This American has studied a bit of French, so I knew that lardon meant bacon but had to look up “rashers”.

BTW: my high school French teacher was an Irishman from Belfast, and managed to teach us all to pronounce our French with an Irish brogue (actually, he really wanted to be a Latin teacher, so we practiced grammar and verb conjugations and hardly learned to speak or understand spoken French at all). But at least when I go to Quebec or France I can read the menu.

I’ve heard of people baking this in the stove, but having the sauce reduce over a light heat really is the best way to go about it.

Nice tip for the Chimay! Will try it on another occasion.

Joe: For the Canadians, I left the French up there

Cheap fatty meat is great here since the braise will make it fall apart tender at half the cost (and usually the most flavour because of the fat). Just look for a big hunk of meat with a lot of marbling, cut it into cubes and trim the excess fat.

To avoid the boiling problem throw your pot into the stove at 163C (325F) covered by aluminium foil and a tight lid.

To get a bit more fancy this should be a braise not a stew which means the liquid should just about cover 2/3rds of the height of the meat leaving the last 1/3 to steam. Cutting a round of parchment paper which sits above the meat and using a reverse dome aluminium foil cover (push the aluminium foil into the pot so there is less air pockets while still being able to crimp the foil on the pots lip) helps the braise.

This is one of my favourite dishes (and so easy to make). You can also create a bunch of variations. My favourites are cherry braised short ribs – substitute short ribs, perl onions and dried cherries – and the Belgium equivalent of Boeuf Bourguignon – substitute the red wine for Chimey beer and serve over egg noodles.

Looks delicious – I want to cook it immediately