Charentaise Daube of Beef with Red Wine and Cognac

Few beef stews have as rich a flavor, as buttery a texture, and as heady an aroma as this famous daube from the beautifully and gastronomically fascinating Charentes region on the Atlantic coast of France.

Traditionally, chunks of beef, a pig’s or calf’s foot, pork rind, carrots, and shallots are cooked together slowly with red wine in an earthenware pot, shaped much like a bean pot, called a câline locally. After several hours the food and rind are removed, cut into small pi