Crushed Beef Daube for Early September

This daube, traditionally eaten in early September during the first cold days of autumn, employs farmhouse methods that result in a melting, delicious, flavorful stew that can be eaten hot or cold. The original recipe calls for very thin slices of beef cooked in a red wine sauce overnight in the fireplace, degreased, cooked again, and degreased again. Then the meat was crushed with a fork into the sauce so that the dish became, in effect, a very rich, thick meat sauce. Its appearance was si