are saying about how big the Dutch Oven is. I will try again sometime with a smaller pot. If that doesn't work, I might just try adding some water or beef broth to the pot to keep some liquid during cooking. I think the innovation of this recipe is doing the wine sauce reduction separate from the meat which creates a brighter tasting sauce. My sauce I thought was fantastic, but I had to add liquid to the dutch oven to deglaze and get a sauce base first and then add the wine after.

Are you serving this over polenta? Grits?

I joined just so I could comment!
I followed this recipe and it gave me tons of liquid!! My guess is most of you used too little onion, or a VERY too lean cut of beef. When I took the lid off, the 7lbs. Of beef was completely covered in liquid!

I had the same issue with greatly reduced sauce. I think the key is to still stir the meat at 1.5 hours or so then place the lid back for another 1 hour or so. The lid replacement will retain the sauce.

I had very little liquid in the pot at the end of cooking also. I used what looks to be the same size pot that Matthew used on the show. Even after the first step, lightly browning the onions, I added more than the recipe called for because it just didn’t look like enough. I, too, added some water near the end of cooking to give it more sauce. Even so, it was an absolutely delicious stew and I’ll definitely make it again. And the polenta.......fabulous. I’ll never make polenta the stir-stir-stir method ever again.

I really want to make this recipe, but am I reading it correctly? Two teaspoons of pepper to season before cooking, and then another two teaspoons before serving? Seems like an awful lot (and I like spicy). Just don't want to ruin a big pot of food.

What sized Staub dutch oven did they use in the episode?

Very good recipe. I had no trouble with the juice, and fat after two hours in the oven. Although i did add a quarter cup of wine before leaving uncovered back in the oven. Made sourdough bread to dip in the sauce....so good!

Solved the liquid problem! I've made this three times and finally got it right. First, as stated by the Milk Street Team, the size of the pot is critical. The raw meat should pile up close to the top of the pot. That way, the bulk of the meat keeps the liquid from evaporating. Second, after two hours, when the lid comes off, check the temperature of the beef after 30 minutes. The first time I did this, I let it cook for 60 minutes and all the liquid was gone, and the meat temperature was about 210 degrees! Third time, I took it out after 30 minutes, meat was well browned and there was lots of liquid! Lessons learned.

I have made this recipe exactly as written over and over again, and it is perfect every time. My whole family loves it. The seasoning is just right; not too peppery. I have made this using both my 7.25 quart dutch oven and my 5.5 quart one depending on how much meat is left after trimming the fat. Either way, I've always gotten plenty of liquid. I usually make the accompanying soft polenta recipe to serve with the beef. It is so simple and delicious, and it's also great topped with some stewed vegetables for any vegetarians at the table. Also, the leftover beef is very versatile to use in other applications (from those suggested by Milk Street to tacos and enchiladas).

I made it again and used a smaller pot. Still had no liquid left after cooking in the oven. I added beef broth and some extra wine to give it enough sauce to put on the polenta.

I made this last night, ready to eat tonight. The aroma while it was cooking was wonderful, and what I sampled tasted amazing. I followed recipe exactly, and had lots of sauce even though I cut away more than 1 pound of fat from the raw meat. I used 7.25 qt Le Crueset dutch oven.

Could you half the recipe to 3 lb of Beef? With beef prices crazy right now, also 6/7 lb is a lot of food!

Absolutely AMAZING! The meat was so incredibly tender and the gravy was full of flavor. Definitely a keeper.
Notes: I had just under 6# of meat and much like everyone else, I had no juice left. I also have a small Dutch Oven so there was not a lot of room for the liquid to evaporate. Once the wine was done cooking down, I added the pieces that were left along with some broth and that was fantastic. Next time I make it, I think I will cook it longer with the lid on, and then add some broth when I remove the lid and only cook for about 30 minutes. I know there were juices when I removed the lid so I think they evaporated in the final cooking with the lid off.

We are a small family of 3, so I made this using 2 pounds of beef. I adjusted the oven cook times (to 1.5 hours and 40 minutes) in a 5 qt. Dutch oven and found there was not much liquid, so I kept all the solids (minus the rosemary stalks) and served it with a parsnip purée. It was delicious, and I look forward to making the pappardelle recipe that uses this as a ragu tomorrow. I will likely reduce the cook times next time in hopes that it will yield more juices.