Five hours in a low oven is the only hard part of this Hairy Bikers potted beef recipe, and the oven does all of it. And it turns 500g of beef shin and white wine into a Meat Feasts starter for 6, roughly 240 calories each by my count.
“We loved little jars of potted beef when we were kids”, they write, “but this is the Rolls Royce version”. So theirs is a proper braise, with the shin cooked in white wine boiled up with mace, allspice, cloves, bay and thyme, then blitzed.
Turn the beef at half time, because the book gives it two and a half hours each side under foil, not five in one go. Then bind the shredded meat with fat skimmed off the braising liquid, since the book wants that, plus melted butter, to hold it.
Hairy Bikers Potted Beef Recipe
Description
Chunks of beef shin sit snugly in a dish under white wine brought to the boil with garlic, bay, thyme, peppercorns, allspice, cloves and mace. After a top-up of water they braise under foil for five hours, turned once, before being shredded and blitzed with butter, skimmed fat and cayenne. Then it is packed into a jar and chilled, overnight in my kitchen.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat: heat the oven to 150C/Fan 130C/Gas 2. Then put 500g beef shin, cut into chunks, into an ovenproof dish where it fits quite snugly.
- Spice the wine: put 2 thinly sliced garlic cloves, 2 bay leaves and a large sprig of thyme in a small pan. Add 1 tsp peppercorns, 1 tsp allspice berries, 2 cloves and 1 blade of mace, then 200ml white wine, and bring it to the boil.
- Cover the beef: pour the boiling wine and spices over the meat and season with salt. Then add just enough water to cover the beef and cover the dish with foil.
- Braise: put the dish in the oven for 2½ hours. Then take it out, turn the beef over, cover again and return it to the oven for another 2½ hours.
- Strain: lift out the meat, brushing off any spices or garlic. Then strain the braising liquid into a jug.
- Shred: pull the meat apart with a couple of forks and put it in a food processor. Then season with salt, black pepper and a good pinch of cayenne pepper.
- Blitz: skim a couple of tablespoons of fat from the top of the braising liquid and add it to the beef with 25g melted butter. Then blitz, adding a little braising liquid if it does not bind, until you have a fairly smooth paste.
- Pot: spoon the potted beef into a large jar or an earthenware dish and chill, overnight in my kitchen. Then serve with toast, within 4 to 5 days.
FAQs
What do you use potted beef for?
Toast, first of all, since the book calls it a starter or a fridge snack and suggests their apple and herb jelly on top. On a picnic the Mums Still Know Best one goes “spread thickly onto fresh, crusty bread”, and I put their piccalilli beside it. And I find the melba toast they give with the potted salmon in that book works here: white sliced bread toasted and split in two.
Is there a quicker Hairy Bikers potted beef?
Yes, the spiced potted beef in Mums Still Know Best, where 300g of braising steak cooks in butter with nutmeg, ginger, cayenne and garlic. At 150C it takes three and a quarter to three and a half hours, and the meat is mashed in its butter instead of blitzed. Then clarified butter and green peppercorns go on top, and the book pictures it with the potted salmon over the page.
Can I make potted beef in a slow cooker?
The book only gives the oven, and I have not tested it in a slow cooker, so I cannot promise the same result. If you try, copy what the book does: meat under liquid, covered, a turn at half time, and a low 150C oven for five hours. For a beef dish with a slow cooker answer, see their beef stew and dumplings page.
How long does potted beef keep, and can I freeze it?
Four to five days in the fridge, according to Meat Feasts, against three for the butter-topped spiced version. Neither book mentions freezing, and I have not tried it, so I make it for the week rather than the freezer. As it needs chilling anyway, I make it the day before, the way their pork terrine has to be.
Why beef shin, and does another cut work?
Shin is the book’s choice, and after five hours I find it gives the smoothest paste once the fat and butter go in. But I have not tried braising steak in this wine braise, so the spiced version above is the one built for that cut. And their shin beef stew uses a full kilo of the same cut.
