Carbonnade

MANY KINDS OF recipes can be adapted to work in a slow cooker, but those that call for braising meat—partly submerging a tough cut in liquid and gently cooking it for a prolonged period of time—are right in the sweet spot. Which is why I was excited to create a slow-cooker recipe for my favorite style of beef stew, the beer-infused, onion-heavy Belgian version called carbonnade

But before I plugged in and turned on the slow cooker, I wanted to get my bearings by trying several regular, non-slow-cooker recipes for