Do you need a stock for carbonade flamande

So there is this amazing Belgian/French dish called carbonade flamande and as I browse recipes I see one major difference in them: some recipes use (beef) stock while others don't (but then they have larger quantities for beer, or they add apple vinegar, etc…). What is the recommendation regarding the stock while cooking carbonade flamande, and is there some "classical way" to cook the dish?

Best Answer

I'm Flemish and I don't use stock at all:

butter
half an onion,
beef
a nice coat of mustard smeared on top of peperkoek:
- ginger bread will do nicely as well
- use "Appenzeller Biberli" if you want to give it a Swiss twist and call it "Carbonade Suisse"
pepper, salt, nutmeg
the darkest non-bitter beer you can find (Any Flemish beer would be better though)...