Ultimate beef stew from Modern Comfort Food (page 104) by Ina Garten

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Notes about this recipe

  • megan_b5otez on April 12, 2026

    The best stew in the world! Husband loved

  • Bessp on October 11, 2025

    This was not my favorite beef stew. Even after cooking quite a bit longer than the recipe suggests, the beef wasn't quite the tenderness I wanted. It also lacked a bit of depth for me, and I found it a touch sour. I left out the fennel because we don't like it, and I added thyme. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly.

  • averythingcooks on October 11, 2025

    Ultimate?? Who knows but we did think it was very good. I used the best stewing beef I can buy & replaced the fennel with celery + sweet red pepper. I was surprised re: no fresh herbs so I added thyme early & then finished with parsley. Melissa Clark introduced me to roasting the carrots separately (with olive oil & my fresh herb salt), then serving them over the bowls of stew and that's pretty much what I do every time now. This was a good fall dinner but again....ultimate?? Hmmmm...

  • julesamomof2 on January 18, 2023

    Very good stew, but I think 'ultimate' is very much personal preference. I would prefer mine without potatoes, and served over egg noodles and one of my guests hates peas, so I left those out. That said, very good flavor overall and the use of boneless short ribs is genius and I will keep that in my back pocket for sure.

  • Aggie92 on October 21, 2022

    We found this to be an excellent recipe for beef stew which is something I rarely make. I used beef stew meat instead of boneless short ribs, a fairly inexpensive brandy, a pound of mushrooms instead of fennel, and canned peas (insert eye roll, but my husband adores them). Omitted the pancetta, as this stew was getting too expensive. Added a couple of bay leaves and finished with a glug of red wine vinegar just before serving. I also wanted to make sure my carrots and potatoes (fingerlings) were well cooked, so I added them at the beginning instead of halfway through. Two and a half hours later we had a delicious and warming stew on a rainy, cold autumn evening.

  • lofolky on February 14, 2021

    I also agree that this was very good, but missing something to make it “ultimate” for me. Got lucky and found boneless short ribs at Costco. Had to cook quite a bit longer than the recipe states because my potatoes were not cooked enough.

  • bktravels on November 18, 2020

    I agree with anya_sf. This was good, but not the rich, ultimate stew I was hoping for. The blandness of the potatoes detracted from the intensity of the other flavors. Next time, I will leave the potatoes out, and I will definitely try serving the stew over egg noodles.

  • anya_sf on November 13, 2020

    Not sure this is the ultimate stew, but it was very good. Made a day ahead so it was easier to degrease (rather than trying to do that halfway through cooking), and since stews generally improve in flavor overnight. This was the first time I'd ever actually found boneless short ribs (despite lots of recipes calling for them lately) and that cut worked very well. Next time I would consider adding thyme or other herbs. We enjoyed this over egg noodles.

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