sour beef

Another installment of the ongoing saga of Jeffrey and his Food Repair questions.

I used a beef short rib recipe on a pot roast cut of beef. All went well enough but the sauce is too vinegary. Maybe the fatty ribs would have done something to counteract it, or maybe my measures were wrong?

The recipe called for 1/2 cup red wine vinegar for 4# of short ribs (...plus a bottle of red wine, 2 cups beef broth, 28 oz can crushed tomatoes, and a couple tablespoons various seasonings, including 1 tbsp brown sugar). It came out more than tangy. Is there any way I can fix it now? Would tossing in some simple syrup help? Dilute it with more crushed tomatoes? Or give up and go forage for berries?

Thanks.

That does seem like a lot of vinegar. I don't know if either the syrup or the tomatoes would help but it might be worth taking a small amount of the sauce out and trying those two options. It's possible the syrup will give it too much of a sweet-and-sour flavor but it might be worth a try anyway.

I'll be curious to hear what others have to say on this.

[Jenise]

I actually don't think that's a lot of vinegar. It's four ounces diluted by almost 70 ounces (28+23+16) of other liquids. That's about 18:1 compared to a vinaigrette, say, where the ratio would be 3 or 4:1. What might be at work here is that not all vinegars are created equal. The red wine vinegar I make at home is mild (deliberately so, as I enjoy the complex winey flavor, and this guarantees I can use more without over-souring a dish or salad), but a lot of commercial brands are pretty puckery and harsh (which was what compelled me to start making my own, actually). You might experiment with a tiny amount of baking soda off to one side, and I mean like a micro pinch. Long ago, did you ever do that kiddie 'experiment' where you add baking soda to a cup of vinegar and it boils up? Baking soda eats vinegar. Just a quarter teaspoon will take the acidic edge off an entire pot of tomato bisque, so it doesn't take much.

The bottle says 5%. Doesn't sound overly strong to me.

Anyway, tonight was the night. I first threw a couple spoons of gravy into a little bowl and took a taste. Then I flicked on a tiny pinch of baking soda, gave it a stir, and took another taste: still vinegary taste but the acidity was definitely lowered. Worth a shot.

I mixed 1/8 tsp of baking soda in a shot glass with a couple ounces of water and added it to the pot. (I also added a handful of peas, the remaining 3 oz. of tomato paste from the cooking, and another cup of beef broth.) Simmered 20 minutes. Served on couscous. Definitely improved. Back into 'beef braise' territory. (Or, as Pumpkin put it, "It went from Vinegar with Beef to Beef with Vinegar.")

Thank you, Jenise, very much!!!

[Jenise]

Cool. We have my mom to thank for that--I've never seen that used anywhere else but I grew up on her tomato bisque and recall the exact amounts. She thought the baking soda kept the milk from curdling.

That is a good tip. Thanks, Jenise.