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Beef Bourguignon

Name: Beef Bourguignon
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 180 min
Total time: 215 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 1400 g Beef chuck, cubed; 200 g Lardons (bacon cubes); 750 ml Dry red wine; 400 ml Beef stock; 300 g Carrot; 200 g Onion; 300 g Pearl onions; 400 g Cremini mushrooms; 4 cloves Garlic cloves; 2 tbsp Tomato paste; 3 tbsp Plain flour; 50 g Unsalted butter; 3 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil; 4 sprigs Fresh thyme sprigs; 2 leaves Bay leaves; 20 g Flat-leaf parsley; 2 tsp Fine sea salt; 1 tsp Ground black pepper

Beef chuck braised for three hours in a robust red wine with lardons, carrots and herbs, finished with pearl onions and mushrooms browned separately. Nothing about it is difficult; it is only long.

Prep: 35 min
Cook: 180 min
Difficulty: Intermediate

About this dish

A Burgundian farmhouse dish long before it was a restaurant classic: a tough cut of beef, the local wine, and the hours that field work left free for the pot. Escoffier codified it, and Julia Child handed it to the English-speaking world in 1961 with the flat declaration that it was the most delicious beef dish concocted by man.

Not vegetarian because of Beef chuck, cubed, Lardons (bacon cubes), Beef stock
Contains gluten because of Plain flour
Contains dairy because of Unsalted butter

Ingredients

6servings

1400gBeef chuck, cubed
200gLardons (bacon cubes)
750mlDry red wine
400mlBeef stock
300gCarrot
200gOnion
300gPearl onions
400gCremini mushrooms
4clovesGarlic cloves
2tbspTomato paste
3tbspPlain flour
50gUnsalted butter
3tbspExtra-virgin olive oil
4sprigsFresh thyme sprigs
2leavesBay leaves
20gFlat-leaf parsley
2tspFine sea salt
1tspGround black pepper

Instructions

Pat the beef cubes thoroughly dry and season with salt and pepper. Brown them in small batches in hot oil until dark crusted on all sides, then set aside.
15 min
Tip: Wet meat and a crowded pot produce the same thing: steam instead of crust. Brown in four batches if you must — nearly all the flavour of the finished dish is made here.
In the same pot, render the lardons for 5 minutes, then add the roughly diced carrot and onion and the garlic. Sweat for 7 minutes.
12 min
Tip: The fat from the lardons replaces the oil the browning burned. Scrape the base while the vegetables release their water.
Stir in the tomato paste, cook 1 minute, then sprinkle over the flour and stir for 2 minutes. Pour in the wine, bring to the boil and let it bubble for 5 minutes.
10 min
Tip: The flour is what thickens the sauce without a starch slurry at the end. Two minutes of cooking takes away its raw taste.
Return the meat, add stock to just cover, and tuck in the thyme and bay. Cover and cook at 150 °C for 3 hours, until the beef gives under a spoon.
180 min
Tip: The oven heats from every side and holds a low temperature better than a hob. The sauce should never boil — it trembles.
Meanwhile brown the pearl onions and then the mushrooms in butter, separately. Add them to the pot 10 minutes before the end, adjust the seasoning and scatter over parsley.
15 min
Tip: Cooked apart, they keep their shape and their own flavour. Thrown in at the start they would have dissolved into the sauce three hours ago.