Very tender boiled beef, grandma’s recipe. Do you love bollito but can’t remember how your mother or grandmother used to make it? Don’t worry — here are the tips and secrets to obtain in a few steps a very tender and succulent boiled beef with a flavorful, aromatic meat broth, perfect for risottos, soups, pastas, and stews. Slow cooking, a bundle of aromatic herbs, some spices, celery, carrots and onion and, above all, a careful choice of the cut of meat — these are the small secrets that turn a simple bollito into a royal dish! With its meat so tender it almost melts in your mouth, tasty and succulent, traditional bollito is made from north to south and is an indispensable classic of Italian home cooking. Bollito, prepared by slowly cooking beef in plenty of water seasoned with vegetables and aromatics, gives us very tender meat and a nutritious, rich, and flavorful broth, the essential base for many traditional dishes, from risotto to pan-cooked, as well as soups and stews. Today we’ll discover together how to make boiled beef with my grandmother Fernanda’s very simple recipe — are you ready to follow me in the kitchen? Let’s go, but first remember that if you want to stay updated on all my recipes you can follow my Facebook page (here) and my Instagram profile (here)
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Budget-friendly
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4-5
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients to make boiled beef
- 2.2 lb beef (cuts for bollito: biancostato (brisket/plate), reale (topside), muscolo (shank)…)
- 1 onion (large)
- 1 carrot (large)
- 1 stalk celery
- 4 whole cloves
- 15 peppercorns black pepper
- bay leaves
- parsley
- thyme
- to taste salt
- 12.7 cups water (about 3.17 qt (3 liters))
Tools
- Pot
Steps to make a very tender bollito
To make boiled beef, peel the carrots and cut them into large pieces; remove the leaves from the celery stalk and cut it into two or three pieces; peel the onion and stick the whole cloves into it. Put the carrot, onion, celery, all the aromatics and spices into the pot, cover with water and place on the stovetop. Tie the meat so it keeps its shape during cooking and add it to the pot with the other ingredients (it does not need to be boiling). For now add just a pinch of salt. Bring the pot to a boil over medium heat and meanwhile skim off any foam that forms with a fine-mesh skimmer or sieve, then reduce the heat and cook over very low heat for about 3 hours or a little more. Near the end of cooking remember to adjust the salt properly. After this time the meat should be very tender and ready to be eaten however you prefer — I simply shred it and make a salad with oil, salt and vinegar, or I serve it with a little broth so you can enjoy everything with some bread. As for the broth, let it cool so the fat solidifies and you can remove it; then heat it slightly if gelled and strain it through a sieve lined with several layers of cheesecloth to remove the coarser parts.
Meat broth keeps for 4-5 days in the refrigerator if kept in an airtight container, but it can also be portioned and frozen to have it ready when needed. The bollito itself keeps in the fridge for 2-3 days, but it should be reheated before consuming.
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