Manzo alla California

No, this is not California cuisine. It is instead an old Milanese recipe, adapted from the book La cucina degli stomachi debole (Cooking for delicate stomachs) written in 1862. The dish takes its name from a farming area near the town of Lesmo in Lombardy, north of Milan. The cream is added to tenderize the meat. In some versions of the recipe, the cream is added at the end of cooking, and in others the beef cooks in a mixture of stock and cream. In neighboring towns, milk is used pl