Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon (Buf Bourgignon in French) is worldwide. This is one of those recipes where you want to take your time, enjoy a glass or two of wine while preparing it, and shower it with love. Each step is worthwhile. You are typically cooked in red wine, particularly Burgundy, with onions and mushrooms. 2nd burgundy entry My eating companion made the correct decision to order the veal bourguignon. With a beautiful red wine sauce, the meat was delicious and soft. Escoffier’s 1903 version, which uses a complete piece of beef in the stew, became standard as the recipe moved from honest peasant fare to haute cuisine.
To make your life easier, we included four cooking techniques in our recipe regular oven, stovetop, slow cooker, and quick pot or pressure cooker. Yes, there’s a delicate balance of time and temperature to keep the meat from drying out while the veggies, such as carrots, soften but don’t break down. Simmering the liquid for at least an hour, and generally, 12 hours, is required for this recipe. Traditionally, beef Bourguignon is eaten overcooked baby potatoes or mashed potatoes. However, it’s also good with buttered egg noodles, white rice, or polenta. Sweet peas as a side dish are very delicious.
Beef Bourguignon Recipe
This Beef Bourguignon, adapted from Julia Child’s best-selling book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, elevates a simple beef stew to an art form while preparing very simple. You don’t need to be a professional chef to try this in your kitchen.
It’s a highly forgiving recipe, even though it’s been replicated many times by families all across the world over the decades. We simplified Julia’s original by removing a few stages to make it a little easier and less frightening. Even yet, I didn’t want to tamper with something so flawless.
This recipe is thick, warm, and utterly delicious, especially when served with a starchy side to soak up the sauce—a classic beef bourguignon recipe with a red wine sauce flavoured with bacon. The meat is seared first to create a fragrant surface crust, then cooked with root vegetables and herbs in the oven until fork soft. On the stovetop, the meat and bacon create beautiful colours and textures. The stew can braise for over an hour because the cooking is done at a steady temperature in the oven. This technique significantly transforms the meat’s flavour while creating a tasty red wine sauce to pour over top.
The Best Way To Prepare Beef Bourguignon
I’m not sure about you, but reading the original recipe from Julia’s book made me feel as nervous as Amy Adams’ Julie in Julie and Julia. So many actions. A glass of wine and set out on a journey to follow AT LEAST one dish as closely as possible in my life. I tried it again, skipping only a couple of stages to save time and avoid washing multiple pots and adding a bit more of this and that, and I have to say the results were nearly identical, albeit with a little more flavour.
- Cook the bacon in a skillet. Preheat a Dutch oven to medium. Cook for about 6 minutes, or until the bacon chunks are crispy. Remove the bacon and set it aside with a slotted spoon, leaving the bacon drippings in the Dutch oven.
- Brown the beef in a skillet. Stir the meat pieces in flour, season with salt and pepper, and toss to mix. Set the heat to medium-high in the Dutch oven once more. Brown half of the meat cubes on all sides in batches, and Brown the other half after that. Each batch will take roughly 3 minutes. Remove the beef and set it aside.
- Veggies should be sautéed. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the onions are barely softened, in the Dutch oven with the carrots and onions. Cook for 1 minute after adding the garlic and mushrooms. Stir in the spoonful of tomato paste until it is evenly distributed.
- Simmer with the remaining ingredients. Bring the wine, broth, parsley sprigs, thyme sprigs, beef, bacon, and bay leaf to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the beef is tender.
- Thicken the sauce by removing the herbs. Remove the bay leaf, as well as the parsley and thyme sprigs. To prepare a slurry, whisk together 14 cups of beef broth and cornstarch rice in a small mixing basin. Whisk the slurry into the Dutch Oven.
Tips For The Best Beef Bourguignon
- Use Moderately Lean Stewing Meat: You might assume that a more expensive cut of meat, such as ribeye, would improve this recipe, but the “toughness” of stewing beef is required for the lengthy, low cook time to perform its magic, breaking down the stewing beef into a tender and juicy bite. Unless it’s a chuck steak, steak won’t suffice.
- Cook Times Are Approximate: Keep in mind that cooking the beef until tender may take longer or shorter than indicated, so check it frequently to avoid overcooking. Around the 45-minute mark, I usually start testing.
- Allow for a slight resting period before serving the stew, about ten to fifteen minutes. This helps the tastes soften and mix thoroughly. Otherwise, you could find it overpowering.
Which Cuts Of Beef Are Best For Beef Bourguignon?
We tried it with brisket, chuck steak, and stewing beef (yep, I cooked it in our Instant Pot/Multi-Cooker for the third time). Our favourite result came from the brisket.
The flesh broke apart so wonderfully and tasted so much better than the others, resulting in a luscious result. You can use any stewing beef that you can locate or have on hand.
We tried it with brisket, chuck steak, and stewing beef (yep, I cooked it in our Instant Pot/Multi-Cooker for the third time). Our favourite result came from the brisket, and the flesh broke apart so wonderfully and tasted so much better than the others, resulting in a luscious result. You can use any stewing beef that you can locate or have on hand.
The buttery garlic mushrooms are a must-try. When I tried to incorporate them initially, they shrivelled up and vanished by the end. They’re perfect straight out of the pan, plump and buttery. I couldn’t help myself and added garlic, salt, and pepper, giving the final product a lot more flavour.
Cook the gravy until it thickens. This is an important step that should not be skipped. After draining the liquid, please leave it to simmer for a minute or two and see the magic of a beautifully rich and glossy gravy thicken before your eyes. If the sauce is overly thick, thin it out with a few tablespoons of liquid at a time. If the sauce is too thin, boil it for about 10 minutes over medium heat or until it reaches the desired consistency.
Does Beef Bourguignon Have A Wine Flavour?
The completed stew has soft beef and mushroom bits, plump onions and carrots, and a rich red-wine foundation. It’s what Burgundy would taste like if it had land full of mushrooms, pigs, and onions, as well as rivers gushing with vin rouge. The name boeuf Bourguignon indicates that the beef is served with characteristic Burgundian ingredients, such as a red wine sauce with mushrooms and small onions, rather than a classic Burgundian cuisine.
Conclusion
This simple Beef Bourguignon will impress your guests and whet your hunger! A classic dish is a tender beef stew cooked in a rich sauce of red wine, beef broth, bacon, and mushrooms. It’s the best of old-fashioned comfort cuisine. So, what is Beef Bourguignon, exactly? It’s a type of French beef stew that emphasises important components that complement each other perfectly: stewing beef, onions, and carrots; mushrooms, thyme, and parsley; red wine and bacon. Like its sister meal, Coq Au Vin, or Chicken in Wine, this recipe, from the same region of Burgundy, is a labour of love!
