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Boeuf (beef) bourguignon

Bœuf bourguignon is a traditional recipe of French cuisine (bourguignon means from Burgundy). It's chunks of meat cooked slowly with bacon, onions, carrots and mushrooms in red wine.

468 K 3× 4.3/5 (66 reviews)

4 hours 20 min. difficulté

Easy

16.30 €

2 people

13 Ingredients

Last modified on: February 21^th 2011

For 2 people, you will need:

1 1 cup + 3 tablespoons beef
2 ½ cup smoked pork belly (or thick cut streaky bacon)
3 ¹⁄₃ onion
4 1 tablespoon oil
5 ¹⁄₃ tablespoon flour
6 1 cup red wine
7 ¹⁄₃ Bouquet garni
8 1 carrot
9 1 ½ cup potatoes
10 1 cup mushrooms
11 ¹⁄₃ tablespoon cornflour
12 salt
13 pepper

Change to the quantities for:

2 people 3 people 6 people 12 people 18 people

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Times for this recipe

Preparation: 1 hour 5 min.

Cooking: 3 hours 15 min.

All in all: 4 hours 20 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - 15 min.

Cut 1 cup + 3 tablespoons beef in pieces, remove and dispose everything that is not good meat (skin, strong parts), it's the main secret of boeuf bourgignon: a perfect meat at the beginning.

Stage 2 - 5 min.

Cut ½ cup smoked pork belly (or thick cut streaky bacon) in small pieces.

Stage 3 - 5 min.

Prepare ¹⁄₃ onion.

Stage 4 - 2 min.

In a big pan on medium fire, pour 1 tablespoon oil, when hot add grinded onion and bacon, mix well, pepper and some salt.

Stage 5 - 4 min.

Make cook for about 3 or 4 minutes, then remove pan from fire and with a skimmer put mixture in a plate, leave only some fat in the pan.

Stage 6 - 1 min.

Put back pan on lively fire, add meat pieces...

Stage 7 - 8 min.

...and make brown on each sides.

Stage 8 - 1 min.

When all pieces are well brown, sprinkle with ¹⁄₃ tablespoon flour, stir and make cook for 1 minute or 2.

Stage 9 - 2 min.

Add onion mix, stir again.

Stage 10 - 1 min.

Add 1 cup red wine.

Stage 11 - 30 min.

Stir well, scratch bottom pan to deglaze, then add ¹⁄₃ Bouquet garni, salt and pepper.

Reduce fire to slow, and let cook for 30 minutes.

If you get foam on top during this time, skim it and dispose.

Stage 12 - 5 min.

During this time, peel, wash and cut 1 carrot in pieces.

Stage 13 - 2 hours

Add them in the pan, and let cook uncovered for at least 2 hours.

Stage 14 - 25 min.

During this time, peel, wash and make cook 1 ½ cup potatoes in water.

Stage 15 - 10 min.

During this time, peel and slice 1 cup mushrooms.

Stage 16 - 1 min.

Add mushrooms in the pan about 30 minutes before serving.

Stage 17 - 5 min.

You can brown potatoes in a frying pan with 1 tbs of oil, not absolutely needed, but in my opinion much better.

Stage 18 - 5 min.

Preparing sauce:

Put everything solid from pan in a strainer on another pan.

Dispose bouquet garni.

Your goal is to have have only liquid part in the pan, and all solid part in another.

Stage 19 - 5 min.

Put back pan with liquid on medium fire, when boiling add ¹⁄₃ tablespoon cornflour mixed with some cold water.

Whip strongly to thicken sauce, then taste to check seasoning.

Stage 20 - 10 min.

Put back meat and vegetables in the smooth and tasty sauce, slow fire, and let stay until service time.

Stage 21

Heat plates and serve with potatoes.

Remarks

Bœuf Bourguignon is one of those dishes that get better each time they are reheated, so don't hesitate to make a lot in one go and then reheat it several times.

For the wine, it should be ideally a red Burgundy made from pinot noir grapes, but if you can't get one from this area at a reasonable price, try to get another pinot noir if possible.

If you have a good butcher, ask his advice about suitable cuts of beef for bourguignon, otherwise remember you don't need an expensive cut like steak, but preferably a cheaper cut suited to long slow cooking (such as stewing steak).

Years ago it was usual to thicken the sauce with a "roux" (mix of cooked butter and flour), it's efficient but unfortunately it dulls the flavour of the sauce. Bernard Loiseau the famous French chef, in his day, suggested replacing the roux with a little carrot purée, but cornflour also works well.

And to drink?

The same wine you use in the recipe, ideally a bourgogne pinot noir.

Keeping: Several days in the fridge, in a closed jar.

Source: Home made, after Ginette Mathiot.

Nutritional information

	Proteins (gr)	Carbohydrates (gr)	Fats (gr)	Energy value (in k-calories)	Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe	70 RDI=30 %	100 RDI=9 %	90 RDI=10 %	1,700 RDI=90 %	7,110 RDI: 90 %
Per 100 g	5 RDI=2 %	7 RDI=1 %	7 RDI=1 %	130 RDI=7 %	550 RDI: 7 %
Per person	40 RDI=10 %	50 RDI=5 %	50 RDI=7 %	850 RDI=40 %	3,560 RDI: 40 %

The % figures are calculated in relation to the Recommended Dietary Intake , or RDI of 2,000 k-calories (or 8,400 k-joules) per day for a woman Change to a man

Possible allergens in this recipe: Gluten, Sulfites, Celery

How much will it cost?

For 2 people : 5.50 €
Per person : 2.75 €

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Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

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The 3 comments already posted on this recipe

You can add a bit of chocolate in the sauce to thicken it and make it smoother...
Posted by agnes january 15^th 2011 at 22:37 n° 3
Well, almost... ;-) I suppose that the part of femininity in me (like all mens on earth as I read), added to the great satisfaction of demystifying some famous French recipes, make me walking in Julia's foot print ?After the movie now, it's difficult to imagine her as somebody else than Meryl Streep...
Posted by jh december 13^th 2009 at 20:04 n° 2
Are you sure you are not Julia Child is disguise? LOL:) I've been wanting to try my hand at this recipe ever since seeing the movie. Your guidance is all I needed. Thank you JH.I will be preparing this one day over the holiday season. I will let you know how I do!!!Thanks for sharing. Your site is really unfolding nicely...
Posted by Louise december 13^th 2009 at 19:46 n° 1

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